Cultural Heritage

Cultural Heritage

Cultural heritage can be named as all kinds of artifacts and cultural values which pass down from generation to generation. Harrison defines cultural heritage as a whole of 'objects, places and traditions'. (Harrison, 2013) Cultural heritage and history reflect the traditions and memories of societies as two mutually reinforcing phenomena. It also helps to understand the different cultural values and to develop the dialogue between different societies with experiential practices.

Cultural heritage connects the past and the future. In this context, it also shapes our social memory and allows the transfer of heritage from generation to generation through experience-based practices. For these reasons, it is very important to identify and document the cultural heritage of the societies or groups, to make detailed researches and to record.

Specifically, in order to live the cultural heritage, we have to transfer our cultural richness to the future generations. And it is necessary to be aware that the “common heritage” belongs to the whole society and to giving more importance to protecting the cultural heritage.

Cultural heritage covers the cultural values of societies from past to present and should be preserved and improved in terms of their transportation to future generations. The concept of heritage is generally argued within two subheadings.

Tangible Cultural Heritage: Scopes all of the tangible works such as archaeological sites and artifacts, historical places and architectural structures etc.

Intangible Cultural Heritage:  Scopes all tangible cultural expressions and traditions of societies or groups which are passed on generation to generation. For example oral traditions, performing arts, social ceremonies, festive rituals, knowledge and practices related to nature and the universe, and traditional handicrafts etc. 

You can look at our  CoHERE project website for reading reports on heritage subject.

Reports on Heritage: http://cohere-ca.ncl.ac.uk/#/grid

CoHERE Project website: https://research.ncl.ac.uk/cohere/

Sources

• Harrison, R. (2013). Heritage: Critical Approaches. Abingdon: Routledge.
• What is Intangible Cultural Heritage?

https://ich.unesco.org/en/what-is-intangible-heritage-00003