Cultural heritage

Cultural Heritage is a term used to describe the legacy of physical artifacts (artifacts) and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations. Cultural heritage includes tangible culture (such as buildings, monuments, landscapes, books, works of art, and artifacts), intangible culture (such as folklore, traditions, language, and knowledge), and natural heritage (including culturally significant landscapes, and biodiversity).

Types of Cultural Heritage

Cultural heritage can be classified into two main types: tangible and intangible.

Tangible Cultural Heritage

Tangible Cultural Heritage can include archaeological sites, artifacts, buildings, monuments, and culturally significant landscapes such as sacred places and traditional cultural properties. These are generally split into two groups: movable and immovable heritage.

• Movable Heritage includes books, documents, moveable artworks, machines, clothing, and other artifacts, that are considered worthy of preservation for the future. These include objects significant to the archaeology, architecture, science or technology of a specified culture.

• Immovable Heritage includes buildings or large scale monuments, archaeological sites, and landscapes. They can include cultural landscapes, historic gardens, cultural routes and industrial heritage sites.

Intangible Cultural Heritage

Intangible Cultural Heritage includes traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants. This includes oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe, and traditional craftsmanship.

Protection of Cultural Heritage

Cultural heritage is unique and irreplaceable, which places the responsibility of preservation on the current generation. Efforts to preserve cultural heritage are often led by organizations such as UNESCO, which provides international conventions for heritage protection. Countries also have their own heritage laws to protect cultural heritage.

Cultural Heritage and Identity

Cultural heritage plays a crucial role in the identity of a community. It is a link from the past, through the present, and into our future. Cultural heritage can provide an automatic sense of unity and belonging within a group and allows us to better understand previous generations and the history of where we come from.

See Also

• World Heritage Site
• Cultural Property
• Cultural Landscape
• Cultural Heritage Management