Siarhiej Makarevich, 25.02.2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Intangible Heritage: Between International Arenas and Local Interpretations
Lecturer: Siarhiej Makarevich (from Belarus), junior research fellow in ethnology, UNESCO Chair on Applied Studies of Intangible Cultural Heritage, University of Tartu
– Doing PhD on Heritage studies, focuses on heritage politics
– Relies on his research on Belarus
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Lowenthal (historian and geographer) – \u201cAll at once heritage is everywhere – in the news, in the movies, in the marketplace – in everything..\u201d – heritage is everywhere, advocated for heritage in its own rights
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Heritage – modern idea, rooted in the ideas of enlightenment, modern historical concepts, during the rise of the nation-states \u2192 need to establish a common heritage, was nationalised Q&A<\/strong> Siarhiej Makarevich, 25.02.2025 Intangible Heritage: Between International Arenas and Local Interpretations Lecturer: Siarhiej Makarevich (from Belarus), junior research fellow in ethnology, UNESCO Chair on Applied Studies of Intangible Cultural Heritage, University of Tartu– Doing PhD on Heritage studies, focuses on heritage politics– Relies on his research on Belarus Lowenthal (historian and geographer) – \u201cAll at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14875,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-loengud","category-loengud-2025"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsr.ut.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsr.ut.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsr.ut.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsr.ut.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsr.ut.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14874"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rsr.ut.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14878,"href":"https:\/\/rsr.ut.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14874\/revisions\/14878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsr.ut.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsr.ut.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsr.ut.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsr.ut.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
– western based idea, spread all over the world
– Cultural property – objects we inherit – need to preserve it for the future
– Who did it? – experts, academically trained professionals had the leading role
– After WWII – heritage concept started evolving, not only cultural property, moved to heritage subjects (people as carriers of heritage), also the idea of cultural landscape, today safe-guarding (understanding that heritage evolves over-time, includes studies, research and education – to ensure the continuity). Now we talk about the heritage communities, experts are now facilitators, without power
– Democratization of heritage – shifting towards people
– Implementation – often differ from expectations
– In the 1920s and 1930s – international preservation linked to the League of Nations
– After WWII – new international standards for preservation and establishment of organizations focused on the preservation (UNESCO most well-known)
– In addition to tangible materials – intangible cultural heritage – what is it?
– In the legal context – does not provide universal definition \u2192 practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills, cultural spaces, evolving, transmitted from generations to generations
– Where manifested – oral traditions, events, social practices, rituals, knowledge concerning nature and the universe, traditional craftsmanship
– New definition, since 2003, in order to give new approaches in dealing with heritage
– Heritage as a concept – all heritage is intangible according to Smith, a process of meaning making, a process of ascribing meaning, always a question of power (who defines? what we do?)
– Heritage-making – the object that heritage studies focuses on
– Past vs present – What is the role of heritage for today and for the future? Something in the present
– UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage – adopted in 2003, entered into force in 2006, 184 state parties (how do they apply the rules of the convention on the national level?)
– Last year – 71% of the world lived in autocracies compared to 48% ten years ago (half of the countries in the world)
– Belarus – last dictatorship in Europe
– Last democratic elections – in 1994
– 1215 political prisoners, in the last 4 years more than 135 000 people politically repressed
– Difference between the government and the society (2020, society wants to be a subject in political processes)
How does it deal with heritage issues (joined the 2003 convention in 2005)<\/strong>
– Intangible heritage – many synonyms used, there is an inconsistency in the use of terms, demonstrates that there is a also a lack of policies adopted for safeguarding heritage
– Top-down management system
– The Ministry of Culture – sets a five-year plan for augmenting heritage \u2192 regional level \u2192 district level
– Double listing system
– State list
– Internal list – in accordance with the international convention
– What are in the lists? – ICH canon: traditional ethnic Belarusian rural cultural, cultural workers decide on heritage status, overcomplicated nomination process, no visible results of inscription (you have to report constantly how you are doing)
– Belarus and many other countries – still use listing that overshadows people, listing still in the convention (the heritage will become a deposit in the inventory, not something lively and dynamic \u2192 countries compete with heritage on the list)
– UNESCO ICH Lists
– Used classification into 1000 different concepts, shows connections between different types of intangible cultural heritage in the world
– More and more often – final decisions divert more from the expert recommendations \u2192 countries push their own heritage according to their interests on the international list
– Heritage diplomacy – how it influences decisions on domestic and international level
– Winter – states and other actors use language of heritage into broader political and economic relations
– Heritage as diplomacy – used as a tool in diplomacy, can be used to bring countries together, can also be a source of contestation, political, can be used to create hierarchical power relations
– Heritage in diplomacy
– Heritage as diplomacy
– Ukrainian art of decorating eggs – inscribed in 2024, jointly with Estonia and Ukraine
– Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine – Christmas Eve tradition, preparation of a joint nomination on the UNESCO ICH List \u2192 uses heritage as an instrument for strengthening ties
– Memorials to the Heroes of the Great Patriotic War: Brest Fortress and Mamayev Kurgan – Submitted in 2024 to the Tentative List (1972 Convention) – turn to heritage to promote their own interests and interpretations, a joint project by Belarus and Russia
– Bialowieza Forest – Poland has constructed a wall through the forest – Belarus has called upon the heritage status of the forest to force Poland to stop constructing the wall \u2192 failed attempt to push the country\u2019s agenda
– How heritage is used to foster cooperation
– Also heritage used to promote the country\u2019s own agenda – Borscht on the UNESCO ICH list after the start of the war
– inscribed in 2023 on the list of World Heritage in Danger – Odessa old town
– LIVIND – a Finnish project, financed by the ministry of foreign affairs, the goal was to bring together cooperation between different partners (Nordic and Baltic countries and Poland), also to integrate Russia more
– After Russia\u2019s invasion – Russian partners were expelled from the projects
– Actions: webinars and online workshops, on-site project meetings, pilot projects
– How the project talks about itself – no hints on wanting to work with Russia \u2192 has boiled down to the ICH of Baltic sea region
– Conclusion – heritage is political – how it is seen and interpreted and used, not only objects<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– How are projects evaluated, where is the line between propaganda and natural ICH?
– It depends, China however has many listings, it depends from case to case
– More stake-holders – more apolitical is the heritage making actually
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