Paper short abstract:

The paper asks to what extent the discourse of social correctness, currently symptomatic of liberal society, conflicts with the concept of the protection of ICH, which in many countries, including the Czech Republic, has grown up in close connection with the safeguarding of folk tradition.

Paper long abstract:

In the 1990s, when it became apparent that the interconnectedness of the world, with the help of modern technology, was leading to the growth of global culture, but also to the strengthening of local cultural expressions, the platform of intangible cultural heritage entered the wider international consciousness. It has been developing at UNESCO with varying degrees of intensity since the 1960s and has gained a firm institutional basis, especially with the adoption of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003). The interpretation of the concept of intangible cultural heritage has not been entirely uniform from the outset due to the different socio-cultural developments in different countries. In the end, this has tended to support the idea of preserving the diversity of the world's cultures and their equal status. However, the emphasis on human rights, ethics and human freedom, which is strongly asserted in liberal societies, is beginning to affect with (varying) intensity the concept of intangible cultural heritage, which in many countries, including the Czech Republic, has grown in close connection with the idea of preserving elements of folk tradition. This raises the topical question of how to deal with cultural goods that may appear problematic due to the discourse of social correctness. Is there a line that cannot be crossed with regard to the preservation of cultural heritage as an ancestral legacy? And who is actually the arbiter of controversial moments related to changing social moods and determining new interpretations of the past?

Paper short abstract:

We consider the concept of a "return to ethnology" - a strategic abandonment of cultural-critical constructivism, typical of anthropology and critical heritage studies, in order to develop stakeholder-friendly intangible cultural heritage safeguarding in Western Balkan reconciliation processes.

Paper long abstract:

We present the findings of our ongoing research on how to apply anthropology in the Western Balkans in the processes of establishing lasting peace. Our fieldwork among heritage professionals and minorities’ representatives showed that efforts to incorporate social sciences and humanities into programs aimed at fostering intercultural dialogue, reconciliation, and peace have overlooked an increasingly important factor: the unacceptability of scholarly analysis of heritage by the bearers themselves. Anthropology, with its default critique of heritage as always already an oppressive construct, while critically and didactically fruitful, lacks the ability to fit into international reconciliation policies, especially in the flagship doctrine of conflict management through use of heritage as a developmental tool. If we manage to apply the model of stakeholder-inclusion based on social authority of ethnology, which majority of the populations concerned found trustworthy heritage keeper, we believe that cultural critique goals can be met without academically provoked stakeholder antagonism. We see our efforts as contributing to the development of a novel approach we are developing and propose to the SIEF for further consideration and debate - heritage diplomacy - as part of the search for the role of ethnology and folkloristics in contemporary political processes. We believe that our research can be useful and inspiring to colleagues throughout Europe, but also on a global scale, given that intangible cultural heritage - of which ethnology and folkloristics are parent disciplines - is gradually becoming recognized as an important political resource in the management of ethnic and religious conflicts.

Paper short abstract:

Each element of ICH carries various social functions. When the community has to face non-standard situations, these may be reconfigured. The paper will focus on the meanings and functions of selected ICH elements under extraordinary circumstances.

Paper long abstract:

Each element of intangible cultural heritage carries various social functions through which the expectations and needs of the community, or its particular segments, are normally met. Socio-organizational, representational, initiation, integrative and other functions are among them. When a community suddenly finds itself in an extraordinary situation caused by various (usually external) factors, these social functions may be reconfigured – either for a short or a longer period of time. The paper will focus on two different cases of intangible cultural heritage in non-standard situations linked by a common integrative function. In the first case, the community united to keep one of their treasured ICH elements in the highly unfavourable Covid-19 pandemic situation. Another case will present an element originally practiced by Deutschböhmen, Deutschmährer und Deutschschlesier – the German-speaking inhabitants of the Czech borderland – and adopted by the new inhabitants after the exchange of population. The authors will illustrate how active sharing of ICH can contribute to the sense of belonging to a community despite unfavourable external circumstances. They will explore the search for new forms of organization or transformation of the “content” in order to better serve actual situation and needs of the communities. They will also discuss how ICH elements contribute to strengthening integrity of the societies studied, as well as their potential to weaken or eliminate former ethnic conflicts in a long-time perspective.

Paper short abstract:

There’s no bigger uncertainty than war. Living heritage in times of war is exposed to big threats, but it can help in reconciliation and post-conflict times. This presentation will illustrate the impacts of war on Living Heritage and the possibilities of this heritage in times of post-conflict.

Paper long abstract:

Since its creation, the UNESCO lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage - ICH (the Representative List, the Urgent Safeguarding List and the Register of Good Safeguarding Projects) have included many elements affected by armed conflicts or that contribute to restore peace in diverse contexts. After a systematic analysis of the nomination files of these practices, it is possible to identify three main categories of impacts of conflicts showing the great uncertainty war can cause on Living Heritage.

Based on an analysis of the UNESCO lists, this presentation will develop these categories to illustrate how some the countries are dealing with the threats of wars and how they are using ICH elements to restore peace. If well implemented, these measures can be effective and can have a positive impact on intangible heritage and as a tool for peacebuilding.

The presentation will conclude with some examples of Living Heritage in post-conflict times in which, by resolving conflicts and disputes, ensuring fair access to natural resources and promoting social cohesion, Intangible Cultural Heritage is a way to ensure peacefully everyday life that should be safeguarded and, in many cases, serve as an example to find a better future. These examples show how the safeguarding of ICH in times of conflict and post-conflict can have a strong impact to strengthen the social cohesion and to improve the ways of life of communities.

Paper short abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which humor, sarcasm, and irony, characteristic of the popular poetry of the Negev Bedouin in Israel, served as instruments of coping with the great turmoil and uncertainty brought about by the 1948 Arab–Israeli war and its aftermath.

Paper long abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to closely look at an ancient living tradition – the popular poetry of the Bedouin (called in Arabia Nabati poetry), which is almost forgotten today among the Bedouin who dwell in the Negev, in the southern part of Israel. East of Israel, in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries, this old tradition, which dates back to pre-Islamic times, is very much alive and even cherished as a national cult.

This paper aims at exploring a crucial historical moment of great turmoil and uncertainty in the lives of the Negev Bedouin – the 1948 Arab–Israeli war and the first years in which those Bedouin who remained within the borders of the newly founded Jewish state were put under military government. Under these traumatic circumstances of humiliation, threat, and despair, we find – alongside what could be called a ‘magmatic silence’ – diverse expressions of this living tradition.

These verses, uttered by Bedouin popular poets between 1949 and 1952, contain various poetic mechanisms of coping with a totally new and uncertain reality of living under Jewish control, mostly in restricted areas east and north of the town of Beersheba. This paper will examine humoristic, sarcastic, and ironic ways of dealing with these uncertain living conditions through an in-depth reading of poems and fragments of poems from that period. These verses attest to the poets’ resilience and to the power of poetry to cope with the hardship and suffering of the 1948 Arab–Israeli war and its aftermath.

Paper short abstract:

Rural Albania has been the cradle of Albanian culture. However many of traditions that remain in rural areas are being rapidly lost. In the Albanian context, promoting innovative incentives for the traceability of rural heritage is a solution to regenerate rural regions through cultural heritage.

Paper long abstract:

The relationship between cultural heritage, in its tangible and intangible dimensions, and global change has been a topic of significant ethnographic and anthropological discussion. It reflects the rising challenge of safeguarding rural culture and identity in a postmodern society, as well as the influence of the growing globalization. The development of society, the dialectical movements of the population whether in internal or external migration affect certain elements of rural heritage. The paper focuses as an interdisciplinary research in understanding and promoting the profound role the cultural heritage plays in rural communities. The research is based on theoretical reviews and ethnographic experiment that explore good practices and tools related to Albanian xhubleta, part of tangible rural culture, regarded as a catalyst for social belonging and environmental sustainability. It also provides different ways of creating tools to involve communities better in the safeguarding process, how best to address these needs for the benefit of these communities achieving inclusive and sustainable rural development through cultural heritage. The research presents policy measures toward transformation of cultural landscapes and the safety of rural heritage under rapid globalization and extreme climate changes.

Keywords: safeguarding cultural heritage, traceability, rural development, globalization

Paper short abstract:

Staged folk traditions are well-known models of organizing locality. Through my case study I present how a constructed image of a golden age performed by a local staging movement, could serve as an anchor of stability in times of social and economic transformation.

Paper long abstract:

This study aims to present the outcomes of an ethnographic research conducted in a Transylvanian rural area, the Niraj Valley (Romania) in summer 2020, 2021 and 2022. The research primarily intended to follow the historical trajectory of staging the local folk culture in a village with nearly 750 - mostly Hungarian in small proportion Roma – inhabitants. Paying attention to the peaks of the staging movement’s history, it becomes clearly visible, that periodically gaining significance of intangible cultural heritage in local discourses is associated with the experience of uncertainty and it can be considered as indicator of social transformation.

Recent study offers an insight into three different periods can be characterized by the necessity of adaptation from the part of the local society: the years of the World War II., the decade after the political transformation (1990) and the early 2010s. In these highlighted periods, managing the local staging movement was strongly connected with the local churches, more precisely with the local pastors who were regarded the “engines” of local initiations in the cultural also in the economic sphere. Social trust in the pastors derives from the role, that the church has taken in the society existing in minority conditions from the 1920s. It is still a well-known pattern in the local society when local church oversteps the barriers of the religious sub-system and take the leading role in social integration in the moments of uncertainty.

Paper short abstract:

In my paper I will reflect on the phenomenon of the construction of the so-called Wallachian heritage, which, in turn, is a starting point for cultural activities and practices aimed at building a greater transnational Carpathian community among the inhabitants of the Carpathians regions.

Paper long abstract:

In my paper, I would like to reflect on the phenomenon of the contemporary construction of the so-called Wallachian heritage, which, in turn, is a starting point for cultural activities and practices aimed at building a greater transnational Carpathian community among the inhabitants of the Carpathians regions.

For at least two decades in Poland, we have witnessed a growing interest in the medieval migrations of Wallachian shepherds along the Carpathian Mountains. We can observed how a new myth of a supranational Carpathian community is being born, based not only on the fact of living in the Carpathians, but above all on the cultural heritage stemming from Wallachian roots.

During the presentation, I will try to trace how Wallachian themes permeate the public discourse, becoming an inspiration for local activists and academic researchers to take action to restore Wallachian traditions. A notable example of this type of activity may be the Great Redyk of 2013, during which a group of shepherds with sheep walked along the Carpathian Mountains from Romania to the Czech Republic. What are the motivations for such activities? What objectives are behind them? What do they tell us about inhabitants of the Carpathians - their lives, environment, problems and challenges. It is worth to consider these questions, as they reflect the wider social, cultural and political processes we are witnessing in today's globalized and technicized world.

Paper short abstract:

The aim of this study is to demonstrate that how, in a country-wide crisis and uncertainty after the regime change, Hungarian men in Transylvania continue to live a tradition that is a prominent element of their glorious past and a sure point in their search and expression of identity.

Paper long abstract:

The Treaty of Trianon, which led to the annexation of Transylvania to Romania in 1920, has a special place in the history of Hungarian people living in Romania. In the years following the world wars five major sub-periods of communism dominated Romania.

In the years following the change of regime, however, the Transylvanian Hungarian people living in Romania were once again given the opportunity to maintain contacts with Hungary, to have freedom of the press, to publish history books, to establish cultural institutions and to preserve and live their traditions.

Hussarism is a Hungarian-origin military unit that has spread and become popular in many parts of the world throughout history. The figure of the hussar on horseback, as a glorious soldier, has lived on in the public consciousness in numerous works of art.

Nowadays there are no professional Hussars in Transylvania, but after the years of communism a phenomenon of the formation of traditional Hussar associations became widespread. As a result, hussarism is present in the Transylvanian Hungarian people's cultural life as lesure time activity and hobby.

The aim of this study is to demonstrate that, in a situation of crisis and uncertainty, members of the Transylvanian Hungarian male community felt important to express and reformulate their identity through an element to which they were emotionally attached and which, through its glorious historical past, provided them a secure point of reference.

The customs and traditions associated with the Hussars have spread throughout Transylvania, based entirely on Hungarian patterns.