Living Heritage

This paper reviews recent research on the aspects of social quality in the conservation of the marginalized living heritage of George Town who are often seldom heard in mainstream research. The paper draws out messages by the residents’ of the heritage settlements known as the Clan Jetty Village that spreads along the waterfront of the core zone of the heritage city in Penang. By using the urbanization impacts as a subject of exploration, this paper demonstrates the perception of the residents towards the effectiveness of the current incentives policy and the conservation programme held in the village. This research has employed a mixed method approach which involves various data generation instruments, namely survey, interview as well as observation. From this research the reality is that a number of ‘unheard group’ experienced inaccessible or disempowering of public voices into heritage management strategy. Within the cultural heritage policy context, community engagement needs to be more responsive to the increasing degrees of tourism impacts and social-economic change to the local residents. In terms of achieving the necessary flexibility and responsiveness, community-based approach could be a particularly appropriate option for configuring the conservation policy implementation in the living heritage site.

Min-Zhe bridge in Fu-Jian and Zhe-Jiang Provinces of China is a unique type of woven wooden arch bridge with important cultural heritage values in both tangible and intangible fields. Reconstruction (including in-situ rebuilding and relocation) is a traditional approach to extend the bridge’s lifespan, which has been passed on and lasts till now. Today’s reconstruction practice and its legitimation on intervening in the Min-Zhe bridge as both tangible and intangible heritage is discussed in this paper under the modern conservation context. Firstly, the reconstruction activities since its ‘discovery’ in 1980 are investigated through general information and case study. Then, the legitimation issues are discussed according to the criteria of the authenticity text for World Heritage bridges and the criteria of continuity for living heritage. Finally, suggestions on protecting the continuity of the building tradition and ensuring the reliability of the continuous production in the future are proposed.

Northern Ireland has several mechanisms for protecting its cultural and natural resources, yet it does not have a National Park System. A recent proposal for the first National Park in  the Mountains of Mourne in Northern Ireland is the case in which this paper focuses. Considering the other countries of the UK have an established National Park system with which Northern Ireland can join or be affiliated, it is surprising that the proposal in question has been essentially denied. This paper explores the reasons for the failed proposal and how resource stewards in Northern Ireland can learn from this for future nominations.
The methods employed to gather information for this case study include interviews with stakeholders and an expert as well as a review of government documents and other publications related to the National Park proposal. Analysis revealed three major issues from the proposal, namely a lack of communication, a neglect of community values and problems with the process itself. These issues raised points about community participation in decision-making and how the authorities perceive their role and civil society's role in regional planning. The result of the case study points to a broader problem of a lack of tools which integrate heritage conservation and regional development planning. There can be a stark distinction in our understanding of the two disciplines, however they overlap in many ways. Not sensing this overlap is argued to be a major downfall of the Mourne National Park proposal.
The methodology applied to the issues discovered in the case study is a Living Heritage Approach, which has been developed by ICCROM and visiting researcher, Ionnais Poulios. This approach combines heritage conservation and regional planning based on sites that contain living heritage. Furthermore it gives the community a higher level of participation in decision-making. A description of how the Mournes meet the criteria of the approach is given. An adaptation of the approach in the form of a recommended proposal process intended for the Northern Irish authorities is provided. The paper ends with a critique of the approach and an analysis of the challenges regarding its implementation.

This article examines the reasons behind names given to beer halls from their inception in colonial Rhodesia to present day Zimbabwe. To achieve this goal, it analyses names of beer halls, beer outlets built in the former townships of colonial Rhodesia (now called high-density suburbs), and those built at growth points, a feature that emerged with Zimbabwe's political independence. While it was fashionable in colonial Rhodesia to assume western names for people, landmarks and objects including the Anglicisation of the indigenous ones, the beer halls that were built in independent Zimbabwe have also been given indigenous names. The article concludes that the names given to beer halls in colonial Rhodesia, as those in independent Zimbabwe, are purposeful and informative since they entice imbibers. They also function as cautionary statements because they warn the same imbibers and would be drinkers. Both the old and new names seem to have a common feature between them, which is to expose the evils of commercialised beer.

As I sat along River Ganga with my feet dipped into her cool waters, I wondered at the medley of cultures and people that surrounded me. It had only been a week since my visit to the Taj Mahal, whose material grandeur had left me awestruck; but today, in a complete contrast, I was at Har ki Pauri (Haridwar, India) where there were neither elaborately carved pillars nor stories of flamboyant kings and queens- it was only a flowing river with hundreds of people celebrating her sanctity and purity. Owing to her religious importance, the local communities not only interacted with her physically, but also connected with her mentally, emotionally and spiritually. It was precisely this engagement that got me intrigued. I wanted to describe her to my friends in England, but words failed me. What kind of a heritage do I designate her as? – cultural, natural, tangible, intangible? - she is all of it and more. This difficulty in explaining her attributes holistically made me realize the limitations in our heritage systems which, in the process of universalizing heritage, is unable to capture the true spirit of such invaluable heritage assets.

Therefore, with the intention of drawing the attention of heritage professionals towards an alternative ‘non-western’ discourse of heritage, this research work:
1. studies the site of Har ki Pauri and its indigenous methods of heritage management
2. examines the impact of western philosophies of heritage management on non-western heritage sites
3. presents a new way of identifying and classifying heritage in India.

With sites such as Taj Mahal on one end of the spectrum and Haridwar on the other, the diversity in the ideas of heritage in India becomes obvious. While on one hand we celebrate such diversity, on the other hand the issues caused by such multiplicity cannot be ignored. Thus, realizing that one of the main causes for such issues is the existence of variable ‘truths’, ‘beliefs’ and ‘ideas of authenticity’, I would like to present a new way of identifying and classifying heritage in India. I have coined three new typologies- materialist, spiritualist and composite- that have their roots firmly grounded in the Indian soil and attempt to encompass all the attributes and values of a heritage asset in the Indian context holistically.

The research dissertation highlights the conservation of Kampong Ayer as a living heritage under Brunei law, primarily the Antiquities and the Treasure Trove Act 2002(ATTA). It is
the belief of the authorities that if Kampong Ayer is conserved using the stated law, then it
will inherently take the right to evolve away from the inhabitants of the water village. The research highlights the heritage value of Kampong Ayer, which can be conserved under law, and further gives examples of global trends that have surfaced over the years for the conservation of local living heritage. The crux of the dissertation is to analyse the ATTA and
apply it to Kampong Ayer, keeping in mind the concern of the relevant authorities in Brunei.
The paper highlights that the heritage value of Kampong Ayer lies in the culture, tradition and history of Kampong Ayer, and therefore, distilling out the relevant features, ATTA can be applied.

The main purpose of the paper is to analyze the role that proverbs play as signposts for the introduction and embedding of biblical intertextual elements in some Shona literary texts. It does this by closely reading Patrick Chakaipa's 1961 novel Pfumo Reropa. The paper notes that while proverbs are oral texts that serve as behavioral and moral conductors in diverse cultures, they are transferred to the written realm as part of the creative and literary act. The poetic nature of proverbs makes them attractive to most narrators who use them to entrench their main themes. This paper also proposes to read them in their function of interconnecting among others biblical literary texts by Chakaipa as these intertextual linkages can either appear by explicit reference to an earlier text usually known to the reader; or, implicitly, in the form of faint echoes of biblical texts, themes, motifs, traditions or events. Hence, the proverbs in Chakaipa's novel resonate with biblical allusions and echoes, something he does to subtly preach Christianity.

Linked to the objectives of sustainability of the United Nations, the reflection on the historic city promoted by UNESCO has favored the emergence of a new holistic paradigm that focuses on the capacity of culture to improve the quality of life of people and seeks to recover the historical link among culture, development and sustainability. Based on this context, this paper analyzes the main problems that face Spanish World Heritage Cities in terms of sustainability and livability, and the correlation between the new paradigm and the reality of its current management. This study explored sustainability indicators based on the evolution of the population and the number of visitors. The current protection and management model is reviewed based on the four basic tools identified by UNESCO: Regulatory systems, Knowledge and Planning tools, Financial tools and Civic engagement tools. The joint analysis of UNESCO's Periodic Reports allows us to identify the shortcomings that point to a disconnection between heritage city management and citizenship. After analyzing the impact of the new paradigm in the Spanish reality, the need to continue deepening its dissemination and accelerating its implementation is evident. In the same way. it is essential to establish and implement models of citizen participation that favor the fulfillment of the sustainability challenges of historic cities.

This paper presents the results of the systematic survey undertaken in Hampi World Heritage site in Feb 2012 to map the locations of still existing craft clusters within this boundary. An attempt is now made to trace the linkages between craft cluster locations relative to the village planning and individual craft within the cluster and village. Field work commenced with Hampi urban core and was finally limited to the boundary of the World Heritage Site (including core and buffer zones) i.e. the extent of the Vijayanagara capital region-236 sq. km that includes Hampi and 28 revenue villages around it in a population of about 65,000. Besides geographically locating craft clusters; the survey also listed the crafts still practiced, the practitioners, community groups, tools and materials used. Of the 22 crafts listed through literature review, it was possible to locate 11 crafts within the study boundary and another 7 in the immediate vicinity. However, just one traditional craft cluster, in the true sense of the word, located within the boundary and one cluster outside the boundary were surveyed. Most studies in Hampi appear to focus on architectural typology, historical accounts, archaeology, ancient water systems and so on and not on living heritage. This approach is common for heritage sites in general. The present study is one of few to look into the living accounts rather than focus purely on vestiges of the past. Further the craft is not being studied in isolation, rather as part and parcel of its setting, be it tangible (craft cluster) or intangible (community).

The traditional hammams are facing challenges that jeopardize their sustainability as a traditional socio-physical pattern in Islamic societies. Four case study hammams in four Mediterranean cities were multi-disciplinarily studied in order to find out the factors affecting the hammams' sustainability and in order to set explanatory inquiries and scenarios to save the living heritage of such countries. The challenge is to integrate the findings related to the different aspects of the hammam; technical, historic, health, social, psychological, environmental, architectural…etc. One approach to exploring this multitude of factors is to adopt an experiential perspective focusing recipient-end; clients and potential clients. This paper is divided into two sections; the first presents the most pronounced values of the hammam as perceived by its users; the main reasons why clients who go to hammam actually do so. The second section explores those who do NOT go to the traditional hammam and what, if changed, would make them go, thus reflecting the challenges that face the hammam as well as indicating conditions for possible growth of demand in the future. This is presented mainly through the Egyptian case study. Through this investigation of demand on the hammam, the paper explores a set of integrative topics such as the perceived values of the hammam between leisure and necessity; the risk on health and its relation to behavioural patterns, cleanliness levels and staff credibility; the vulnerabilities to societal factors and management rules. The significance of this exercise lies in its attempt at integrating the lessons learnt from disparate disciplinary studies of the hammam in various Mediterranean contexts. This integration is a necessary stop to unblock potentials and overcome barriers to improve the conditions of influencing factors that together would work to help sustain the hammam.

Conceptual framework regarding the role that cultural heritage can play in cities from a productive and inclusive point of view. The document is part of the Living Heritage program promoted by the Inter-American Development Bank and specifically the Conference of Ibero-American Mayors held in Seville (Spain) in September 2019.

As part of an international movement promoted by intergovernmental bodies and academic institutions, Mexico has developed its own methodology for the conservation and restoration of indigenous objects, spaces and territories; unlike in other countries, there is a much closer approximation to anthropological and cultural studies than to site or administrative management. The advances in this area have been notable, but there is still a long way to go. This essay describes a specific methodology that has emerged from within an institutional context that is interested in understanding the cultural, social and political practices of each community, as well as the specific technical aspects of the problem to be addressed. It also explores some pending problems and challenges; especially those that rely on a deeper analysis of the cultural practices related to objects and buildings, and the marginalization and poverty conditions of most of the small towns and villages where many of the conservation and restoration efforts are carried out. It also takes into account the repercussions on the interactions between government institutions and community representatives.

In critical theory, there has been a divergent view in terms of a universal versus contextual voice of heritage. As the universal approach has been towards dealing with heritage, hinged in the reality on ground. The chosen case can be labelled as 'living' heritage that is managed upon the processes of myth making, appropriation and re-use that contribute towards keeping the site alive and relevant to the associated stakeholder groups. The same has been explored through representation of perspectives of the various stakeholder groups, helping in developing possibilities for the way forward towards negotiated heritage decision making that is linked with development.

This chapter, partly informed by the author’s experiences, argues for the inclusion of indigenous knowledge in the higher education curriculum in institutions of the Global South. It points out that despite robust debates on it, it has hardly been made part of the curricula in most institutions of the Global South; remaining more of a borderline case. The chapter further asserts that there is lip-service to the cultural diversity of humanity because as relates to knowledge generation and dissemination, the epistemologies of the formerly colonized are peripherized; in most cases not even accepted and acknowledged. One would ask why the world celebrates the diversity of human cultures but fails to embrace the diversity of the globe’s knowledges yet the same cultures in their plurality are products of varied epistemologies. The chapter is therefore a call to all across the disciplines to embrace an epistemic and cognitive or thought shift by accepting that IK is important to curriculum development. It consequently has to be included through curriculum review as part of the academic diet of both instructors and learners. It further asserts that a cognitive shift is possible if there is a deliberate policy to empower faculty and students to appreciate the value of IK that is overshadowed by the epistemic lancer of the Global North that was bequeathed to the former colonies and has up to this day been retained and promoted as the only and real universal knowledge. The chapter concludes that an epistemic and thought shift is only possible if IK itself is made part of the research agenda as well as one of the research methods and methodologies.
Keywords: epistemic shift, epistemic disobedience, cognitive

The Master Thesis explores and describes methodology and structure for transmission of crafts, and based on the material it suggests recommendations for the future. Furthermore this thesis shows why our society need crafts; In schools, special education, therapy, for well-being and as a part of our cultural heritage, our life. Finally this thesis shows how transmission of crafts can have a strong positive impact on people with special needs, and a true formative effect.

Como parte de un movimiento internacional promovido por instancias intergubernamentales e instituciones académicas, México ha desarrollado su propia metodología para la conservación y restauración de objetos, espacios y territorios en manos indígenas; una aproximación mucho más cercana a los estudios antropológicos y culturales que al manejo de sitios y la gestión, a diferencia de otros países. Los avances en esta materia han sido muy grandes, pero aún tenemos mucho camino por recorrer. Este ensayo describe una metodología específica surgida dentro de un contexto institucional, interesada en comprender las prácticas culturales, sociales y políticas de cada comunidad, a la par de los aspectos técnicos específicos del problema por intervenir.
Explora, también, algunas dificultades y retos pendientes; sobre todo aquellos que dependen de un análisis más profundo de las prácticas culturales relacionadas con piezas y edificios, y de las condiciones de marginación y pobreza de la mayor parte de las localidades donde realizamos acciones de conservación y restauración, así como de las repercusiones que esto tiene en la interacción de las instituciones gubernamentales con los representantes comunitarios.

Over the last two decades, the conservation field has developed new frameworks for works that recur in multiple manifestations, such as many time-based media, installation, and performance artworks. Within these frameworks, authenticity is gauged primarily on a manifestation’s perceived compliance with the artist’s directives or specifications for the work. Such models have proven difficult to apply in practice when faced with artworks in protracted states of creation, that have an existence outside the walls of the collecting institution, and whose manifestations are dispersed and distributed in space and over time. This article examines how Future Library (2014–2114) – a century-long public artwork by the Scottish artist Katie Paterson – confounds the two-stage model of an artwork’s creation, and the conventional understanding of the artwork instantiated and made present in discrete, physical objects or events. Drawing upon Deleuze's philosophical writings, I characterize the varied ways in which an artwork or object of cultural heritage may be made present and may undergo change, while forever remaining partial, deferred, and absent. This article considers how the scope of what falls within the conservator’s gaze might be widened, and how an artwork’s conservation and creation might be understood as interdependent and concurrent acts of safeguarding and continuation.

Abstract: The present work examines the role of infor-mation technology in preserving the Intangible Cultural Herit-age. The ability to digitize, archive, promote, and popularize through new information technologies gives a new look and a fundamentally new approach to passing the traditions from generation to generation.
Keywords: Folklore, Intangible Cultural Heritage, Dig-itization, Traditions, Customs, Information Technology

В данной работе рассматриваются возможности сохранения Нематериального культурного наследия при помощи внедрения новых информационных технологий в существующие сети знаний и поддержки их деятельности. Создание возможностей и условий для интеграции между разными проектами в общей базе данных и использование унифицированных технологий и моделей для идентификации, оцифровки и распространения позволит сохранить народное творчество разных сообществ, сохраняя в том числе их самобытность и разнообразие.
Сохранение традиционной культуры и элементов Нематериального культурного наследия через научную документацию, архивирование и оцифровку является частью общей стратегии сохранения.
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The current work considers the possibilities to keep the Intangible cultural heritage through new information technologies, and to be implemented in already existing webs of knowledge and to help their activity. The creation of opportunities, conditions for integration of different projects in common database and using of unified technologies and models for identification, digitization and sharing will be able to keep folklore art of different communities as they completely preserve their identity and variety.
Keeping the traditional culture and elements of Intangible cultural heritage through scientific documentation, archiving and digitization is a part of common strategy for preservation.

Historic mosques are religious living cultural heritage resources. Their conservation is a challenge throughout the Islamic World. It requires achieving a delicate balance of various values and stakeholders. They are often torn between two types of authorities and stakeholders, those who are responsible for religious and functional aspects on the one hand, and on the other those who are responsible for historic, archaeological and aesthetic aspects. Furthermore, certain historic mosques may be of interest to tourists. Thus, a third type of authorities and stakeholders may be engaged in their use, management and conservation. The present paper investigates different management and preventive conservation issues for historic mosques and proposes guidelines aiming to reach a reconciliation of interests and requirements for different users and stakeholders. The aim is also to identify ideas for reconciliation of traditional preventive conservation methods, such as waqf arrangements, and modern internationally approved methods, as well as reconciliation of Islamic religious values and secular architectural, historic and archaeological values.

Indian Institute of Crafts and Design is playing a crucial role in the preservation and conservation of our heritage by active means. Education is a sector which can play a vital role in the preservation of our heritage.

At the Indian Institute of Crafts and Design, we believe in preserving our tangible and intangible heritage, by means of keeping alive our handcrafting skills, and the ethos behind the crafts and sustained livelihoods of craftsmen.
These stories resonate with the same sound of patriotism. But we need to question, we need to understand the needs of the crafts people.
The sense of integrity towards our crafts and preservation of our craftsmen, will ensure that our heritage continues, and we are able to hand it down to our future generations.

This study investigates UNESCO the 5 living heritage cities,
Shirakawa in Japan, Luang Prabang in Laos, Lijiang in China, Hoi An in
Vietnam, and Hahoi Maeul in Korea. It compares the cities utilizing 3
major criteria such as administrative․tourism service factor, living
environmental factor, and tourism content factor. The critical factors for
promoting tourism include increasing rate of residential population,
tolerance for outsiders, residential participation for tourism, content
provision, and lastly, scale of content. All in all sustainability of residents
and current lifestyle is of utmost importance, in other words, democratic
governance system among local government, residents, and local
association to guarantee the happiness of the residents is quintessential for sustainable tourism of the living heritage cities.

Intangible cultural heritage is the continuation of tradition in the contemporary era. It must be living because of the common practices of communities, groups and individuals. The living state determines that the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage must have the characteristics of process. Based on this, the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage has achieved a paradigm shift in the safeguarding of cultural heritage, in which the definition of "safeguarding" is a nine link framework. In order to understand the intangible cultural heritage safeguarding work under this framework, this paper selects the nomination files of food preparation elements from the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and illustrates the importance of process safeguarding based on the principle of "community participation" for the viability of Living Heritage by analyzing the safeguarding measures listed therein.

"Bell-Ringing DNA: An instrument for the society and a Society for its Heritage"
To write, talk, spread about bell-ringing heritage, about bell sounds, about bell’s history or topics it is not anything new in Valencia’s Land. It is a reality the status of normality that this living heritage has gained to our society. After more than thirty years of voluntary and professional work, valencian people have achieved to be a passionate and respectful people to bell ringing.

The Institute of Ethnic Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences is in the forefront of efforts to record, document, and analyze the living oral traditions of China’s ethnic minorities, including works in the epic genre such as the three heroic epic cycles, namely the Gesar epic, the Janggar epic, and the Manas epic. In part, thanks to personal contacts between Chinese, North  American, and European scholars, the Institute’s current research initiatives are formulated in close interaction with theoretical models known in the West. Moreover, these initiatives are grounded in a threefold “archive/base/network” approach to the living oral traditions of China as vital elements of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

The purpose of the conference is to promote intergenerational exchange and support the participation of young researchers in the conservation and study of cultural heritage. The main themes of the conference were subsequently compiled for publication as a way to make the discussion available to all who might be interested.

Archaeological sites are not isolated islands of information. They are always emplaced in landscapes of social memory, cultural construction and interconnectedness between their past creators and their present consumers – the viewers of sites who give meaning to this heritage. A crucial step in the process of cultural heritage management surveys of sites and landscapes is the representation of places and of the knowledge and significance of places held by Traditional Custodians (descendants of the original creators of heritage places) and a range of stakeholders, including the general public and people making development decisions under heritage laws. This paper will discuss the effect of integrating multiple forms of heritage (tangible, intangible, living, and management) through 3D animated mapping of heritage places, using ArcGIS point data and Blender animation software packages. I also explore how the use of a new digital medium for presenting and re-presenting integrated heritage maps may change the understanding and interpretation of Australian Aboriginal heritage places. I use a specific case study to illustrate my methods – the Gummingurru stone arrangement site on the Darling Downs of southern Queensland, Australia.

Archaeologists and heritage practitioners working at the Gummingurru stone arrangement have engaged with this place at a range of different levels: on the artefactual-scale of each individual rock’s measurements, position and appearance; through the site-scale of yuree (totemic) motifs and intangible heritage knowledge of the Jarowair Traditional Custodians; to the regional-scale of journeying interconnections throughout southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales. Archaeologists and heritage professionals have investigated, interpreted, represented and engaged with each of these scaled elements within multiple dimensions of geographical and cultural knowledge.

Gummingurru is currently a 5ha site and was once a secret-sacred men’s Initiation place, where responsibilities were imparted at different life stages and where disputes were resolved and trade and other social interactions were undertaken. The last known use of the site for these purposes was in 1893, after which the Jarowair people were forcibly removed from their land and sent to missions around Queensland. Today, the site is owned by the Jarowair Traditional Custodians acting as the Gummingurru Aboriginal Corporation and is used as a reconciliation place for the education of school children and the general public - a resurrection and reworking of its original purposes.

Mapping each individual stone on this living heritage site was undertaken between 2006 and 2010, where the position and cultural context of each motif were recorded using a phenomenological counter-mapping framework. This approach has supported an engagement with place that has successfully produced several counter-maps integrating movement, interconnections and pathways between various sites and places in the Gummingurru cultural landscape. The maps have been developed in 2D and 3D digital environments, and are used as the basis of general public outreach and as part of teaching kits designed to be integrated into the Australian National Curriculum for all school levels. 


Title: Maps that move: integrating intangible and living heritage into archaeological representations of multi-scalar landscapes.
Author: E. Jaydeyn Thomas
Affiliation: School of Social Science, The University of Queensland.
Contact: [email protected].
Abstract: 474 words.
Type: Paper in a session
Session 14: Practising Digital Cartography in Archaeology: What is at Stake?

Tibetan thangkas (Buddhist scroll paintings) are created as religious ritual objects. The fact that they are mainly considered as artworks in the Western world impacts on the decisions made for their display and conservation. This article explores the current approach to thangkas in Australian public collections and compares it with the views of contemporary Tibetan Buddhism practitioners. It underlines a few misconceptions at the source of conservation decision-making, and discusses practical outcomes of integrating the sacred dimension into professional practice against the backdrop of conservation's Codes of Ethics. Conserving living religious heritage requires that professional ethical standards are adaptable to the needs of users. Existing frameworks for the conservation of sacred objects of pre-colonised, indigenous cultures provide useful models for the conservation of thangkas. This article argues that engaging with contemporary cultural groups to conserve religious significance is part of the mission of conservators. This is viewed as an expansion of conservation practice into the social realm, in a search for purposeful conservation that establishes the social relevance of our profession.

This paper is a continuation of earlier explorations into living heritage and the role of community in conservation. It aims to address issues related to the reasonable process of reconstructing and restoring living heritage sites, without loss of authenticity and accuracy, a process that seems open to conflict. This is because the very nature of living heritage sites, sites still in use or under occupation by the community at large, implies change. Therefore, it seems inevitable that at some point what the community expects of such sites will run contrary to what the conservation professional feels is suitable or even authentic to its inherent nature, more so in a country like India where most if not all sites
constitute ‘living heritage’.

Hence how does one approach a case, in India, where the site is ‘dead’ i.e. a ruin and the community desires to bring it back to life? The conservation professional believes that such an attempt will neither be authentic nor accurate. However, it is axiomatic that conservation is for the community and not for the satisfaction of one’s personal whim. Therefore what kind of response does one proffer in such a case? Theory leads one to follow certain processes while ground realities are far different.

Ethnographers and ICH field workers use similar methods to represent the societies and communities in which they work. The tools may be the same, but differences in scope require new best practices to ensure authenticity of context for future generations.

ICH field work, like cultural anthropology, concerns itself primarily with first hand observation of the content and method of Acculturation: the process by which a person acquires the cultural knowledge required by the community and to live (not merely survive) in their environment.

“Ethnography is a research method using first person observation by anthropologists documenting facts while being actively involved in the daily life of subject communities – so called ‘field research’ – resulting in analyses of the subject culture, accenting descriptive or qualitative documentation.” (Conrad Phillip Kottak, 2008, Italian Edition)

Likewise, ICH practitioners depend on participatory observation of the cultural practices they are helping to preserve. The primary difference, however, and something that is fundamental to the ultimate value of their work is based on the primary scope of Living Heritage preservation: the transmission.

Los toques de campanas, civiles o religiosos, han sido los encargados de organizar la vida
comunitaria, de delimitar el tiempo y el espacio laboral, diario, festivo y de duelo. Así pues
una de las principales funciones ha sido la construcción del tiempo social y comunitario,
además de religioso (Martínez Roig 2016: 20). Está claro que la función litúrgica o religiosa
es la más reconocida; distintos toques marcan las diferentes liturgias y sus momentos. El uso
civil también reconocible es el toque de las horas, o toques de alarma o de fuego, o perdidos o
para marcar la jornada laboral, etc. A estos toques les sumamos aquellos que se llaman de
protección, (de las cosechas, de tormentas). Todo un catálogo de toques, que se tocaban en
todos los sitios pero de forma distinta, suponiendo pues un lenguaje local e inacabable en sus
formas y técnicas.

This paper is a continuation of earlier explorations into living heritage and the role of community in conservation. It aims to address issues related to the reasonable process of reconstructing and restoring living heritage sites, without loss of authenticity and accuracy, a process that seems open to conflict. This is because the very nature of living heritage sites, sites still in use or under occupation by the community at large, implies change. Therefore, it seems inevitable that at some point what the community expects of such sites will run contrary to what the conservation professional feels is suitable or even authentic to its inherent nature, more so in a country like India where most if not all sites
constitute ‘living heritage’. Hence how does one approach a case, in India, where the site is ‘dead’ i.e. a ruin and the community desires to bring it back to life? The conservation professional believes that such an attempt will neither be authentic nor accurate. However, it is axiomatic that conservation is for the community and not for the satisfaction of
one’s personal whim. Therefore what kind of response does one proffer in such a case? Theory leads one to follow certain processes while ground realities are far different.