scholarly journals What’s in a dance? Dalkhai: from a religious community ritual, to a pro-scenium performance

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 298-313
Author(s):  
ANGELICA MARINESCU ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Religious Community ◽  
Intangible Cultural Heritage ◽  
Folk Dance ◽  
Eastern India ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Ritual Dance ◽  
Cultural Pattern ◽  
Emancipatory Politics ◽  
Local Traditions

An educational international project, initiated by a Romanian organisation, comprising folk dances from around the world, has challenged me to go deeper into understanding one of the most popular dance forms of Western Odisha, Dalkhai. Traditionally a religion-based folk dance connected to the agrarian culture of local Adivasi communities, it has been gradually developed into a cultural pattern of Odisha, Eastern India. Considering folklore as intangible cultural heritage of humanity, according to UNESCO definition, I explore the expression of this ritual-dance, in connection to the Adivasi culture, as Dalkhai is considered the goddess of fertility, initially worshipped by the tribal people/Adivasi like Mirdha, Kondha, Kuda, Gond, Binjhal, etc., but also in its recent metamorphosis into a proscenium representation. The Dalkhai dance is becoming visible and recognised at state, national and even international form of dance, while in the Adivasis communities it is noted that the ritual becomes less and less performed. Consulting the UNESCO definitions and documents on Intangible Cultural Heritage is useful for understanding how to approach a choric ritual, involving a tradition, music and dance, enhancing the importance of safeguarding cultural diversity while confronting cultural globalization. Its approach, in accordance with ‘universal cultural rights’, emancipatory politics concerning world culture and multiculturalism, opposes the disappearances and destruction of local traditions, indigenous practices. Heritage concerns the whole community, conferring an identity feeling, and supporting the transmission to the next generations, sustainable development, often involving economic stakes, becoming essential for developing the territories (Chevalier, 2000).

scholarly journals Cultural rights and “Masterpieces” of Local and Translocal Actors

Ethnologies ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 36 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 297-324
Author(s):  
Hélène Giguère
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Local Development ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Intangible Cultural Heritage ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Social Divisions

This paper deals with European experiences of inscription of traditional cultural practices on UNESCO’s Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). It will first establish the institutional context of the UNESCO’s listing within the framework of reflections on cultural rights. Then, the author briefly presents four European masterpieces in the Mediterranean area. A comparative analysis follows which specifically focuses on the multiplication of practitioners and on translocality; on the overlapping between institutions and artisans; on the use of intangible cultural heritage as a driver for local development via cultural tourism; and on the multimedia “museification” of the intangible. The comparative study of the listing of these intangible cultural heritage traditions also questions the value of customary law versus freedom of expression and creation. It reveals the tensions between the “purity” and “impurity” of cultural practices and social agents, as well as exclusions related to ethnicity, sex or territory. These tensions create new social divisions and remodel the link people have with cultural practices. An examination of gender sheds light on the marginality of women in public space.

Discovering Maine’s Intangible Cultural Heritage

2019 ◽  
pp. 283-294
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Intangible Cultural Heritage ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Boat Building ◽  
Fiddle Music ◽  
The Impact

This chapter reviews the historic and ongoing research of the state of Maine's intangible cultural heritage and shows how this work addresses the need for conservation, advocacy, education, and stewardship of this heritage. Maine is especially rich in intangible cultural heritage including the knowledge involved in crafting fine Native American basketry, boat building, fiddle music and dance, knowledge of the natural world among fishermen, woodsmen, millworkers, and farmers, folk singing, storytelling and much more. Cultural rights and ownership, the role of community scholars, and the impact of tourism is considered. The chapter concludes by suggesting that culturally-sensitive and engaged research has strengthened our understanding of how the ecosystem is essential to human life and culture.

Kalbeliya Dance from Rajasthan: Invented Gypsy Form or Traditional Snake Charmers’ Folk Dance?

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-54
Author(s):  
Ayla Joncheere
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Intangible Cultural Heritage ◽  
Folk Dance

Since being listed as intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2010, Kalbeliya dance from Rajasthan is now generally conceptualized as an ancient tradition from India. However, this same dance practice, also known as a form of “Indian Gypsy” or “snake charmers’” folk dance, appears to have originated as recently as the 1980s. This article gives an account of the swift development of Kalbeliya dance from its first appearance on stage in 1981 to the present. Ethnographic research with Kalbeliya dancers’ families has elucidated how this inventive dance practice was formed to fit into national and transnational narratives with the aim of commercializing it globally and of generating a new, lucrative livelihood for these Kalbeliya families. As a new cultural product of Rajasthani fusion, the dance finds itself at the crossroads of commercial tourism and political folklorism and is grounded in neo-orientalist discourses (romanticism and exoticism).

Part II Substantive Aspects, Ch.15 Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blake Janet
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Intangible Cultural Heritage ◽  
Development Models ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Social And Economic Development ◽  
The Right

This chapter assesses the drafting of the 2003 Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), the result of three decades of consideration within UNESCO. For many UNESCO Member States—especially in the African, Asia-Pacific, and Latin American regions—ICH constitutes a major part of their cultural heritage. The contribution that it can make to social and economic development in such societies was an important factor in the desire to strengthen international safeguarding of this heritage. UNESCO’s 2003 Convention was developed within two main international law and policy contexts: human-centred and sustainable development and the growing importance accorded to cultural rights. The 2003 Convention makes clear the role of cultural heritage in preserving cultural diversity; ensuring truly sustainable development models; protecting human rights and the cultural identities of individuals, social groups, and communities; and protecting the right of communities to be themselves socially and economically sustainable through their heritage.

scholarly journals DALLE COSE D’ARTE ALL’INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE PERCORSI DI “DEMATERIALIZZAZIONE” (ANCHE) GIURIDICA

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabetta Fusar Poli
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Cultural Value ◽  
Intangible Cultural Heritage ◽  
International Level ◽  
Cultural Goods ◽  
Human Rights Protection ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
History Of ◽  
Heritage Protection

In the history of (not only national) law protection of cultural heritage,“immateriality” acquires specific significance with regard to at least two perspectives.From one “static” side, which is coessential to “cultural goods”: the intrinsic aestheti-cal-cultural value, detectable since the origins at least in its identity declination. Fromthe other “dynamic” side, typical of the contemporary age: the progressive extension togoods without a corpus, tangible substance, of the category of “cultural goods” consid-ered worth of protection (in a de-reification direction). Both of these two profiles havesignificant impacts on the juridical sphere, in particular on the normative choices aimedat the (national and global) cultural heritage protection. There’s a major example of thisrelevance: the so called “intangible cultural heritage” shaped at an international level(UNESCO), whose safeguarding should be included among the aims of the human rights protection, sharpening the dialectic between individual and collective dimen-sions of “cultural rights”.

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