Cultural heritage is a part of material and spiritual culture created by past generations

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:54

Over the millennia of history, man has created many drawings, inscriptions, buildings, statues, household items. From the moment of gaining consciousness, a person with incredible zeal produces the traces of his existence - in order to impress future generations or in pursuit of a more practical goal. All these are artifacts, reflections of human culture. But not all of it is cultural heritage.

Cultural heritage is the creations (material or spiritual) created by man of the past, in which the man of the present sees cultural value and wishes to preserve them for the future. The heritage itself is defined as an integral part of culture, acting simultaneously as a way for the individual to appropriate cultural phenomena, and as the very basis of culture. In other words, cultural heritage is a special part of culture, the significance of which has been recognized by generations. It is also recognized now and the diligence of contemporaries should be preserved and passed on to the future.

T. M. Mironova contrasts the concepts of "monument" and"objects of cultural heritage". In her opinion, the very word "monument" means some kind of object for storing memory. While objects of cultural heritage were acquired by us not just for storage, but for an active attitude towards them, awareness of their value for today in the course of modern interpretation.

Two approaches to society's attitude to cultural heritage: protection and preservation

1. Protection of cultural heritage. The condition and the main requirement for the maintenance of the object is its protection from external influences. The object is elevated to the rank of inviolability. Any interaction with the object is prevented, except for the necessary measures. The emotional basis of such an attitude is a feeling of longing for the old days or an interest in the rarities and relics of the past. An object is defined as a memory of the past embodied in a specific object. The more ancient an object is, the more valuable it is considered as a bearer of memory of a past era. This concept has a significant drawback. So carefully guarded object of the past with the passage of time turns out to be something alien in a constantly changing environment. It is not filled with new content and soon risks becoming an empty shell and being on the periphery of public attention and eventually oblivion.
2. Preservation of cultural heritage. It arose in the second half of the twentieth century in connection with the complication of relations with cultural heritage monuments. It includes a set of measures not only for the protection, but also for the study, interpretation and use of culturalobjects.

Previously, some separate objects (structures, monuments) were protected, which were chosen by specialists using “obvious criteria”. The transition from exclusively protective measures to the concept of conservation made it possible to include entire complexes and even territories in this process. The criteria for selecting objects have expanded.

The modern approach does not imply a rejection of the protection of cultural heritage, but leads to a greater expediency of this process. The results showed that the reasonable use of historical objects (buildings, territories) is more conducive to the revitalization (“returning to life”) of cultural heritage monuments than focusing solely on protection. The attitude towards the monument has gone beyond the simple protection of the material shell of the object of antiquity. Monuments of cultural heritage have become not just a reminder of the past. First of all, they became significant as a value in the eyes of contemporaries. They are filled with new meanings.

UNESCO cultural heritage. Activities in the field of preservation of cultural heritage

1972. Adoption of the Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.

This convention did not define the concept of “cultural heritage”, but its categories were listed in it:

• Monuments of cultural heritage - understood in a broad sense, this includes buildings, sculptures, inscriptions, caves. A monument is a unit of cultural heritage, defined as a specific object that has an artistic or scientific(historical) value. But at the same time, the isolation of monuments from one another is overcome, since their interconnection with each other and their connection with the environment is assumed. The totality of monuments forms the objective world of culture.
• Ensembles, which include architectural complexes.
• Sightseeing places: created by man or by him, but also with the significant participation of nature.

The meaning of this convention is as follows:

• implementation of an integrated approach in assessing the relationship between cultural and natural heritage;
• a new group of objects (points of interest) has been added to the protected ones;
• Guidelines were given for the inclusion of heritage sites in economic activities and their use for practical purposes.

1992. La Petite-Pierre. Revision of the Guidelines for the implementation of the 1972 Convention. The Convention spoke about World Heritage sites created by both nature and man. But the procedure for their identification and selection was not provided at all. To correct this, international experts formulated and included in the guide the concept of "cultural landscape", which led to the adjustment of cultural criteria. In order to be awarded the status of a cultural landscape, the territory, in addition to being of internationally recognized value, must also be representative of the region and illustrate its exclusivity. Thus, a new category of cultural heritage was introduced.

1999 Amendments to the Guidelines forimplementation of the 1972 Convention. The content of the amendments was a detailed definition of the concept of "cultural landscape", as well as a description of its types. These included:

1. Man-made landscapes.
2. Naturally evolving landscapes.
3. Associative landscapes.

Cultural Landscape Criteria:

• generally recognized outstanding value of the territory;
• authenticity of the area;
• landscape integrity.

2001. UNESCO conference, during which a new concept was formulated. Intangible cultural heritage are special processes in human activity and creativity that contribute to the emergence of a sense of continuity in different societies and the maintenance of the identity of their cultures. At the same time, its types were identified:

• traditional forms of life and cultural life embodied in the material;
• forms of expression not physically represented (language itself, oral traditions, songs and music);
• meaningful component of the material cultural heritage, which is the result of its interpretation.

2003. Paris. Adoption by UNESCO of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The need for this event was dictated by the incompleteness of the 1972 Convention, namely the absence of even a mention in the document of spiritual values among the World Heritage Sites.

Obstacles to the preservation of cultural heritage

1. Representatives of different stratasocieties have opposing views on the expediency of preserving one or another heritage of the past. The historian sees before him an example of Victorian architecture in need of restoration. The businessman sees a dilapidated building that needs to be demolished and the vacant plot of land used to build a supermarket.
2. The generally accepted criteria for the scientific or artistic value of an object have not been developed, that is, which objects should be classified as cultural heritage and which are not.
3. With a favorable resolution of the first two questions (that is, the object was decided to be preserved and its value was recognized), the dilemma of choosing ways to preserve the cultural heritage arises.

The significance of cultural heritage in the formation of historical consciousness

In the changing everyday life, modern man more and more clearly feels the need for involvement in something permanent. To identify yourself with something eternal, original means to gain a sense of stability, certainty, confidence.

Cultivation of historical consciousness serves such purposes – a special psychological education that allows a person to join the social memory of his people and other cultures, as well as process and broadcast historical event-national information. The formation of historical consciousness is possible only on the basis of historical memory. Substrates of historical memory are museums, libraries and archives. N. F. Fedorov calls the museum a "common memory" opposed to spiritual death.

Priorities for the development of historical consciousness

1. Assimilation of the concept of historical time - cultural heritage in various forms enables an individual to feel history, feel the era through contact with heritage objects and realize the connection of times reflected in them.
2. Awareness of the variability of value orientations - acquaintance with the cultural heritage as a presentation of the ethical, aesthetic values of the people of the past; showing modifications, broadcasting and displaying these values in different periods of time.
3. Familiarization with the historical origins of ethnic groups and peoples through the demonstration of authentic samples of folk art and the introduction of interactive elements in the form of involvement in traditional rituals and rituals.

Use of cultural heritage in social planning

Cultural heritage is objects of the past that can act as a factor in the development of modern society. This assumption has long been discussed, but the practical implementation began only in the second half of the twentieth century. The leading countries here were America, Spain, Australia. An example of this approach would be the Colorado-2000 project. This is a plan for the development of the eponymous state of America. The development was based on the process of preserving the cultural heritage of Colorado. Access to the program was open to all, which resulted in the involvement of representatives of all sections of Colorado society in this process. Experts and non-professionals, government agencies and non-governmental organizations, corporations and small firms are theirthe joint efforts were aimed at the implementation of the Colorado development program based on the disclosure of its historical uniqueness. These projects allow participants to feel themselves as bearers of the authentic culture of their native lands, to feel the contribution of each to the preservation and presentation of the heritage of their region to the world.

The Importance of Cultural Heritage in Maintaining the Unique Diversity of Cultures

In the modern world, communicative boundaries between societies are being erased, and original national cultures are under threat, which find it difficult to compete for attention with mass phenomena.

So there is a need to instill in people pride in the heritage of their people, to involve them in the preservation of regional monuments. At the same time, respect for the identity of other peoples and countries should be formed. All this is designed to counter the globalization of world culture and the loss of the identity of folk cultures.