PUBLICATIONS | VOICES | BACK  ISSUES | FOLKLORE  IN ARCHIVES | FOLK  ARTISTS  SELF-MGT | ORDER PUBLICATIONS | SEARCH

In May of 2006, I participated in a colloquium on identity and culture convened by Mark Slobin and Su Zheng of the ethnomusicology program at Wesleyan University, under the auspices of the International Council on Traditional Music. Coming on the heels of the 2006 New York Folk Arts Roundtable, this gathering allowed me to reflect on the fields of folklore and ethnomusicology and the cultural communities and areas of study where they intersect: culturally specific expression, ethnicities, and populations of immigrants and refugees. Both of these meetings focused considerable attention on the juncture of academic and applied sectors of ethnomusicology and folklore and offered an opportunity to learn what scholars from both sides of the Atlantic have been up to lately. The colloquium, titled “Emerging Musical Identities,” concerned the terminology used to study and present diverse music and other performance culture, with a particular focus on words used to describe the kinds of “folks” often associated with folk culture: minorities, diasporas, ethnic groups, immigrants, and refugees. The sixteen participants brought to the meeting a wide array of perspectives from extensive fieldwork and study of such subjects as Rom and Turkish minorities in Europe, Kurdish culture in Turkey, the transatlantic/ transnational identity of Irish culture, manifestations of refugee culture worldwide, the relationship between minority culture and nationalism in the formation of cultural identity in North America, and the interplay of commercial media and emergent national identities in the European Union. These issues have come to the fore in international dialogue, through both scholarship and public-sector efforts. Among the participants in the colloquium, one particularly comes to mind: Krister Malm, former International Council on Traditional Music (ICTM) president and, until 2005, director of the Swedish national collections of music in Stockholm and professor of ethnomusicology at Gothenburg University. He served on an advisory committee to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) that established the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, a cultural counterpart to the 1972 Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, which concerns sites, landmarks, and buildings of historical and cultural significance around the world. The new convention aims to treat traditional culture, folk practices, and custom in a similar way, designating critical communities and sites, not for their buildings themselves, but for what happens (or has happened) there and for its importance to the host societies and the larger cause of traditional culture worldwide. Malm’s purpose was to report on the development of the language the convention uses to describe traditional culture and how that language reflects the agenda of the governments whose representatives created it. Intangible cultural heritage, as defined in the convention adopted by the thirty-second session of the general conference of UNESCO, refers to “practices, representations, and expressions, as well as the associated knowledge and the necessary skills, communities, and groups, and is in some cases recognized as part of the cultural heritage of a nation.” Malm noted a key issue in the last phrase of the definition: the status of local culture and minority culture within the national cultures of the member nations. By signing this convention, member states recognize to some degree the autonomy and validity of local communities and minorities within their border. This issue will clearly pose continuing problems in the many states where minority culture and identity are repressed. Reflecting years of cultural documentary research at all levels, UNESCO documents cite oral traditions, customs, music, dance, rituals, festivities, and traditional medicine as examples of the cultural manifestations to be covered by the convention. Some of the language used to support the cause of cultural diversity parallels ecological notions of biodiversity. In 2001 an international jury for the convention chaired by Spanish writer Juan Goytisolo proclaimed the first “Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.” They include the Garifuna language, dance, and music of Belize; the Brotherhood of the Holy Spirit of the Congos of Villa Mellain in the Dominican Republic; the sosso bala from Niagassola, Guinea; Kutiyattam Sanskrit theater of India; Sicilian opera dei pupi (puppet theater) in Italy; Nôgaku theater from Japan; cross crafting in Lithuania; the cultural practices of the Djamaa el-Fna Square in Marrakech, Morocco; the hudhud chants of the Ifugao of the Philippines; and the royal ancestral rite and ritual music in Jongmyo Shrine in Korea. For a complete list of the forty-three proclaimed masterpieces so far, visit www.unesco.org/culture/intangible-heritage. After a decade and a half of development, the UNESCO convention came into effect only this past April. As of June 27, 2006, the convention had been ratified by fifty-two nations. The United States has yet to join the convention. Interestingly enough, no masterpieces have yet been cited in North America. The convention’s use of “intangible” seems to include exceedingly tangible objects, such as musical instruments like the sosso bala. Then there is the whole question of using a term like “masterpiece,” which itself refers to an elite and highly tangible notion of culture. Ultimately, however, the adoption of international standards about cultural heritage may have a positive impact on both local and global policies about, and strategies for support of, traditional and folk culture—so it behooves us in the folklore field in the United States to pay attention to what our international colleagues are doing.

HOME | ABOUT NYFS | PROGRAMS & SERVICES | PUBLICATIONS | RESOURCES | CALENDAR | WHAT’S FOLKLORE? | MEMBERSHIP | GALLERY | SHOP | SEARCH | CONTACT US