Cultural Heritage
статья по английскому языку

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CULTURAL HERITAGE

What is it? Why is it important?

Don’t let the 8,400,000 Google hits to this question bewilder you. Simply put, heritage is the past made present. Heritage is anything valued by people today that was also valued by previous generations. Heritage is what we have accepted as gifts from those who came before us. Heritage is our inheritance of land, language, ecosystems, knowledge, and culture.

WHAT IS HERITAGE?

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ARE THERE

DIFFERENT KINDS OF HERITAGE?

Yes. Heritage includes land, physical and material objects, monuments, and sites, as well as intangible beliefs, customs, knowledge and traditions. Heritage may be built, written, recited, remembered, re-enacted, worn, displayed, and taught. Examples of heritage include the traditional rituals as “Kolyada Tsari”, folk music, the skills of hand-made as “Shapovalstvo”, the castles as Mir and Niaswizh.

Heritage is everywhere. Heritage may occupy or be composed of urban, rural, agricultural, manufactured, or backcountry settings. Much heritage is deeply rooted in specific landscapes and regions, but heritage can also be portable (Belarusian traditional costumes, Japanese kimonos, Italian stone masonry). Heritage may bear the unmistakable signature of an individual master or may have been crafted by thousands or people over many generations (e.g. the Great Wall of China). It may be central to group or regional identity because of its’ natural character.

 WHY SHOULD I PAY ATTENTION TO HERITAGE?

Heritage is a fundamental source of individual and group identity, vitality, and solidarity. Heritage is a universal process by which humans maintain connections with our pasts, assert our similarities with and differences from one another, and tell our children and other young people what we think is important and deserves to be part of the future. Heritage is not just “out there.” Heritage guides each of us from within on a daily basis. Heritage is a powerful source of practical suggestions on what to wear, what to eat, how to behave. Clothes, foods, stories, songs, and the patterned actions of the people around you influence your values and preferences. Heritage is one of the ways you determine right from wrong, beautiful from repulsive, meaningful from ridiculous, and so on. The preferences embedded in what we think, say, and do are important building blocks for communities, regions, and nations. Be mindful of your heritage, for it helps determine your destiny and that of your descendants!

The sight of Mir castle on the part of the lake, Grodno Region, Belarus.

       IS ALL HERITAGE VALUED?

Yes and no. By definition, heritage only exists and is perpetuated by virtue of the meanings people assign to it. Different people find and apply different values (cultural, spiritual, aesthetic, scientific, economic) to otherwise identical objects and places. Heritage may be cherished and protected at all costs by one group of people while being despised or used as symbolic targets by others.

Not all heritage is tied to positive values and pasts. For example the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland, is  heritage sites that have been preserved as cautionary memorials for humankind. Negative heritage is also carried forward in stories, songs, poetry and other oral and literary traditions.

IS INDIGENOUS HERITAGE DIFFERENT THAN OTHER KINDS OF HERITAGE?

Again, the answer is yes and no. All peoples possess the inalienable right to manage their heritage, but Indigenous peoples were denied that right for a long time (and many still are). The term “Indigenous” has come to stand for peoples who have historical continuity with land and who have been affected by foreign political, legal, cultural, and economic impositions.

As a result, the heritage of many Indigenous peoples has been destroyed or taken over by newcomers. Because of the past and ongoing harms to Indigenous heritage, it is imperative that those engaging with Indigenous people and their heritage today do so with the utmost care and respect.

WHO MAKES HERITAGE?

You do! Every human has values and preferences that translate into thoughts, words, and decisions about what to keep and what to cast away or leave behind. Over the course of days, months, years, and decades, these decisions combine with the decisions made by others to result in your heritage legacy. What will you leave behind for others to value?

SOURCES

•Cultural Survival: www.culturalsurvival.org/

•The Open University: www.open.edu/openlearn/history- the-arts/history/heritage/what-heritage

•UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization: whc.unesco.org/en/about/