What's the UNESCO Intangible Cultural List?

By Michael Gebicki
Updated April 20 2015 - 5:09pm, first published 4:09pm
Cultural icon: The Panama hat. Photo: Jennifer Soo
Cultural icon: The Panama hat. Photo: Jennifer Soo
Cultural icon: The Panama hat. Photo: Jennifer Soo
Cultural icon: The Panama hat. Photo: Jennifer Soo
Cultural icon: The Panama hat. Photo: Jennifer Soo
Cultural icon: The Panama hat. Photo: Jennifer Soo
Cultural icon: The Panama hat. Photo: Jennifer Soo
Cultural icon: The Panama hat. Photo: Jennifer Soo

The list enshrines traditions and cultural practices UNESCO considers significant for humankind. It aims to extend the concept of cultural and natural heritage beyond man-made objects and structures such as the Pyramids of Egypt and Cambodia's Angkor, and natural treasures such as the Great Barrier Reef, to encompass traditions or cultural expressions that have been passed down through the human lineage. It includes festivals, performing arts, oral traditions, traditional crafts and rituals. The list includes such esoteric events as Askiya, the art of witty dialogue found in Uzbekistan, and Xooy, a divination ceremony that takes place in villages among the Serer community in west-central Senegal in the lead-up to the rainy season. Among the traditional crafts on the list are washi, the art of paper-making by hand, found only in a small area of Japan, and the traditional weaving of the toquilla straw hat in Ecuador, commonly known as the Panama hat. Happily, it also includes the gastronomic traditions of France and the Mediterranean diet. For anyone who travels in search of curiosities, the Intangible Cultural Heritage list, which can be found through UNESCO's website (unesco.org), may open doors to an unknown world, with treasures on the other side.

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