Cultural heritage is the tangible and intangible legacy of a group orsociety that is inherited from past generations. Not all legacies of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by society.[1]
The deliberate action of keeping cultural heritage from the present for the future is known aspreservation (American English) orconservation (British English), which cultural and historical ethnicmuseums andcultural centers promote, though these terms may have more specific or technical meanings in the same contexts in the other dialect. Preserved heritage has become an anchor of the globaltourism industry, a major contributor ofeconomic value to local communities.[1]
Cultural property includes the physical, or "tangible" cultural heritage, such as artworks. These are generally split into two groups of movable and immovable heritage. Immovable heritage includes buildings (which themselves may include installed art such as organs, stained glass windows, and frescos), large industrial installations, residential projects, or other historic places andmonuments. Moveable heritage includes books, documents, moveable artworks, machines, clothing, and other artifacts, that are considered worthy of preservation for the future. These include objects significant to the archaeology, architecture, science, or technology of a specified culture.[2]
Aspects and disciplines of the preservation and conservation of tangible culture include:
"Intangible cultural heritage" consists of non-physical aspects of a particular culture, more often maintained by social customs during a specific period in history. The concept includes the ways and means of behavior in a society and the often formal rules for operating in a particular cultural climate. These include social values andtraditions,customs and practices,aesthetic andspiritual beliefs,artistic expression,language and other aspects of human activity. The significance of physical artifacts can be interpreted as an act against the backdrop of socioeconomic, political, ethnic, religious, and philosophical values of a particular group of people. Naturally, intangible cultural heritage is more difficult to preserve than physical objects.[citation needed]
Aspects of the preservation and conservation of cultural intangibles include:
"Natural heritage" is also an important part of a society's heritage, encompassing thecountryside and natural environment, includingflora andfauna, scientifically known asbiodiversity, as well as geological elements (including mineralogical, geomorphological, paleontological, etc.), scientifically known asgeodiversity. These kinds of heritage sites often serve as an important component in a country'stourist industry, attracting many visitors from abroad as well as locally. Heritage can also include cultural landscapes (natural features that may have cultural attributes).
Aspects of the preservation and conservation of natural heritage include:
Digital heritage is made up of computer-based materials such as texts, databases, images, sounds and software being retained for future generations.[10] Digital heritage includes physical objects such as documents which have been digitized for retention and artifacts which are "born digital", i.e. originally created digitally and having no physical form.
There have been examples of respect for the cultural assets of enemies since ancient times. The roots of today's legal situation for the precise protection of cultural heritage also lie in some of the regulations of Austria's rulerMaria Theresa (1717 - 1780) and the demands of theCongress of Vienna (1814/15) not to remove works of art from their place of origin in the war.[11] The 1863Lieber code, amilitary legal code governing the wartime conduct of theUnion Army also set rules for the protection of cultural heritage.[12] The process continued at the end of the 19th century when, in 1874 (in Brussels), at least a draft international agreement on the laws and customs of war was agreed. 25 years later, in 1899, an international peace conference was held in the Netherlands on the initiative of TsarNicholas II of Russia, with the aim of revising the declaration (which was never ratified) and adopting a convention. TheHague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 also significantly advanced international law and laid down the principle of the immunity of cultural property. Three decades later, in 1935, the preamble to the Treaty on the Protection of Artistic and Scientific Institutions (Roerich Pact) was formulated. On the initiative of UNESCO, theHague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict was signed in 1954.[13]
Protection of cultural heritage or protection of cultural goods refers to all measures aimed at protecting cultural property against damage, destruction, theft, embezzlement, or other loss. The term "monument protection" is also used for immovable cultural property. Protection of cultural heritage relates in particular to the prevention of robbery digs at archaeological sites, the looting or destruction of cultural sites and the theft of works of art from churches and museums all over the world and basically measures regarding the conservation and general access to our common cultural heritage. Legal protection of cultural heritage comprises a number of international agreements and national laws.[14][15][16][17][18]
The protection of cultural heritage should also preserve the particularly sensitive cultural memory, the growing cultural diversity, and the economic basis of a state, a municipality, or a region. Whereby there is also a connection between cultural user disruption or cultural heritage and the cause of flight. But only through fundamental cooperation, including the military units and the planning staff, with the locals can the protection of world heritage sites, archaeological finds, exhibits, and archaeological sites from destruction, looting, and robbery be implemented sustainably. The founding president of Blue Shield InternationalKarl von Habsburg summed it up with the words: "Without the local community and without the local participants, that would be completely impossible".[9][20][21][22]
Objects are a part of the study of human history because they provide a concrete basis for ideas, and can validate them. Their preservation demonstrates a recognition of the necessity of the past and of the things that tell its story.[23] InThe Past is a Foreign Country,David Lowenthal observes that preserved objects also validatememories. Whiledigital acquisition techniques can provide a technological solution that is able to acquire the shape and the appearance of artifacts with unprecedented precision[24] in human history, the actuality of the object, as opposed to a reproduction, draws people in and gives them a literal way of touching the past. This poses a danger as places and things are damaged by the hands of tourists, the light required to display them, and other risks of making an object known and available. The reality of this risk reinforces the fact that all artifacts are in a constant state of chemical transformation so that what is considered to be preserved is actually changing – it is never as it once was.[25] Similarly changing is the value each generation may place on the past and on the artifacts that link it to the past.
The equality or inseparability of cultural preservation and the protection of human life has been argued by several agencies and writers,[26] for example, former French presidentFrançois Hollande stated in 2016
Our responsibility is to save lives and also to save the stones -- there is no choice to be made, because today both are destroyed.[27]
Classical civilizations, especially Indian, have attributed supreme importance to the preservation of tradition. Its central idea was that social institutions, scientific knowledge, and technological applications need to use a "heritage" as a "resource".[28] Using contemporary language, we could say that ancient Indians considered, as social resources, both economic assets (like natural resources and their exploitation structure) and factors promoting social integration (like institutions for the preservation of knowledge and for the maintenance of civil order).[29] Ethics considered that what had been inherited should not be consumed, but should be handed over, possibly enriched, to successive generations. This was a moral imperative for all, except in the final life stage ofsannyasa.
What one generation considers "cultural heritage" may be rejected by the next generation, only to be revived by a subsequent generation.[according to whom?]
Plaque stating the designation ofCarthage as a World Heritage Site.
The Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage was adopted by the General Conference ofUNESCO in 1972. As of 2011, there are 936World Heritage Sites: 725 cultural, 183 natural, and 28 mixed properties, in 153 countries. Each of these sites is considered important to the international community.
The Blue Shield, a network of committees of dedicated individuals across the world that is "committed to the protection of the world's cultural property, and is concerned with the protection of cultural and natural heritage, tangible and intangible, in the event of armed conflict, natural- or human-made disaster."
Ancient archaeological artefacts and archaeological sites are naturally prone to damage due to their age and environmental conditions. Also, there have been tragic occurrences of unexpected human-made disasters, such as in the cases of a fire that took place in the 200 years oldNational Museum of Brazil and the UNESCOWorld Heritage Site of theNotre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Therefore, there is a growing need to digitize cultural heritage in order to preserve them in the face of potential calamities such as climate change, natural disaster, poor policy or inadequate infrastructure. For example, theLibrary of Congress has started to digitize its collections in a special program called theNational Digital Library Program.[34] TheSmithsonian has also been actively digitizing its collection with the release of the "Smithsonian X 3D Explorer," allowing anyone to engage with the digitized versions of the museum's millions of artifacts, of which only two percent are on display.[35][36]
3D scanning devices used for heritage preservation produce a high-precision digital reference model that not only digitizes condition but also provides a 3D virtual model for replication. The high cost and relative complexity of 3D scanning technologies made it quite impractical in the past, but technology advances and lower relative costs have made even mobile based scanning applications able to create a virtual museum.
There is still a low level of digital archiving of archaeological data obtained via excavation,[37] even in the UK where the lead digital archive for archaeology, theArchaeology Data Service, was established in the 1990s. Across the globe, countries are at different stages of dealing with digital archaeological archives,[38] all dealing with differences in statutory requirements, legal ownership of archives and infrastructure.[39][40]
^abLogan, William S. (2007). "Closing Pandora's Box: Human Rights Conundrums in Cultural Heritage". In Silverman, Helaine; Ruggles, D. Fairchild (eds.).Cultural heritage and human rights. New York, NY: Springer.ISBN9780387713137.OCLC187048155.
^UNESCO convenes Libyan and international experts meeting for the safeguard of Libya's cultural heritage. UNESCO World Heritage Center – News, 21. Oktober 2011.
^Roger O'Keefe, Camille Péron, Tofig Musayev, Gianluca Ferrari "Protection of Cultural Property. Military Manual." UNESCO, 2016, S. 73ff.
^Eric Gibson:The Destruction of Cultural Heritage Should be a War Crime. In: The Wall Street Journal, 2 March 2015.
^UNESCO Director-General calls for stronger cooperation for heritage protection at the Blue Shield International General Assembly. UNESCO, 13 September 2017.
^Corine Wegener, Marjan Otter: Cultural Property at War: Protecting Heritage during Armed Conflict. In: The Getty Conservation Institute, Newsletter 23.1, Spring 2008.
^Roger O’Keefe, Camille Péron, Tofig Musayev, Gianluca Ferrari "Protection of Cultural Property. Military Manual." UNESCO, 2016.
^Eden Stiffman "Cultural Preservation in Disasters, War Zones. Presents Big Challenges" in The Chronicle Of Philanthropy, 11 May 2015.
^"UNESCO Director-General calls for stronger cooperation for heritage protection at the Blue Shield International General Assembly.", UNESCO - 13 September 2017.
^Friedrich Schipper: "Bildersturm: Die globalen Normen zum Schutz von Kulturgut greifen nicht" (German - The global norms for the protection of cultural property do not apply), In: Der Standard, 6 March 2015.
^Rick Szostak:The Causes of Economic Growth: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Springer Science & Business Media, 2009,ISBN9783540922827.
^Tanselle, G. Thomas (1998),Literature and Artifacts, Charlottesville, VA: Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia,ISBN1-883631-06-8,OCLC39223648
^Singh, Rana P.B., Vrinda Dar and S. Pravin,Rationales for including Varanasi as heritage city in the UNESCO World Heritage List, National Geographic Journal of India (varanasi) 2001, 47:177-200{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link).
^"Tere tulemast".register.muinas.ee. Retrieved21 September 2018.
^Mariusz Dworsatschek, ed. (2017).Nie tylko książki. Ossolińskie kolekcje i ich opiekunowie (in Polish) (1 ed.). Wrocław: Osso Wczoraj i Dziś.ISBN978-83-65588-31-9. "not just books. The Ossolineum's collections and their custodians".
Michael Falser.Cultural Heritage as Civilizing Mission. From Decay to Recovery. Heidelberg, New York: Springer (2015),ISBN978-3-319-13638-7.
Michael Falser, Monica Juneja (eds.). 'Archaeologizing' Heritage? Transcultural Entanglements between Local Social Practices and Global Virtual Realities. Heidelberg, New York: Springer (2013),ISBN978-3-642-35870-8.
Hudson-Ward, A., Widholm, J. R., & Scott, W. (Eds.). (2023).Cultural Heritage and the Campus Community: Academic Libraries and Museums in Collaboration. ACRL.
