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Ackuwent Into Force Only in 2006 PCHA Conference Publication Masoma Nazari, Sara Noshadi Education & Intangible Heritage Panel Ahmad Zia Rafat, & Constance Wyndham INTRODUCTION This chapter will consolidate the many conversation points that arose from the discussion panel that concerned Education and Intangible Cultural Heritage. It will include the viewpoints expressed by the panel members, the panel moderator, the audience members who participated in the discussion, and the volume’s editors. We feel that both education and intangible heritage are crucial components of heritage preservation. The decision to group them together, as opposed to treating them separately, or grouping education with other topics, comes from the idea that these particular spheres are so closely related. We must have means to preserve and convey the immaterial past, and education, in a variety of forms, is one of the strongest transmitters of non-material culture. In Afghanistan, armed conflict and its attendant mass population dislocations have seriously damaged the family and community structures that are so important for transmitting and ensuring the continuity of many (but not all) aspects of intangible heritage. In this chapter we will address not only the relationship between education and intangible cultural heritage, but also definitions of each term, how they impact the Afghan national identity, effective modes of preservation, and challenges that Afghanistan faces in these areas. CONCEPTS OF INTANGIBLE HERITAGE “Intangible heritage” is a concept that first was created at the turn of the millennium in reaction to what had become a global focus on strictly tangible cultural heritage. It was not until 2003 that the global community began to consider that endangered culture includes more than just the tangible remnants of human society, and that cultural heritage is not limited to monuments, buildings, art objects, and artifacts. It was at that time that UNESCO generated a convention on the safeguarding of intangible heritage, and it ACKUwent into force only in 2006. Intangible heritage, in broad definition, includes practices, knowledge, and skills plus the instruments, objects, and artifacts associated with them.1 It is transferred from one generation to the next, and so it is also called ‘living heritage’ because it is in a state of perpetual transmission, constantly recreated by its community and the community members who serve as its curators. Therefore, cultural diversity within a community should impact our understanding of intangible cultural heritage as well. Some common examples of intangible heritage include: language, religious 1 There is debate, however, about whether this definition of intangible cultural heritage is insufficient or problematic; see, e.g., Richard Kurin, "Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in the 2003 UNESCO Convention: a critical appraisal," in Museum International 56 1-2 (2004): 66–77. 1 traditions, music, dance, poetry, literature, folklore, foodways, and traditional crafts. Taken together, these domains are key elements that contribute to, and largely define, the realm of cultural knowledge. “Intangible” cultural knowledge is what gives meaning to material culture or “tangible” heritage. We should not forget that the laws arising from the 2003 UNESCO convention concerning intangible heritage make up a body of what is often called “soft law.” This is, in part, because no country can be forced to ratify it or even to follow it as a law. It is, though, connected to human rights, and so ratification of the 2003 convention is enormously beneficial and has been fairly widespread.2 Cultural rights are human rights, and cultural diversity is also a component of human rights. And since the convention of intangible heritage supports safeguarding diversities and the cultural rights of peoples, it also supports basic human rights. TANGIBLE AND INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE For legal purposes, it is invaluable to have governmental oversight in the realm of heritage preservation, and to negotiate funding structures in order to establish intangible heritage as concept and formal category of jurisprudence. However, when working within the field of cultural heritage preservation, the question arises whether we should continue to see tangible and intangible heritage as a two separate entities, or whether they are more closely related than that. In many ways they have a reciprocal relationship (see Filigenzi, this volume). For example, the processes involved in preservation of historical monuments can support intangible elements of culture such as the skills and techniques that help local architects effectively work with designs and architectural styles of the past. Another example of the interface between the intangible and tangible is the role that the National Archives of Afghanistan plays in safeguarding both. Typically when we think of a national archives, we think of the tangible archival materials, but it is what those materials preserve that sustains intangible aspects of a society’s culture such as poetry, music, language, etc. In the National Archive ofACKU Afghanistan there are two types of relics. There are manuscripts, numbering around 7,000, and other relics of more than 100,000 that include historic documents. It is typically assumed that in the National Archive there are only tangible relics, rather than intangible, because even these manuscripts or books are tangible and visible. However, the relics stored there always have two aspects: the archaeological and the cultural, the tangible and intangible. The tangible aspect is the one that can be seen and touched. And the intangible part is the art and skill used in the creation of that relic. 2 163 countries have ratified the 2003 UNESCO Convention at the time of publication (as of 4/04/2015). 2 Among the archival manuscripts are examples of miniature decoration, papermaking, book ornamentation, and decorative arts in general that do not exist now in the way that they used to in the past. This was especially true of the Timurid period in Herat in which the book designing arts were at their peak. This is an artistic aspect of Afghan cultural heritage that is currently in the process of vanishing. The National Archives preserve these traditions by collecting, cataloging, and maintaining the archival materials that evidence them. As an example, Ferdowsi’s classic epic poem, the Shahnameh (“Book of Kings”), is believed to have been first written between the late 10th and early 11th centuries CE in northern Afghanistan as part of the broader region historically known as “Khorasan.” This assumption of origin is often challenged despite the fact that most of the place names mentioned in the Shahnameh fall within the modern geographical boundaries of Afghanistan. Unfortunately, in the National Archives of Afghanistan, there are only four preserved volumes of the Shahnameh, none of which have much historic antiquity, and the earliest of which dates to the 17th century CE. The significance of these preserved works is primarily artistic in that they feature many beautiful miniatures. However, for the question of antiquity, Iran has the oldest preserved editions of Shahnameh. This does not identify Iran as the origin, however. Clearly, the answer suggested by the tangible material, the physical copies of the Shahnameh, does not take into account the entirety of evidence, and it is only by considering all aspects of the history, geography, and customs that we can understand the complete historical reality. The holdings of the National Archives are thus extremely important as a way to place the Shahnameh within the broader historical context of the medieval Persian speaking world as a shared intangible cultural treasure, deeply valued throughout the region that encompasses the modern states of Afghanistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. Regarding the manuscripts, it is very difficult for most people today to read traditional manuscripts. Simply being able to read the type of historical writings preserved in the National Archives is also a form of cultural knowledge that is precious, but which is inACKU danger of disappearing. Thus, the National Archives preserves both tangible and intangible cultural heritage, and these two aspects clearly have a very close and reciprocal relationship with one another. ARMED CONFLICT AND INTANGIBLE HERITAGE Oral history and oral poetry are excellent examples of intangible heritage, and are key elements in UNESCO’s list of these forms of cultural patrimony. In Afghanistan, it is imperative to try to understand the role of poetry and the impact that these past four decades of conflict have had on the oral history of the country. One question we have to address is whether it is possible to transfer and preserve it despite the disruption of war. Have the decades of conflict permanently, negatively impacted this part of Afghanistan’s cultural heritage as well? 3 In modern Afghanistan, religion is perhaps the most pervasive element of the local culture, but following it is language. Language is a crucial form of intangible heritage that reflects the desires, dreams, thoughts, beliefs, assumptions, and religious views of the people. What has helped language the most in this area is poetry, especially after the 8th century CE.3 Afghan poetry has been handed down across the generations in two forms. One is in the form of unwritten, undocumented oral transmission, which is only memorized. Even after the wars, Afghans can still record and transfer these poems.
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