11 cultural traditions were just added to the UNESCO Intangible Heritage List. This is a collection of arts and other cultural traditions in danger of going extinct which UNESCO feels should be preserved because of the role, message, or meaning they have for the societies where they are practiced. Added to the list this year was Chinese shadow puppetry, Mexican mariachis, a particular type of poetic duel indigenous to Cyprus, Fado singing in Portugal, Jultagi Korean tight rope walking, Hezhen Yimakan Chinese story telling, Lenj Iranian fishing boat construction, Kaskek ceremonial Turkish stew, Japanese rice rituals, the Jaguar Shamans of Colombia, and Indonesian Saman Dance. Read about these endangered cultural practices and the changing contexts in which they struggle for existance.
Indigenous People
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Social Development and Theater in Indigenous Chiapas
SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico- “Alcoholism, poverty, violence, I think that those things are made bigger by economic strife,” spoke Rachael Albers, an education/ theater social activist from the USA who has been working in Chiapas for the past couple of years. I was interviewing Rachael as part of an investigations into the various cultural spheres of Chiapas, and she was laid out for me the socio/ political/ historical background of Chalchihuitan, an indigenous community an hour and a half north of San Cristobal, where she coordinates a theater group of young women, called Las Jades, in conjunction with the local high school.
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Modern Bedouin
Modern Bedouin A young Bedouin man dressed up in a clean black robe with a fancy white headscarf and shining black sunglasses sat down next to me as I sat in the shade of a pavilion drinking a $1.50 can of cold Sprite. —————————- Wade from Vagabond Journey.com in Jordan- May, 2009 Ask Travel Questions [...]
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Tribals of Arunachal Pradesh
A Respectable Development?The Tribals of Arunachal Pradesh: Then and Now“. . . we are faced with the phenomenon of a rapid material, social, and educational development of a tribal society which has found a place in the modern world without so far losing its identity as a distinct ethnic entity.” -Christoph Von Furer-Haimendorf (approx. 1980)From [...]
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