Cultural heritage

Cultural heritage is a "dynamic and ongoing process that reflects the people, place and time in which it is being interpreted. Heritage fields include oral tradition, community histories, artefacts, historic sites, monuments, landscape and the natural environment."^[1] The term has not always meant the same thing, having at one time referred exclusively to the monumental remains of cultures. However, heritage as a concept has gradually come to include new categories such as the intangible, ethnographic or industrial heritage. This is because closer attention is now being paid to humankind, the dramatic arts, languages and traditional music, as well as to the informational, spiritual and philosophical systems upon which creations are based.^[2]

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines^[3] the different types of cultural heritage as:

• Cultural Heritage Sites
• Historic Cities
• Cultural Landscapes
• Natural Sacred Sites
• The Underwater Cultural Heritage
• Museums
• The Movable Cultural Heritage
• Handicrafts
• The Documentary and Digital Heritage
• The Cinematographic Heritage
• Oral Traditions
• Languages
• Festive Events
• Rites and Beliefs
• Music and Song
• The Performing Arts
• Traditional Medicine
• Literature
• Culinary Traditions
• Traditional Sports and Games

1. ↑ Cultural Heritage Studies Glasgow Caledonian University. Accessed 28 December 2007.
2. ↑ Cultural Heritage "Culture" UNESCO. Accessed 28 December 2007.
3. ↑ The UNESCO list "Culture" UNESCO. Accessed 28 December 2007.

• UNESCO.org Homepage
• English Heritage Homepage
• The National Trust Homepage