Knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe
- In the text of the Convention
- Article 2 – Definitions
Scope and Content
© Vice Ministerio de Cultura
“Knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe” include knowledge, know-how, skills, practices and representations developed and perpetuated by communities in interaction with their natural environment. These cognitive systems are expressed through language, oral traditions, attachment to a place, memories, spirituality, and worldview, and they are displayed in a broad complex of values and beliefs, ceremonies, healing practices, social practices or institutions, and social organisation. Such expressions and practices are as diverse and variegated as the sociocultural and ecological contexts from which they originate, and they often underlie other domains of ICH as described by the Convention.
This domain encompasses numerous areas such as traditional ecological wisdom, indigenous knowledge, ethnobiology, ethnobotany, ethnozoology, traditional healing systems and pharmacopeia, rituals, foodways, beliefs, esoteric sciences, initiatory rites, divinations, cosmologies, cosmogonies, shamanism, possession rites, social organisations, festivals, languages, as well as visual arts.
Some Examples
©Vanuatu National Cultural Council
These examples are selected from the 90 Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity proclaimed in 2001, 2003 and 2005.
- Vanuatu Sand Drawings, Oral and Graphic Expressions of the Wajapi (Brazil) and the Woodcrafting Knowledge of the Zafimaniry (Madagascar) are diverse forms of visual or decorative arts, each inspired by and expressing the respective cosmogonies of their communities.
- The Andean Cosmovision of the Kallawaya (Bolivia). In addition to a rich pharmacopeia, the priest doctors have developed a traditional medical system based on the beliefs of the indigenous peoples of the Andean area, and Kallawaya women incorporate motifs from this cosmovision into their textiles.
- The Indigenous Festivity Dedicated to the Dead (Mexico) bears testimony of an original philosophy of death, closely linked to the life cycles of Mexican indigenous communities, through a series of practices founded on a synthesis of indigenous beliefs and Catholicism.
- Nha Nhac, Vietnamese Court Music, provides a means of communicating with and paying tribute to the gods and kings, as well as transmitting knowledge about nature and the universe.
Challenges to Viability
Although they constitute the very foundation of the identity of the cultural communities concerned, these knowledges and practices are particularly vulnerable in a globalising world where little place is left for traditional knowledge and the protection of the environment and of belief systems, even if the ecological knowledge of traditional healers may sometimes attract the interest of scientists or of a global pharmaceutical industry.
Rapid urbanisation and extension of agricultural lands may directly affect the natural environment of particular value to a given community, such as a sacred forest necessary for an initiation ritual, or a forest reserve that provides primary resources such as wood for woodcrafting. Desertification and extensive deforestation contribute to the decline of biodiversity and to the gradual disappearance of certain species, thus diminishing the traditional pharmacopeia or threatening traditional crafts, as for example making ritual costumes from plant fibres.
Some Safeguarding Approaches
©Direction du patrimoine culturel, Sénégal
Safeguarding a world view or a system of beliefs faces even more complex challenges than protecting a natural environment. Beyond the external challenges to the social and natural environment, many poor or marginalized communities are themselves inclined to adopt a way of life or a paradigm of development that is in fact detrimental to their traditions and customs. Protecting the natural environment and safeguarding a community’s cosmology and other elements of its intangible cultural heritage are often closely connected. For instance, an essential component of the activities designed for safeguarding the Kankurang, Manding Initiatory Rite (Senegal and Gambia) is protecting the natural environment in which the ritual is practiced. This will be ensured through classification of sacred forests, organizing training in protected areas management and replanting plant species indispensable to the ritual.
The action plan for safeguarding the Woodcrafting Knowledge of the Zafimaniry (Madagascar) includes legal protections through the deposit of patents at WIPO and national patent systems. This will help protect significant motifs that are part of the complex graphic art linked to the very identity of the Zafimaniry community. A preliminary and thorough identification of those elements to be patented, carried out by the community concerned, is prerequisite to this protection. Replanting scarce tree species vital to the craft is also part of the action plan.
The practice of Sand Drawing (Vanuatu) will be revitalized in tradition-bearing communities through organizing community gatherings and festivals to strengthen on-going transmission of expert artistic skills. Other measures include establishing regulations concerning the commercial use of sand drawings and providing legal protection, including sand drawing in standard school curricula and establishing a trust fund to encourage income generating activities linked to this art form. Altogether these should help reconcile national cultural policies with the interests of those for whom sand drawings are above all a living and thriving social reality.
