On traditional knowledge and communities: a talk with Maestro Pacho Torres

Abstract

The 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage set an important new tone by empowering communities to define their own cultural heritage (UNESCO 2003). Therefore, and as a methodological approach in cultural research that corresponds to the 2003 Convention, documenting and investigating the performing arts of people must be in tune with, and in collaborative interaction with, the respective cultural bearers and practitioners. In the UNESCO Convention text of 2003, the phenomenon of intangible cultural heritage is considered as a mainspring of cultural diversity. Practices of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) may function as a guarantee of sustainable development. Besides that, and according to the Convention, there is a deep-seated interdependence between the intangible and the tangible cultural and natural heritage, described and outlined in the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, ratified three decades earlier in 1972 (UNESCO 1972).