Mirroring Change through Intangible Heritage

Cairo, European Contact and Fashion, 1805 – 1952

الملخص

“Heritage is not just something that we do on holiday,” claims Ian Mortimer, a writer of the UK based magazine History Today. For indeed, it does not end at monuments and the collection of objects but is in everyday doings that are central to human existence. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines heritage as consisting of traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants. These include oral traditions, performing arts, rituals, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts. All this constitutes what UNESCO refers to as “intangible heritage.” Transmitted from generation to generation, it is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity.