A Study on Folk Beliefs as Intangible Cultural Heritage and Documentation

The purpose of this paper is to investigate folk beliefs as intangible cultural heritage and toestablish an effective way to document them. First of all, the problems on the transmissionand preservation of folk beliefs, which might be able to be caused under the new law (Acton Safeguarding and Promotion of Intangible Cultural Heritage), are examined in brief.In addition, 8 measures on how to research and document them are proposed in overallperspectives.One of the most important characteristics of folk beliefs as intangible cultural heritage iscollectivity. Therefore, when carrying out research, an emphasis on their documentationshould be definitely put in the first place. It is closely related to the spirit of the UNESCOConvention, which emphasizes contents and meaning of intangible cultural heritage that arerecognized and shared by the community concerned.The research and documentation on folk beliefs should be focused on their diachrony, butat the same time the effort to maintain their present status is desperately required. Therecords, especially considering their diachronic aspects, will serve as useful material toreach beyond the limits of existing study and documentation. Finally, the paper exploresseveral cases regarding their transmission and thereby suggests extending their categoriesand research materials, which have not received much attention so far.