Diversity, Hybridism and the National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Netherlands

The UNESCO wants to safeguard cultural diversity worldwide. But what can be said about the emerging ethnic diversity as a result of the migration into Western Europe, specifically in the Netherlands? What is the repercussion on the National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH)?Intangible heritage implies not only a connection with the new urban youth cultures and the new ethnic groups but it also aims. at a geographically balanced distribution. The impression is that this new ethnic diversity is concentrated in the urbanized west of the Netherlands. West-Kruiskade, a city district in Rotterdam, is well known for its 170 odd different ethnical groups. It might be a test case from the perspective of the UNESCO Convention.The Arabic dye henna figures on the Dutch National Inventory and is a good item in the discussion. We know from the nomination file that Fatima Oulad Thame is a Moroccan henna artist now living and working in Rotterdam. She explores the Moroccan tradition of henna painting but also includes Indian ones. She also uses henna techniques to decorate Christmas trinkets. She likes the cultural mix because she aims at a generalized interest in her form of art. Her work can be interpreted as hybridism that tends towards a "global melange", as coined by the Dutch anthropologist Jan Nederveen Pieterse.The UNESCO Convention warns against a process of globalization that might cause "deterioration, disappearance and destruction of the intangible Cultural heritage". But the author is less pessimistic and interprets it as a useful incentive to attain sustainable development of ICH. He refers to Homi K. Bhabha and Peter Burke, influential thinkers of hybridism, who rather see it as a process of "evolving dynamics of creativity in plural societies". Therefore, hybridism and globalization need a new research agenda because a lot of questions remain unanswered. Questions dealing with traditions which no longer have the same obvious historical and local context, questions about identity, inclusion and exclusion, etc.