Heritage: Critical approaches

As a cultural anthropologist with a special interest in healing knowledge situated outside classic biomedicine, I have been observing the implementation of the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) since 2007, when it was first discussed, all the way through to its ratification and subsequent implementation in Austria. One of the first tasks was to survey healing and health practices as possible elements for inscription on the National Inventory of ICH in Austria. First, it was necessary to define the criteria for inscription and to decide what sort of practical and theoretical healing knowledge should and may be included in the inventory and what not to inscribe, respectively. Moreover, who was to decide what constitutes ICH worthy of safeguarding? These were the most urgent questions at the beginning of what was to become an extremely enriching learning process.