Intangible cultural heritage: A metacultural product

The Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage (Paris 2003) raises a number of interesting issues pertaining to ethno-anthropology. First of all the term intangible cultural heritage, which suggests a different consideration of the cultural heritage system: the expression "elements of intangible cultural heritage" is very different from "cultural heritage", especially due to the implications of the so-called capitalisation phenomenon. The 2003 Convention attributes special importance to the ethno-anthropological concept of culture and definitively abandons the concept of folklore, considering it no longer plausible in its etymological meaning, namely "knowledge of the common people, government of the people": beliefs, dances, superstitions, customs, proverbs, unwritten norms and values, though present in the sanction and promotion of social behaviours shared by a group, seen as different from the dominant one. Entering into the substance of the Convention, art. 2 describes what should be regarded as intangible heritage: oral traditions and expressions, language as a vehicle of transmission, the performing arts, social practices, festive rituals and events, knowledge of nature and the universe, traditional skills and know-how (including crafts). In practice, the workshop of experts held in Vitré (France) in 2009 decided that culinary practices must have the same recognition as the practices category recognised in art. 2 of the 2003 Convention.