Journal of Folklore Research
From Cultural Forms to Policy Objects: Comparison in Scholarship and Policy
Abstract: The category of intangible cultural heritage was constituted through recurrent and cumulative acts of comparison referring ultimately back to the representative anecdote of oral tradition, Homeric epic. In turn, once cr…
Journal of Folklore Research
Intangible Heritage as Diagnosis, Safeguarding as Treatment
Abstract: Reading across the six essays in this special issue on “UNESCO on the ground,” this commentary argues for an understanding of intangible heritage as a diagnosis for a cultural condition that is increasingly common in in…
Journal of Folklore Research
Understanding UNESCO: A Complex Organization with Many Parts and Many Actors
Abstract: When people attribute a position or action to UNESCO, they rarely specify to which of its many parts they refer. UNESCO is a nation-state based organization located in Paris, advised by hundreds of affiliated NGOs, with…
Journal of Folklore Research
Shifting Actors and Power Relations: Contentious Local Responses to the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Contemporary China
Abstract: This essay addresses the contentious local responses to intangible cultural heritage (ICH) protection in a local context. The following ethnographic case study concerns the living tradition of worshipping the ancient sa…
Journal of Folklore Research
Macedonia, UNESCO, and Intangible Cultural Heritage: The Challenging Fate of Teškoto
Abstract: In Macedonia debates about heritage are played out along the fault lines of ethnic and religious conflict as well as a faltering economy and threats from neighbors about interpretations of history. The country’s 2002 an…