Protection of Intangible Heritage

The convention concerning the protection of cultural and natural heritage only emphasizes the protection of tangible cultural heritage. However, the present convention completely turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the intangible cultural heritage. “Cultural heritage” as a term and its content are largely taken from other fields like anthropology and archaeology. The legal aspect of cultural heritage is most complex and difficult to understand. There also exist elements of intangible culture which would include songs or folklore musical traditions, ceremonial or ritual traditions, aspects of the life of ancient societies, and any special relationship between the people and the land that they inhabited. With the term property also comes the idea of assigning the artifact a market value whereas they are historically priceless. Cultural heritage has been made global and a part of universal heritage or “common heritage of mankind.”