Analysis of the Significance of Heritage - Essay Example

Write here 2642 words Write down your address here WHAT IS HERITAGE? By Write here WHAT ISHERITAGE? Before going into the analysis of significance of heritage, let us get a better understanding of what heritage actually is. Heritage is a complete set of inherited traditions, practices, and culture. A country’s heritage describes the culture and traditions of the society. Heritage refers to the concept of inheritance, which means to inherit something from ancestors. Sorensen and Carman (2009) found that heritage includes a range of practices, institutions, and products (11). Heritage helps in shaping the cultural beliefs of any individual. It not only includes collecting, preserving, and displaying old objects and behaviors of any specific society but also it is the collection of customs and traditions of ancestors. * Heritage of a country can be in tangible and intangible forms. We can say it to be tangible in the form of collection of old objects whereas it can be intangible in the form of dances, cultural beliefs, and traditional songs. Both tangible and intangible forms of heritage form the heritage of a society. The concept of heritage is deeply related with the ideas of genuineness and material permanence (Mathew 2008). Heritage plays the role of a solid foundation for the future of a society as it contains such elements, which are essential for the development of a society. “Heritage is taken to include everything that people want to save, from clean air to morris dancing, including material culture and nature” (Howard 2003, 1). It includes a complete range of different things that a society wants to save for the next generation. Heritage is not for a single person or a small group of people rather it is for the whole community living in any specific country. Some countries celebrate the month of heritage. “Hispanic Heritage Month begins on 15 September, the day of independence for five Latin American countries” (Solis 2010). Heritage is not limited to the boundaries of a country. It is in the minds and beliefs of a person living in any part of the world. SIGNIFICANCE OF HERITAGE Heritage plays an important role in shaping the behaviors and attitudes of a society. It is because when a person grows up within the boundaries of the culture and traditions of his society, the impact of those traditions occur on the personality which results in shaping the behavioral characteristics of the person. “Family traditions are a very interesting and important part of most lives” (Fredrickson 2010). Heritage of a person helps other people recognize him as a different person. Heritage of a society is transferred from one generation to the next generation. It is very important for all individuals belonging to any particular society to have interest in preserving their heritage. It is because if a society does not pay attention towards collecting and preserving the heritage, which is passed onto them by their ancestors, the heritage vanishes away and it becomes very difficult to find the signs of lost heritage. If a person has a complete understanding of his culture and traditions, it helps him transferring the cultural values to the next generation. It is the responsibility of the elders to make the youngsters aware of the real heritage instead of telling stories about their heritage. For example, some people believe that Africans used to sway on the trees whenever the boats of slaves appeared on their land. Now this belief is very wrong but the problem is that this belief was transferred to the minds of the Africans by their ancestors in the form of stories. Heritage is not something like stories rather it is the actual traditions and social norms and values of a society. * Another important thing regarding heritage is the understanding about the history of a society. It is very important to understand the history and culture of a society in order to control a group of people in an appropriate manner. If we talk about heritage from the government’s perspective, we can say that it is one of the prime responsibilities of the government of any country to take considerable steps to protect the heritage of the society. Customs and traditions are symbols of a society, which make the people recognized by the people belonging to other societies. “Many governments recognize the importance of heritage to their citizens’ well-being” (Lozny 2008, 189). In today’s world, diminishing societies have become a real problem for most of the countries and it is because most of our societies are forgetting the basic values and traditions, which they inherited from their ancestors. Another reason is that there is no proper mechanism available for the protection of precious heritage. There are hardly any schools or institutes, which should make the children aware of their customs and traditions. It is also the responsibility of the parents to make the children aware of their heritage. Heritage of a country represents its people in every part of the world. Those societies lose their ground whose people do not take proper steps for preserving their customs and traditions. * Heritage keeps the people of a society together. It is because people living in any particular society are similar to each other in terms of their customs and traditions. Whatever they do and whatever they say are understandable for each of them. Another benefit of keeping the customs and traditions alive is that they represent the people wherever they live. A person without knowing his heritage is nothing in today’s world. Heritage not only includes customs and traditions but also those things and properties, which our ancestors had preserved for us. Those properties are very beneficial for the person who owns them. Let us take an example of a person whose ancestors had some property in different cities. Now if that person is aware of all property that has been left for him by his ancestors, he can make a good use of it. However, if that person is not aware of anything left behind by his ancestors, he will have to struggle hard throughout his life because price of the property keeps on increasing and it is very hard for a person to buy precious property in different cities. Therefore, a person must have knowledge about everything that has been left behind by his ancestors in order to make use of those things whenever required. Heritage includes customs, traditions, social norms and values, property left behind by ancestors, different objects that had remained in use of ancestors at some point of time, religious and social practices, and many other cultural values and objects. It is very important for a person to have an awareness of the heritage in order to move confidently in any society. * Another benefit of heritage is that if a person is aware of his heritage, it can help him know whether he is likely to have some sort of hereditary disease or not. Many diseases occur because of transformations in certain genes (Toland 2001). Hereditary diseases pass on from one generation to the next. “Sometimes this inheritance is straightforward, while other times additional genetic changes or environmental factors also need to be present for a particular disease to develop” (Powell 2010). If a person has awareness of the hereditary diseases, he can act appropriately to protect himself from the consequences of the disease. Let us take an example of a person who has high levels of sugar in his blood. Now if that person had awareness of this inherited disease, he would have taken steps to protect himself from the disease but he became a victim of the disease due to unawareness. One of the practical benefits of heritage is having awareness about the hereditary diseases. Hereditary disease is one of the major issues regarding the health of a person. Heritage not only brings certain benefits for an individual but also brings some negative prospects in terms of diseases for the next generation. There are some diseases, which are very harmful for the health of any individual. Some of those diseases are inherited diseases, which are passed on to the next generations by the ancestors. Some of the most common inherited diseases include angelman syndrome, color blindness, high and low levels of blood sugar, canavan disease, hemophilia, down syndrome, cystic fibrosis, and celiac disease. An individual needs to pay special attention towards his heritage in order to be safe from hereditary diseases. * Heritage tells the people where they have come from and who they are. Heritage reflects the identity of a person and that identity makes him recognized by other people around him. Awareness about the place of birth and residence of the ancestors is also known as the heritage of a person. People feel emotional attachment with those places and like to visit those places where their ancestors have grown up and lived their lives. People also feel a sense of relaxation and pride while telling other people about their ancestors and their place of origin. Some people feel pride in using the crockery that had been is use of their ancestors for a long time. Some people place those things in the showcases in order to let other people see and admire the old collection. We can also see the collection of old objects in museums. “Museums are institutions that preserve art, artifacts and sculptures for the betterment of society” (Venus 2010). Heritage can be categorized into collective heritage and individual heritage. A collective heritage is one, which is owned by a large number of people or whole society. Collective heritage includes customs, traditions, dances, and social norms and values inherited by the ancestors. If we talk about individual heritage, we can say that individual heritage includes those objects, property, dresses, inherited diseases, and practices that are different for each person. Heritage is one of the most important parts of any individual’s life. Both of the above-mentioned types of heritage play an important role in making the people recognized in any part of the world. * Another important aspect of heritage is that it helps a nation reflect its own history and culture to the people belonging to other nations. Heritage keeps the foundations of a country intact. Those countries can never become independent, which do not protect their heritage from being influenced by other societies. Culture and traditions are integral for any society. Howard and Ashworth (1999) explain that people, living in any country, should give extreme importance to their national heritage (5). Those societies mix up with other societies, which do not value their customs and traditions. A society can maintain its separate status and identity only if it gives importance to its culture and practices in every field of life. If a country preserves its heritage and gives importance to the history and culture of the society, it progresses rapidly as compared to those countries where the people have no interest in heritage. It is because history makes the governments of a country learn form the experiences. If the governments pay proper attention towards preserving the heritage, they succeed in defining the direction and spirit of the countries. Heritage plays a motivational role for the people living in any society. It shows the people the right way to struggle by reflecting the role played by their ancestors for some other purpose. Therefore, we can say that heritage plays a vital role not only in maintaining the separate identity of a country but also motivates and guides the people living in the country to struggle by showing them the right attitude towards struggle. * The ethnic origins and the cultures make humans different from the animals. Humans are blessed with the ability to create different things and perform different activities which make them different than all other creatures present in the world. These abilities to create different objects form our heritage, which should be preserved not only for our own use but also for the future generations. Customs and traditions are those assets, which move on from generation to generation and make the society rich and prominent in terms of culture. Customs and traditions are intangible assets of any society, which should not be lost in any case. If a society loses its cultural values and traditions, its foundations become weak which provide an opportunity for the other societies to overcome the culture of the society. Heritage is very precious for all of us. It makes us identified among a large number of people. Heritage is our image and symbol and we must take appropriate steps to preserve our valuable heritage. Therefore, it is very important for every individual to have a complete understanding about his culture and civilization in order to move independently and confidently in any other society while keeping the social and moral values of his original society intact. HOW DOES CANADA DEFINE HERITAGE? Canada is a country, which consists of diverse societies. People from all parts of the world come to Canada and live there. Canada defines heritage as a collection of various cultural, political, social, musical, and artistic elements, which form a society. In Canada, it is the responsibility of the citizens of Canada and the immigrants to preserve and protect the national heritage of Canada. British and French cultures have greatly influenced the culture of Canada. Being a neighboring country of the United States of America, its culture is also influenced by the American culture up to some extent. Therefore, Canada defines its heritage as the collection of practices and values belonging to different cultures and societies. DECLARATION OF SAN ANTONIO The members of the ICOMOS National Committees of the America made a declaration in 1996, which was named as Declaration of San Antonio. The declaration of San Antonio included many valuable points, such as relationship between cultural heritage and cultural identity, relationship between authenticity and material fabrics, understanding of history and its significance, understanding of static and dynamic sites, understanding of heterogeneous patterns of stewardship and ownership, and relationship between authenticity of heritage and economics of the country. UNESCO DECLARATION The General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization was held in 2003 where a declaration was signed. The main aspects of the declaration included recognition of importance of the cultural heritage, pointing towards intentional destruction of cultural heritage, taking steps to combat destruction of cultural heritage, protection of cultural heritage during wars, taking measures to prevent people from destroying the cultural heritage, and creating awareness among the public regarding importance of cultural heritage. THE BURRA CHARTER Australian ICOMOS members adopted the Burra charter in 1979, which guides the people to manage the cultural heritage places and to take care of the cultural heritage. The charter was designed for the management staff of the cultural heritage places. The charter includes such articles, which provide guidance for the management staff regarding protection and management of cultural heritage places. THE QUEBEC CHARTER Some of the main points in the articles of the Quebec Charter state that Quebec citizens should protect the national heritage, whole community owns the national heritage, knowledge is the prerequisite for the preservation of nation heritage, and national heritage must be recognized by the public. Some other points state that national heritage must be maintained and protected by the governments, public holds the right to participate in the process of decision-making regarding protection of national heritage, local residents should ensure the protection of dynamic and functional character of the national heritage, and every person should take the responsibility to preserve the national heritage. * The above described charters and declarations were some of the very useful documents related to the protection and preservation of the national heritage. It is one of the core responsibilities of every individual to take care of the national heritage because heritage plays a very effective role in establishing and promoting the recognition of the people living in any part of the world. THE END References Fredrickson, Pauline. 2010. Can Family Traditions Teach Anything?. Ezinearticles. http://ezinearticles.com/?Can-Family-Traditions-Teach-Anything?&id=5170076 (accessed October 26, 2010). Howard, Peter. 2003. Heritage: Management, Interpretation, Identity. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group. Howard, Peter, and Gregory Ashworth. 1999. European Heritage, Planning and Management. Oregon: Intellect Ltd. Lozny, Ludomir. 2008. Landscapes Under Pressure: Theory and Practice of Cultural Heritage Research and Preservation. New York: Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. Mathew, Jose. 2008. Importance of Heritage. Indiastudychannel. http://www.indiastudychannel.com/resources/8742-Importance-heritage.aspx (accessed October 26, 2010). Powell, Kimberley. 2010. How Diseases are Inherited. About.com. http://genealogy.about.com/od/dna_genetics/a/diseases.htm (accessed October 26, 2010) Solis, K. 2010. What is Hispanic Heritage Month?. Wisegeek. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-hispanic-heritage-month.htm (accessed October 26, 2010). Sorenson, Marie, and John Carman. 2009. Heritage Studies: Methods and Approaches. Oxon: Routledge. Toland, Amanda. 2001. Genetics 101 Inheritance Patterns. GeneticHealth. http://www.genetichealth.com/G101_Inheritance_of_Disease.shtml (accessed October 26, 2010) Venus, D. 2010. What are Museums?. Wisegeek. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-museums.htm (accessed October 26, 2010). Read More