4.1: What is Cultural Heritage?
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After reading, review and explore Supporting Images for What is Cultural Heritage? The title of each art piece opens to more information.
What is cultural heritage?
Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, c. 1503–05, oil on panel, 30-1/4 x 21 inches (Musée du Louvre(opens in new window))
We often hear about the importance of cultural heritage. But what is cultural heritage? And whose heritage is it? Whose national heritage, for example, does the Mona Lisa (opens in new window)by Leonardo da Vinci(opens in new window) belong to? Is it French or Italian?
First of all, let’s have a look at the meaning of the words. “Heritage” is a property, something that is inherited, passed down from previous generations. In the case of “cultural heritage,” the heritage doesn’t consist of money or property, but of culture, values, and traditions. Cultural heritage implies a shared bond, our belonging to a community. It represents our history and our identity; our bond to the past, to our present, and the future.
Medallion Carpet, The Ardabil Carpet, Unknown artist (Maqsud Kashani is named on the carpet’s inscription), Persian: Safavid Dynasty, silk warps and wefts with wool pile (25 million knots, 340 per square inch), 1539–40 C.E., Tabriz, Kashan, Isfahan or Kirman, Iran (Victoria and Albert Museum)
Tangible and intangible cultural heritage
Cultural heritage often brings to mind artifacts (paintings, drawings, prints, mosaics, sculptures), historical monuments and buildings, as well as archaeological sites. But the concept of cultural heritage is even wider than that, and has gradually grown to include all evidence of human creativity and expression: photographs, documents, books and manuscripts, and instruments, etc. either as individual objects or as collections. Today, towns, underwater heritage, and the natural environment are also considered part of cultural heritage since communities identify themselves with the natural landscape.
Moreover, cultural heritage is not only limited to material objects that we can see and touch. It also consists of immaterial elements: traditions, oral history, performing arts, social practices, traditional craftsmanship, representations, rituals, knowledge, and skills transmitted from generation to generation within a community.
Intangible heritage, therefore, includes a dizzying array of traditions, music, and dances such as tango and flamenco, holy processions, carnivals, falconry, Viennese coffee house culture, the Azerbaijani carpet(opens in new window) and its weaving traditions, Chinese shadow puppetry, the Mediterranean diet, Vedic chanting, Kabuki theatre, the polyphonic singing of the Aka of Central Africa (to name a few examples).
Djingareyber Mosque, built 1327, Timbuktu, Mali. Two tombs at this mosque were attacked by Islamic extremists in 2012. (photo: Johannes Zielcke(opens in new window), CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The importance of protecting cultural heritage
But cultural heritage is not just a set of cultural objects or traditions from the past. It is also the result of a selection process: a process of memory and oblivion that characterizes every human society constantly engaged in choosing—for both cultural and political reasons—what is worthy of being preserved for future generations and what is not.
All peoples make their contribution to the culture of the world. That’s why it’s important to respect and safeguard all cultural heritage, through national laws and international treaties. Illicit trafficking(opens in new window) of artifacts and cultural objects, pillaging of archaeological sites(opens in new window), and destruction of historical buildings and monuments(opens in new window) cause irreparable damage to the cultural heritage of a country. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), founded in 1954, has adopted international conventions on the protection of cultural heritage, to foster intercultural understanding while stressing the importance of international cooperation.
The protection of cultural property is an old problem. One of the most frequently recurring issues in protecting cultural heritage is the difficult relationship between the interests of the individual and the community, the balance between private and public rights.
Ancient Romans(opens in new window) established that a work of art could be considered part of the patrimony of the whole community, even if privately owned. For example, sculptures decorating the façade of a private building were recognized as having a common value and couldn’t be removed, since they stood in a public site, where they could be seen by all citizens.
Lysippos of Sikyon, Apoxyomenos (Scraper), c. 50 A.D., Hellenistic or Roman copy after Greek original, c. 390–306 B.C.E., 207.3 cm / 6 feet 9 inches high (Vatican Museums(opens in new window))
Lysippos of Sikyon, Apoxyomenos (Scraper), Hellenistic or Roman copy after 4th c. Greek original, c. 390–306 B.C.E., 207.3 cm high (Vatican Museums(opens in new window))
In his Naturalis Historia, the Roman author Pliny the Elder (23–79 C.E.) reported that the statesman and general Agrippa placed the Apoxyomenos(opens in new window), a masterpiece by the very famous Greek sculptor Lysippos, in front of his thermal baths. The statue represented an athlete scraping dust, sweat, and oil from his body with a particular instrument called a “strigil, or scraper. Emperor Tiberius deeply admired the sculpture and ordered it be removed from public view and placed in his private palace. The Roman people rose up and obliged him to return the Apoxyomenos to its previous location, where everyone could admire it.
Our right to enjoy the arts, and to participate in the cultural life of the community is included in the United Nation’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. [1]
Whose cultural heritage?
The term “cultural heritage” typically conjures up the idea of a single society and the communication between its members. But cultural boundaries are not necessarily well-defined. Artists, writers, scientists, craftsmen, and musicians learn from each other, even if they belong to different cultures, far removed in space or time. Just think about the influence of Japanese prints(opens in new window) on Paul Gauguin(opens in new window)’s paintings; or of African masks(opens in new window) on Pablo Picasso(opens in new window)’s works. Or you could also think of western architecture in Liberian homes in Africa. When some of the freed African-American enslaved people went back to their homeland*, they built homes inspired by the neoclassical style(opens in new window) of mansions on American plantations(opens in new window). American neoclassical style was in turn influenced by the Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio(opens in new window), who had been influenced by Roman(opens in new window) and Greek architecture(opens in new window).
Let’s take another example, that of the Mona Lisa painted in the early sixteenth century by Leonardo da Vinci, and displayed at the Musée du Louvre in Paris. From a modern point of view, whose national heritage does the Mona Lisa belong to?
People taking photos of the Mona Lisa (photo: Heather Anne Campbell(opens in new window), CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Leonardo was a very famous Italian painter, that’s why the Mona Lisa is obviously part of the Italian cultural heritage. When Leonardo went to France, to work at King Francis I’s court, he probably brought the Mona Lisa with him. It seems that in 1518 King Francis I acquired the Mona Lisa, which therefore ended up in the royal collections(opens in new window): that’s why it is obviously part of the French national heritage, too. This painting has been defined as the best known, the most visited, the most written about, and the most parodied work of art in the world: as such, it belongs to the cultural heritage of all mankind.
Cultural heritage passed down to us from our parents must be preserved for the benefit of all. In an era of globalization, cultural heritage helps us to remember our cultural diversity, and its understanding develops mutual respect and renewed dialogue amongst different cultures.
Bibliography
UNESCO on falconry(opens in new window)
UNESCO on Chinese shadow puppetry(opens in new window)
UNESCO on Vedic Chanting(opens in new window)
UNESCO on Polyphonic singing of the Aka Pygmies of Central Africa(opens in new window)
More stories of protecting our heritage and fostering creativity from UNESCO(opens in new window)
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights from the United Nations(opens in new window)
Cite this page
Cite this page as: Elena Franchi, "What is cultural heritage?," in Smarthistory, August 8, 2015, accessed December 17, 2025, Cultural Heritage SmartHistory [smarthistory.org].