Grandma’s recipes, grandma’s tips, grandma’s tales, grandma’s handicrafts – these are just some of the expressions used in everyday life, and which, without realising it, evoke the role played by women in preserving our heritage. What they have in common is their vector: grandmothers. Frequently used, these expressions carry with them a much deeper and essential truth: women are at the heart of the creation, transmission and preservation of intangible heritage.
Originally, the word patrimony comes from the Latin patrimonium, which literally means “father’s inheritance”. It refers to the inheritance from one’s father that is passed on to one’s children. However, heritage is not just a material inheritance. There is also intangible cultural heritage (ICH), which includes the practices and knowledge that people inherit together, and which they collectively strive to keep alive, recreate and pass on. More specifically, according to UNESCO, intangible cultural heritage refers to “living traditions or expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals and festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe, or the knowledge and skills required for traditional craftsmanship”. As we know, a large amount of knowledge and craft practices are learned informally, through storytelling and apprenticeships, from the eye to the hand.
In most of our societies, women have traditionally played a social role in the family that is linked to the management of the home and education. That’s where these everyday expressions come from. From our grandmothers, mothers and sisters, we share a common history: ancestral traditions. Whether it’s through stories, lullabies, recipes or everyday crafts (including household items or artistic creations). Their role is therefore central (if not predominant) in the preservation and transmission of the ICH.
Moreover, the importance of this heritage is rooted in the very notion of transmission, because its value depends essentially on the fact that it persists and constitutes a foundation for identity and history. It cannot be taken into account without the human beings, their role and their relationships that compose it. It is therefore much more subject than material heritage to the power relationships in society, as it evolves with social change. As such, it is a perfect reflection of social change, and particularly of the changing roles of those who pass it on and preserve it. Studying these roles opens our eyes to current social mechanisms and issues.
When an intangible cultural heritage is identified or defended by politicians, it is the whole of national construction, collective memory and history that is debated. Valuing and recognizing the guardians of this heritage means putting women, who are currently excluded from it, back at the very heart of national construction, collective memory and history.
With Héméra Initiatives, this is what we want to achieve: to shed light on these women and, more generally, on the countryside, which is full of this particular kind of heritage. We want to represent how these women’s are contributing to History via Intangible Cultural Heritage, as we strongly believe that it offers fertile ground for social progress.
Get to know:
- The association De l’Or dans les Mains (Gold in Hands), which promotes the importance of the intellect of the hands and handicrafts, particularly in schools.
- Le Mouvement HF, which created La Journée du Matrimoine (Heritage Women’s Day) to publicize and make visible the women artists and creators of the past, who have been erased by history.
Get informed
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