Resumen:
UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage entered into force in 2003, which was ratified by 177 countries ever since. As of 2018, a total of 470 elements from 117 countries have
been inscribed on three separate lists, namely the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding, and the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices. Although this Convention entered into force well after the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, it became as effective as the latter. Furthermore, integrated approaches to safeguarding of tangible and intangible cultural heritage have recently stood out as an important topic. On the other hand, safeguarding strategies for intangible cultural heritage are different than those for tangible cultural heritage. Thus, it has different areas of risk. There is an obvious need for new safeguarding and awareness-raising activities involving the integrated involvement of individuals and the whole community with a multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder approach to protect the intangible cultural heritage without decontextualization, freezing, or turning it into a merchandise, a display item, or a nostalgic item. The areas radically defined as “dark sides” in the title of this paper include overcommercialization, decontextualization, over-nationalization, touristification, museumification,devastation or defunctionalization of cultural places, mistakes in revitalization, attempts at freezing the intangible cultural heritage, which is a living type of heritage, to protect it, abuse of natural and environmental resources, unrealistic aims and expectations, lack of interpersonal dialogue, and attempted collaboration of many organizations though it may not always be necessary.Therefore, the above areas of risk referred to as “dark sides” are evaluated based on the heritage elements inscribed on the said lists, the way they are discussed and addressed in the text of the Convention and in the Operational Directives, the nomination files submitted by countries to UNESCO, and the reports from the organs evaluating the submitted files.
Key Words: Intangible Cultural Heritage, UNESCO,
Touristification, Overcommercialization,
Decontextualization, Nationalization, Authentication
