Living Cultural Heritage
Knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe
Knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe include knowledge, knowhow, skills, practices and representations developed by communities by interacting with the natural environment. These ways of thinking about the universe are expressed through language, oral traditions, feelings of attachment towards a place, memories, spirituality and worldview.
They also strongly influence values and beliefs and underlie many social practices and cultural traditions. They, in turn, are shaped by the natural environment and the community’s wider world.
This domain includes numerous areas such as traditional ecological wisdom, indigenous knowledge, knowledge about local fauna and flora, traditional healing systems, rituals, beliefs, initiatory rites, cosmologies, shamanism, possession rites, social organisations, festivals, languages and visual arts.
Traditional knowledge and practices lie at the heart of a community’s culture and identity but are under serious threat from globalisation. Even though some aspects of traditional knowledge, such as medicinal uses of local plant species, may be of interest to scientists and corporations, many traditional practices are nevertheless disappearing.