ABSTRACT

Intangible cultural heritage is caught in a strange temporal loop. As with all so-called cultural heritage, it reflects the contemporary obsession with the past. The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Operational Directives, however, suggest a more positive spin on the heritage-intellectual property relationship. The question of the relationship between cultural heritage/property and intellectual property is a particularly fraught one. In general cultural terms, the significance of the distinction between tangible and intangible heritage can be easily exaggerated. The problem of mediating co-existing claims to private and some form of public or communal ownership of cultural property/heritage is one that exists with respect to both those things designated as tangibles by the authorized heritage discourse and those things designated as intangibles. The very nature of these obligations tends to emphasize the folkloric and static nature of the things that are likely to be listed, and perhaps also their value in attracting tourism.