Conserving and transmitting intangible cultural heritage

Abstract

A number of studies show that craftspeople have difficulty in "making" and "unmaking" their own professional experiences in order to transform them into training objects. This article is based on the theoretical framework of culturalist anthropology (Chaliès et Bertone, 2021). It first proposes a conceptualisation of the "maintenance" and "reinterpretation" (Livet, 2018) of the intangible part of a craft heritage to possibly make it an object for training. On this basis, she details the main findings of a case study testing the heuristic character of a procedure theoretically enabling craftsmen to be placed in various experiences of "bodily presence" in order to gradually "get hold of" and "have a hand" in their knowledge and know-how. Finally, we discuss the technological conditions required to objectify and formalise the intangible part of a craft's heritage, and to adapt training situations to enable its transmission.

Keywords: arts and crafts, body presence, cultural anthropology, intangible cultural heritage, vocational training.

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