Re-voicing cultural landscapes: narratives, perspectives, and performances of marginalised intangible cultural heritage

欧洲国家通常被认为在文化上是同质的。然而，200多个少数民族通过《欧洲区域和少数民族语言宪章》获得了承认，还有更多的欧洲语言被教科文组织认为是极度濒危的。很明显，情况比我们看到的要复杂得多。少数民族文化表达其独特身份的一种方式是通过非物质文化遗产（ICH）。非物质文化遗产描述的是一种文化的传统，而不是它的纪念碑：从语言到手工艺，从舞蹈到食物，它是“从我们的祖先继承并传递给我们后代的传统或生活表达”（联合国教科文组织）。因此，少数民族的非物质文化遗产是国与国之间和国与国之间这一更为复杂的文化景观的重要组成部分。然而，除了这些少数民族文化的表达之外，还有多数民族的叙事。这些因素影响着外界对少数民族文化的看法，在创造少数民族文化的富有想象力的地理位置方面具有强大的作用——例如通过文学、电视或旅游目的地的营销方式。这些对少数民族文化来说可能是正确的，但也可能是不和谐的，这是由外部的目光构建的。这些叙事在一个国家文化中的主导地位和可见性可能意味着少数民族文化不那么显眼，不那么有弹性，支离破碎，因此被边缘化。这种边缘化可能意味着，那些认同少数民族文化的人在这个国家、欧洲和全球背景下感到自在的能力——有意义地表达他们的观点和身份，并可持续地传承他们的文化遗产的能力——受到了威胁。但这些叙事和观点也很复杂，因为创造和消费这些叙事的人不仅占据了少数或多数的二元二元，而且在社区甚至个人内部都具有更多变的身份。该项目将使用档案和桌面研究、原始数据和基于创造性实践的研究，对英国（康沃尔）、荷兰（弗里斯兰）、拉脱维亚和爱沙尼亚（利沃尼亚）的少数民族文化进行比较，以更好地了解这一复杂的文化景观。以现场文化活动为重点，以跨学科和跨国的视角，我们将问：如何更好地理解非物质文化遗产的多数和少数叙事、观点和表演之间的相互作用，使我们能够使边缘化的文化景观更加可见和有弹性？调查结果将为从地方社区到（国际）国家决策者的利益相关者提供建议。通过产生关于现有遗产挑战的社会空间地理的新知识，我们希望利益相关者能够利用见解来改变政策、实践或行为，使边缘化的非物质文化遗产更加引人注目和具有弹性。从长远来看，我们希望影响少数民族文化在地区、国家和全球社会、经济和文化中的知名度和弹性。

European nations are often thought of as culturally homogenous. Yet over 200 national minorities have found recognition through the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages, with many more European languages thought by UNESCO to be critically endangered. Clearly the picture is more complicated than meets the eye. One way that minority cultures express their distinct identities is through intangible cultural heritage (ICH). ICH describes a culture's traditions rather than its monuments: from language to crafts, from dancing to food, it is the 'traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants' (UNESCO). The ICH of national minorities is therefore an important part of this more complex cultural landscape between and within nations. Yet alongside these expressions of minority culture sit majority narratives. Influencing how a minority culture is seen from the outside, these can be powerful in creating imaginative geographies of minority cultures - such as through literature, television, or how tourist destinations are marketed. These may ring true with the minority culture but may also be dissonant, constructed by an external gaze. The dominance and visibility of these narratives across a nation's culture and beyond can mean the minority culture is less visible, less resilient, fragmented, and so marginalised. This marginalisation can mean that the ability of those who identify with a minority culture to feel at home in this national, European, and global context - to meaningfully express their perspectives and identities, and sustainably live their cultural heritage - is threatened. But these narratives and perspectives, too, are complicated, since the people who create and consume these narratives occupy not just a binary either/or of belonging to the minority or majority, but also a spectrum of more fluid identities both within communities and even within individuals. This project will use archival and desk research, primary data, and creative practice-based research - compared across minority cultures in the UK (Cornwall), Netherlands (Fryslân), Latvia and Estonia (Livonian) - to better understand this complex cultural landscape. Using live cultural events as a focus, taking inter-disciplinary and cross-national perspectives we will ask: How can a better understanding of the interplay between majority and minority narratives, perspectives, and performances of intangible cultural heritage enable us to make marginalised cultural landscapes more visible and resilient? Findings will inform recommendations for stakeholders from local communities to (inter)national policy-makers. By generating new knowledge about the socio-spatial geographies of existing heritage challenges, we intend that stakeholders will use insights to change policies, practices, or behaviours to make marginalised ICH more visible and resilient. Longer-term, we hope to impact the visibility and resilience of minority cultures within regional, national and global society, economy, and culture.