Ms Hanhee HAHM

• Professor, Department of Archaeological and Cultural Anthropology, Chonbuk National University, Republic of Korea

• Session 1: Presenter 1
• Session 5: Commentator 2

How to Find Shared Values and Consensus in ICH Communities－Multi-national Inscription of Tugging Rituals and Games－

This paper reveals the process and issues shown in the case of multi-national inscription of tugging rituals and games of four Asian countries: Cambodia, Republic of the Philippines, Vietnam and the Republic of Korea. These games were inscribed in 2015 after submission of a joint nomination file of the ICH to UNESCO. Tugging rituals and games are practiced around the world; however, they are concentrated mainly in East Asia and Southeast Asia where they continue to be actively performed. To find out the commonality of the game within the Asian context, Dangjin city government where Gijisi’s Tug-of-war is identified as its cultural pride initiated the process for making a joint nomination beginning in 2012. The city government invited researchers and scholars of folklore to a series of forums held at the museum located in Gijisi village. The attendees of these academic forums mainly discussed whether there were commonalities among Asian tug-of-war games. Meanwhile, rationality of multi-national inscription was correspondingly pursued. Gijisi, a local ICH community, actively participated in the initial process of inventory and making joint nomination files. However, such response and the level of participation were not the same within the ICH communities of tug-of-war. Some villages were inactive in the involvement of the filing process. For a full understanding of the multi-national inscription process, I will first review international and domestic safeguarding policies and issues. Secondly the practices and consciousness of ICH community members, local officials, and researchers are reviewed from the perspective of the UNESCO Convention. Such a study regarding the practice and consciousness of ICH community members will contribute to the development of the multi-national ICH safeguarding policy.

Hahm Hanhee, cultural anthropology professor is now working in Chonbuk National University. Prof. Hahm is currently involved in several research projects including ICHPEDIA, Intangible Cultural Heritage Online Inventory, collecting traditional knowledge on Gimchi-making and research on people’s life history. Her recent academic contribution is shown on the editorship of the book, The Understanding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Korea. Prof. Hahm earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in the Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, USA. She is currently director of Research Institute of Intangible Cultural Heritage, president of Journal of Intangible Heritage Studies and an editorial board member of International Journal of Intangible Heritage.