Cultural Heritage
- Fonds: HU OSA 437 Digital Archive of Cultural Heritage
- Created: 2016–2018
- Language: Kyrgyz, Kurmanji, Ladakhi
- Extent: 118 digital containers
- Access: online Catalog, without registration
- Conditions governing reproduction: Third party rights are to be cleared.
Since 2019, the Archivum has been archiving the research work conducted by the students and faculty of the Cultural Heritage Studies Program (at CEU’s Department of Medieval Studies). This archival fonds is the result of the ongoing cooperation, providing online access to audiovisual and photo documentations of various research projects studying aspects of intangible cultural heritage, from Kyrgyzstan to Northern Iraq, to the Upper Indus Valley, and to Northern India.
Songs, tales, music, rituals, and orally transmitted sacred texts are traditionally treated as important aspects of intangible heritage. Religious teachings of non-bookish religions, oral history, or orally transmitted memories of a community or a family, even the recollections of a person’s life are considered equally important parts of intangible heritage. All these are extremely vulnerable to change in a world which is rapidly transforming due to globalization and technical modernization. This collection of audio and visual materials not only constitutes a body of valuable information on various cultures for researchers, but it is also a cultural repository for the diaspora or younger members of the host communities, who may desire to rediscover their own cultural heritage.
