Beyond the confines of orality: the value of memory in the recording of intangible cultural heritage

Abstract

This paper aims to reflect on the criteria that give value to expressions of popular cultures linked –in some way– to oral tradition, so that they become susceptible to being recorded and preserved as part of the «Intangible Cultural Heritage». It is a fact that different cultural traditions define the world in different ways and at the same time determine what is beautiful or what is worth preserving as important. In this sense, it may seem that the process by which the type of literature and –in particular– printed matter considered as «popular» have gone from being disdained in their oralized version by many folklore collectors to awakening interest is due to a kind of «natural course» of things. Something that had to happen inevitably. As if technological innovations and the digitalization of a good part of the existing funds or the growing attention on the part of documentalists and librarians towards them were enough –in themselves– to explain such a change. And it is reviewed and argued here how a theoretical and methodological rethinking, interdisciplinary debate and continued research work have been what, beyond technology, is returning to us this valuable part of cultural memory.