the performativity and dynamics of intangible cultural heritage

the outside world. Only if people are able to perceive their own otherness are they capable of perceiving the
otherness of other people, and to come to grips with it. If we succeed in perceiving the other in our own culture,
an interest in the foreign aspects of other cultures will germinate and the possibility of valuing them can flourish.
To do so, we need to foster the ability to take the other as the point of departure of our thought, that is to say to try
and see ourselves through the eyes of other people, to think heterologically.
Intercultural education
In order to win people over to an appreciation of cultural diversity and the importance of protecting and advancing
intangible cultural heritage, inter- and trans-cultural perspectives are required, today more than ever. Today, many
people no longer belong to just one culture, but partake of various cultural traditions. Intercultural or trans-cultural
education is a means of supporting them in dealing with the cultural differences inherent within themselves, in
their immediate surroundings and in encounters with others. Identity cannot be conceived of without otherness,
so that intercultural education implies a relational link mediating between an irreducibly fractal self and many
forms of otherness. In these processes, hybrid forms of culture are becoming increasingly important. If
understanding others relates to understanding oneself and vice versa, then the process of intercultural education
is also a process of learning about, of educating oneself. If successful, it will establish the insight into the
fundamental impossibility of understanding the other. Given the disenchantment of the world and the decrease of
cultural diversity the danger arises that the world over people may only encounter themselves and their own
products, and that this lack of otherness will dramatically reduce the richness of experiencing oneself and the
world. If the reduction of cultural diversity threatens the richness of human life, however, then fostering cultural
diversity must also be a central concern of education.
Cultural and intercultural learning, respectively, must not be reduced to the ability of dealing with minorities.
Rather, education today is an intercultural task in all parts of world society (Wulf 1995, 1998) in which
encountering and coming to terms with foreign cultures, with the otherness of one's own culture and with the
other inherent in oneself are of central importance.
Translation: Henning Grunwald / Vanderbilt University
Literature
Bell, C.: Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice, New York: Oxford University Press 1992.
Boetsch, G./Wulf, Ch. (dir.): Rituels, Hermès 43, Paris: CNRS Éditions 2005.
Bourdieu, P.: Esquisse d’une théorie de la pratique, précédé des trois études d’ethnologie kabyle, Genève : Droz
S. A. 1972.
Butler, J.: The Psychic Life of Power. Theories in Subjection, Stanford: Stanford University Press 1997.
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