Representative manifestations of intangible cultural heritage

The declaration as a representative manifestation of intangible cultural heritage is a legal instrument of protection that safeguards the development of these cultural expressions that represent a very important factor of social cohesion for the communities where they are developed. These cultural expressions promote social well-being because they foster the feeling of belonging to a community, the transmission of knowledge and social interaction between people of different genders, ages, etc.
Some examples:
‘The musical societies of the Valencian Community’ (2021) make up an extraordinary associative phenomenon present in the territory of the Valencian Community and constitute a fundamental tool for coexistence between the different strata of society, generating at the same time spaces for intergenerational relationships. In this sense, the Musical Society is an identifying and structuring element of the Valencian territory and culture, preserving and disseminating its traditional musical repertoire and acting as an agent and cultural dynamiser, guaranteeing its access to the rural areas with the lowest population density. The protection of this heritage can have transformative effects on the territory, dynamising cultural policies and offering access to culture and an element of local, educational and artistic development to its inhabitants.
‘Traditional guitar playing in the framework of participatory festivals’ as a Representative Manifestation of Intangible Cultural Heritage is justified, in addition to its intrinsic musical value, by the existence of a way of understanding the festival with the guitar as a sustaining element and for participating in the maintenance of indigenous repertoires that are characteristic of certain populations or regions and that contain values from the point of view of identity, as they symbolise belonging to a community and the claim of a culture of their own. It is a manifestation linked to rural cultures and their communal modes of expression, and its presence is still alive in many regions of Spain.