Ecuadorian Heritage And The Importance For Cultural Identity

Ecuadorian heritage and the importance for cultural identity

Heritage is the dynamic, integrative and representative set of social goods and practices, created, maintained, transmitted and recognized by people, communities, communes, peoples and nationalities, collective and cultural organizations. Its mission is to regulate, plan, coordinate and direct the execution and fulfillment of the National Culture Policy, through the generation, promotion and implementation of policies, norms and technical instruments necessary, for the conservation, safeguard and enhancement of goodscultural and patrimonial guaranteeing public access to the knowledge of cultural heritage for the strengthening of national identity.

Heritage is part of the cultural heritage of a people or state and constitutes the values that are transmitted to future generations. It is worth mentioning that there are determining values of cultural heritage such as authenticity and integrity, in some cases the heritage constitutes a non -renewable resource since this cannot return to its first temporary state, so it must be preserved and properly managedby the public, private and community sector.

Ecuadorian cultural heritage represents a historical tour of more than ten thousand years, a long way in which our current identity has been formed. If we take an eye on the past we can account for all those objects that our ancestors left us as proof of how they developed in the lands where a town called Ecuador currently lives.

What is heritage as inheritance and as a culture?

The heritage is transmitted from generation to generation, and being the basis on which culture is based, thanks to time to its usefulness and experience it becomes heritage since it is a collective inheritance, which is part of the community so muchof a society, as of those who make it individually.

[Image: Image result for Devil-Humas, Imbabura Province.] As a cultural construction, heritage is subject to changes depending on historical and social circumstances. For American peoples, prairies, rivers, waterfalls, valleys and plateaus were considered collective heritage full of symbolic meanings.

The heritage as a cultural collective inheritance of the past, connects and relates yesterday’s human beings with the women and men of the present, for the benefit of their cultural wealth and their sense of identity. Like any inheritance, heritage is a value that serves to establish social and historical ties, so, it must be transmitted to the following generations in the best conditions. Patrimony Coordinating Ministry (2012)

General Classification of Heritage

“The set of cultural and natural goods, tangible and intangible, generated locally, and that an inherited generation, transmits to the next with the purpose of preserving, continuing and increasing said inheritance.”(Decarli, 2007)

• Languages, forms of expression, oral tradition, various manifestations and cultural creations, including those of ritual, festive and productive nature.
•  Urban buildings, spaces and ensemble.
•  The documents, objects, collections, archives, libraries and museums that have historical, artistic, archaeological, ethnographic or paleontological value.
•  Artistic, scientific and technological creations.

Natural heritage

Natural heritage is constituted by the variety of landscapes that make up the flora and fauna of a territory. UNESCO defines it as those natural monuments, geological formations, places and natural landscapes, which have a relevant value from the aesthetic, scientific and/or environmental point of view. Natural heritage is the reserves of the biosphere, natural monuments, national reserves and parks, and the sanctuaries of nature. Nagore (2015)

Cultural heritage

Cultural heritage is formed by the cultural assets that history has bequeathed to a nation and by those that are created in the present and to which society gives them special historical, scientific, symbolic or aesthetic importance. It is the inheritance received from the ancestors, and that it becomes the testimony of their existence, their vision of world, their ways of life and their way of being, and it is also the legacy that is left to all future generations. Nagore (2015)

Ecuador celebrates on April 18, the “National Day of Cultural Heritage, monuments and places of historical and artistic interest” day in which a series of cultural activities and events take place in order to celebrate that day.

In 1983, UNESCO declared that since 2011, the country of "the four worlds" would join this world celebration, all this with the aim of promoting and raising awareness about the diversity of the cultural heritage of humanity, of its vulnerability in whichIt is currently and of the efforts that are required for its protection and conservation.

Our cultural identity is made up of all those material and immaterial elements that were inherited by all our ancestors and are very important for the construction of our identity.

Conclusions

• Through the execution of the “Cultural Heritage of Ecuador” essay, it has been possible to promote, know and value our natural and cultural heritage causing us to focus on facts, phenomena and events of the socio-economic, cultural and ecological reality of our country.
• It has been possible to know and analyze real situations that have generated awareness to appreciate the patrimonial character of our cities and country, recognizing the importance of preserving it.
• Cultural diversities over time have provided humanity several contributions in many ways such as the design of buildings, advances in gastronomy and thanks to the preservation of these we can enrich ourselves in stories of villages that until today continue to teach us a lot aroundworld.

Bibliography

1. Patrimony Coordinating Ministry (2012) Introduction to Cultural Heritage. NOTION AUGUST 2012. ISBN 978-9978-366-76-9
2. Nagore (2015) Natural Heritage and Historical Heritage. Recovered from http: // nagore.Otsoa.Net/Memhn/Heritage.htm
3. Ministry of Tourism (2017) National Day of Cultural Heritage. Recovered from https: // www.sightseeing.Gob.EC/Ecuador-Celebra-El-Dia-Nacional-Del-Patrimonio-Cultural/