%0 Journal Article
%T Museums and the Intangible Heritage : the Case Study of the Afrikaans Language Museum
%A Matilda Burden
%J International Journal of Intangible Heritage
%D 2007
%I National Folk Museum of Korea
%X IntroductionTwo issues are addressed in this paper, namely the problem of representing heritage that is totally intangible in a museum ¡®exhibition¡¯, and the issue of the Afrikaans language and its place within the many officially recognized languages of the new South Africa. The two issues are linked in this analysis of the current exhibition in the Afrikaans Language Museum in Paarl, SouthAfrica.Having been involved in museums for the past two to three decades in different ways, from an academic as well as a popular viewpoint, in theory and in practice, I have always been very much aware of the importance of acknowledging and exhibiting intangible culture. I remain astonished that the literature on museums to a great extent still focuses very largely on material culture and in many cases totally ignores the existence of the perhaps intimately intangible culture. For example the Museums Association of the UK, still defines a museum as an institution which ¡°collect, safeguard and make accessible artefacts and specimens [my emphasis], which they hold in trust for society¡±, while the International Council ofMuseums (ICOM) only added references to the intangible heritage and cultural centres to its definition of a museum in October 2004. However, on the positive side,the 2006 meeting of States Parties to the UNESCO Intangible Heritage Convention of 2003 nominated ICOMas one of five recognized expert non-governmental advisory organisations to assist in the implementation of the Convention.Languages are recognised in the Convention as one of the most important aspects of the intangible heritage of peoples, not just because of their intrinsic interest, but also because it is through language that so many important manifestations of the intangible heritage are transmitted from generation to generation.
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