Sustainable development in rural and peripheral areas through the safeguarding of their immaterial cultural heritage

ACE Architecture, City and Environment E-ISSN 1886-4805 1 ACE, 17 (50) CC BY-ND 3.0 ES | UPC Barcelona, España | Sustainable Development in Rural and Peripheral Areas Through the Safeguarding of Their Immaterial Cultural Heritage. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.5821/ace.17.50.11386 Reimão Costa, M. et al. Sustainable Development in Rural and Peripheral Areas Through the Safeguarding of Their Immaterial Cultural Heritage Miguel Reimão Costa 1 | Susana Gómez Martínez 2 | Aniceto Delgado Méndez 3 | Catarina Alves Costa 4 | Ana Costa Rosado 5 | Blanca del Espino Hidalgo 6 Received: 2022-04-09 | Final version: 2022-08-03 Abstract Keywords: Rural heritage; peripheral areas; intangible cultural heritage; local development Citation Desarrollo sostenible en áreas rurales y periféricas a través la salvaguarda de su patrimonio cultural inmaterial Resumen Palabras clave: Patrimonio rural; áreas periféricas; patrimonio cultural inmaterial; desarrollo local 1 Ph.D. Architect, Assistant Professor, University of Algarve, CEAACP-CAM (Portugal), (ORCiD: 0000-0002-9894-7811, Scopus Author ID: 57218657952); 2 Ph.D. in History, Assistant Professor, University of Évora, CEAACP-CAM (Portugal), (ORCiD: 0000-0001-6032-1904); 3 Ph.D. Anthropologist, Information management technician, Researcher, Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage (Spain), (ORCiD: 0000-0002-5607-5605); 4 Ph.D. Anthropologist, Assistant Professor, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal), (ORCiD: 0000-0002-7297-2840); 5 Ph.D. Architect, Researcher, Campo Arqueológico de Mértola (CEAACP) (Portugal), (ORCiD: 0000-0002-2653-6167, Scopus Author ID: 57207307441); 6 Ph.D. Architect, Research Fellow, Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage (Spain), (ORCiD: 0000- 0002-1442-7385, Scopus Author ID: 57194764880); Contact mail: mrcost[email protected] Reimão Costa, M. et al. (2022). Sustainable Development in Rural and Peripheral Areas Through the Safeguarding of Their Immaterial Cultural Heritage. ACE: Architecture, City and Environment, 17(50), 11386. https://dx.doi.org/10.5821/ace.17.50.11386 This paper proposes a Southwestern Iberian perspective on the safeguarding of immaterial cultural heritage in rural and peripheral territories, addressing successful examples of safeguarding actions in different contexts of immaterial heritage study. While approaching different themes within the scope of immaterial heritage – techniques, music and rituals – the success of these examples shares many components. Among them, participation and appropriation by communities are fundamental to cultural heritage recovery and dissemination programs. The first part of the text focuses on traditional construction techniques, showing several programs with different levels of appropriation by the local population. Traditional construction techniques are a heritage tool of a particular relevance in the current context of climate change adaptation and sustainable edification. The second part of the text interprets various activities related to traditional music and dance, to analyse how they have evolved from an auxiliar daily activity to an identity symbol. Finally, the article delves into the safeguarding of festive rituals inside more or less benign circumstances, as local development programs or communities' relocation. Following the lessons learned from these somewhat disparate but productive initiatives, the article sets out a wider range of proposals, aiming to identify future tools for safeguarding and heritage management. Este artículo propone una visión general desde la mirada del suroeste ibérico sobre la salvaguarda del patrimonio cultural inmaterial en territorios rurales y periféricos, abordando ejemplos de éxito en acciones de salvaguardia en diferentes contextos de estudio del patrimonio inmaterial. Aunque abordan diferentes temáticas dentro del patrimonio inmaterial – técnicas, música y rituales –, el éxito de estos ejemplos se debe a varios factores comunes. Entre ellos, resulta fundamental la participación y apropiación por parte de las comunidades de su patrimonio en los programas de recuperación y difusión del patrimonio cultural. La primera parte del texto aborda las técnicas de construcción tradicional a través de distintos programas con diferentes grados de apropiación por parte de las comunidades locales. Las técnicas de construcción tradicionales adquieren una gran relevancia en el momento actual de adaptación al cambio climático y de necesidad de edificación sostenible. En la segunda parte, se interpretan diferentes iniciativas asociadas a la música y baile tradicionales, analizando como han pasado de actividad auxiliar del cotidiano a un símbolo de identidad. Finalmente, el artículo considera la salvaguardia de los rituales festivos, en circunstancias tan distintas como los programas de desarrollo local o el traslado de comunidades. A partir de las lecciones aprendidas de estas iniciativas, algo dispares pero fructíferas, se esbozan propuestas más amplias con el objetivo de identificar futuras herramientas de salvaguarda y gestión patrimonial. ACE Architecture, City and Environment E-ISSN 1886-4805 2 ACE, 17 (50) CC BY-ND 3.0 ES | UPC Barcelona, España | Sustainable Development in Rural and Peripheral Areas Through the Safeguarding of Their Immaterial Cultural Heritage. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.5821/ace.17.50.11386 Reimão Costa, M. et al. 1. Introduction In recent decades, consideration of territory linked cultural heritage has led to the rediscovery of a resource for the objectives of contemporary society (Sabaté Bel, 2004). The current concept of cultural heritage incorporates human and social production, shared memory and identity, interpretation and the everyday uses made of the environment as well as adding to the interest in the object itself; the value of its functionality or utility (Loulanski, 2006). At the same time, following the establishing and evolution of the sustainability concept, the need to apply the quality of sustainability to heritage assets has arisen in a factor decision-making body quickly incorporated into their guidelines (UNESCO, 2013). As a result, from an academic point of view, the need arose to explore the relationship between culture or cultural heritage and sustainable development (Martinell Sempere, 2020). This task strives to return both theoretical and conceptual keys (Soini & Dessein, 2016) and possible practical consequences (Auclair & Fairclough, 2015; Barthel-Bouchier, 2016), with studies especially focused on the ways in which cultural heritage should not only be sustainable but, beyond that, actually contributing to the global challenges of sustainability (Petti, Trillo, & Makore, 2020) and, more specifically, to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that make up the United Nations 2030 Agenda (2015). Therefore, the consideration and management of heritage resources must entail the protection of the social fabric and the cultural, environmental, and economic values interlinked with heritage features and thus understanding culture as the fourth pillar of sustainability (Hawkes, 2001). However, in the case of intangible cultural heritage, the link with socio-cultural aspects is further reinforced. With the recognition of examples such as vernacular architecture or, more recently, gastronomic heritage, there is an evolution towards identifying and valuing those heritages that lack exceptional values but which bring together a large proportion of the life and history of their inhabitants. All of this results, on the one hand, in progressive increases in the value of heritage categories traditionally deemed of minor relevance, among which we may include intangible cultural heritage and, on the other hand, in the successive rapprochement of heritage to the personal experiences of citizens and, therefore, to the social uses of their assets (Loulanski, 2006). In addition, manifestations of intangible cultural heritage intimately link to features of a shared identity, social cohesion and inclusion (UNESCO, 2015). This, as recognised by global documents such as UN-Habitat's New Urban Agenda (2016), reinforces citizen links to their places of residence, and reinforced by the situation arising from COVID-19 (Roigé, Arrieta & Seguí, 2021). Thus, in the case of rural, peripheral or vulnerable territories at risk of depopulation, this is fundamental as it broadens the scope for anchoring the local population. In this sense, innovative and sustainable strategies based on the traditional artisan trades can contribute to strengthening the socio-economic fabric of vulnerable and heritage-rich territories by creating employment opportunities, hiring and training qualified personnel and/or rooting the young population, among other possibilities (Del Espino, 2020). However, the intangible heritage concept is relatively recent with its construction correspondingly experiencing a later evolution, starting out in the 1980s with the recognition of popular culture and folklore (Delgado Méndez, 2011) but has progressively established its role in both the theory and the legislation for cultural heritage protection. UNESCO recognised the intangible cultural heritage concept in the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (Paris, 17 October 2003), acknowledging its importance as a reflection of cultural diversity and a guarantor of sustainable development. Similar issues had already been highlighted by earlier documents, such as the 1989 UNESCO Recommendation on the Safeguarding of Traditional Culture and Folklore, the 2001 UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, and the 2002 Istanbul Declaration. ACE Architecture, City and Environment E-ISSN 1886-4805 3 ACE, 17 (50) CC BY-ND 3.0 ES | UPC Barcelona, España | Sustainable Development in Rural and Peripheral Areas Through the Safeguarding of Their Immaterial Cultural Heritage. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.5821/ace.17.50.11386 Reimão Costa, M. et al. According to the UNESCO Convention in 2003, intangible cultural heritage is constituted by the “practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognise as part of their cultural heritage. This intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity. For the purposes of this Convention, consideration will be given solely to such intangible cultural heritage as is compatible with existing international human rights instruments, as well as with the requirements of mutual respect among communities, groups and individuals, and of sustainable development.” (UNESCO, 2003, art 2.1.). These precepts, which reflect an anthropological vision of culture (Carrera & Delgado, 2012), have been adopted by institutional entities with competencies for heritage protection in order to apply the safeguarding principles. This paper aims to explore how working on safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, i.e., its study, recovery and dissemination, can contribute to the sustainable development of territories vulnerable due to their rural or peripheral condition. To this end, we analyse experiences and initiatives carried out on three types of intangible cultural heritage: artisan trades related to traditional or vernacular architecture, practices related to traditional music, and religious rituals. All the cases are studied from the perspective of their territorial impacts, understood in terms of maintaining the urban-territorial structure based on reinforcing the links and identities of the local population. Specifically, we work on territories in western Andalusia in Spain and southern Alentejo in Portugal. Finally, we discuss the results obtained in order to propose conclusions and feasible approaches to working on intangible cultural heritage in these territories. 2. Trades for traditional architecture: from immaterial heritage conservation to contributions to contemporary architecture Immaterial heritage associated with traditional construction techniques holds a dual importance. It simultaneously represents a construction culture, important in its own right, and encompasses the knowledge needed for the appropriate conservation of built heritage. From this perspective, research on traditional construction fundamentally needs to gather data from local masons. Their importance is clear when considering the deep transformations in construction techniques over recent decades, the risks of the loss of information on traditional construction and the environmental impacts of the newest construction techniques (UNESCO, 2003). The surveying and study of traditional construction techniques have experienced different contexts, both in the rehabilitation of traditional buildings or in their incorporation into contemporary architecture which values their environmental sustainability. Indeed, sustainability represents one of the contexts in which the integration of the material and immaterial aspects of heritage becomes most evident. In the sense of combining the material and immaterial know-how, the surveying and gathering of data among local masons and communities have taken place in territories where local culture associated with traditional construction faced looming disappearance following the dissemination and generalisation of post-industrial constructions. There are two main approaches for initiatives seeking to survey local techniques. In the first option, which we shall refer to as the "applied approach", the identification and valuation of traditional techniques is executed in situ, either through buildings rehabilitation projects or professional training and academic education programs. In the second option, which may be referred to as the "study and survey approach" (cf. UNESCO, 2015), it is contact with masons and craftsmen that provides for the ACE Architecture, City and Environment E-ISSN 1886-4805 4 ACE, 17 (50) CC BY-ND 3.0 ES | UPC Barcelona, España | Sustainable Development in Rural and Peripheral Areas Through the Safeguarding of Their Immaterial Cultural Heritage. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.5821/ace.17.50.11386 Reimão Costa, M. et al. recording and cataloguing of traditional construction techniques. This may be carried out through different formats, including the recording and transcription of oral accounts or the recourse to audiovisual media. Southern Iberia represents an interesting study case as in recent decades it has hosted a reasonable number of study and immaterial heritage valorisation initiatives related to traditional construction practices. The forerunner was the "Encounter with master builders" that took place in Noudar on 27- 29 April 1984, confirming the singular visions of Mértola's Archaeological Centre (CAM) and of Claudio Torres for their integrated perspectives on heritage as a factor of local development (Gómez Martínez, 2014). The workshops with master builders would constitute the departure point for Mértola's Professional School Conservation Techniques for Built Heritage Programs, which specialised in traditional construction techniques such as lime mortars, rammed earth, uncut schist masonry, cane roofs and curved roof tiles (Mateus, 2005). In addition to Mértola, several other professional school programs on traditional construction techniques flourished in Southern Portugal, with examples in Serpa, Odemira, Alcácer do Sal or Sines (Correia, 2005). In keeping with Mértola, these programs were preceded by collecting knowledge from masons, for example, the works by Santiago (2005) or Sequeira (2005) on adobe constructions by master builders or the records of rammed earth master builders produced by Pereira (2005). On the whole, these initiatives displayed a greater preponderance towards rammed earth architecture in built heritage and, consequently, some institutions were founded to address this theme, such as the "Centro de Terra”. Geographically, these projects generated a greater impact in the western regions of Southern Portugal where rammed earth represented a larger proportion of traditional architecture. Nevertheless, in the case of the Algarve region, a study focusing on the mountain areas associated with the Iberian Massif and traditional schist masonry is also of interest to this article's theme. The "Revitalisation of Algarve's villages" Program, implemented between 2000 and 2007, completed surveys and analyses of traditional construction techniques with the help of local masons (Ribeiro, Aguiar, Costa, 2012). This approach particularly emerged in the activities of the Technical Support Office for Algarve Villages (GTAA – Gabinete Técnico de Apoio às Aldeias do Algarve), where interviewing local masters and textual and photographic recordings of the information collected (Figure 1) was decisive to the different roles of the office; ranging from dissemination and awareness-raising initiatives to public works. For dissemination purposes, the highlights featured the organisation of an applied training workshop on traditional construction techniques and the publication of a synthesis book in which the various traditional techniques for preparing raw materials and construction are characterised through the transcription of numerous interviews with construction masters and other members of the local communities (Ribeiro, 2008). In support of public works projects, there was a manual produced on the laying of slate pavements and masonry (which accompanied all the technical projects), as well as efforts to integrate local masters into the execution of these works, which converted them into precious laboratories and schools for learning the techniques related to schist construction (Ribeiro, Aguiar & Costa, 2012). However, unlike the case of the group of rammed earth construction initiatives, the experience carried out in the western Algarve region – designed from the top down (national and regional programmes) through funding structures – gained no continuity in subsequent initiatives, leaving the schist paving and masonry techniques on the list of heritage expressions at risk of disappearance. ACE Architecture, City and Environment E-ISSN 1886-4805 5 ACE, 17 (50) CC BY-ND 3.0 ES | UPC Barcelona, España | Sustainable Development in Rural and Peripheral Areas Through the Safeguarding of Their Immaterial Cultural Heritage. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.5821/ace.17.50.11386 Reimão Costa, M. et al. Figure 1. Master preparing a thatched roof. Malhão, Loulé, Algarve Source: Prepared by the authors. Nevertheless, many publications in recent times, from institutional outputs to academic works, have given considerable space both to the direct transcription of craftsmen’s and local inhabitants’ accounts and to the interpretation of traditional architecture according to its immaterial dimensions. Research on safeguarding the immaterial heritage associated with traditional construction techniques encompasses multiple levels of importance, which we may set within three main frameworks: research with the community; dissemination within the community; and gradual reintegration of traditional construction know-how into contemporary building processes. The first framework relates to the most essential dimension of the cultural expression of a community (Figure 2) in its relationship with the territory, considering the architectural and landscape integration. This refers to knowledge about the behaviour of materials and their parsimonious usage, the mutual help practices associated with building techniques and the linkage between the organisation of built spaces and the complex construction of the landscape. The second framework results directly from the first in seeking to contribute to the transmission of knowledge between generations and to the valorisation of local heritage within the scope of public policies in the current context of climate change and recognising the central role of communities in the conservation and transformation of this heritage that derives from their own identity. The third framework refers to the technical training and transmission of knowledge and skills of the various sectors involved in construction, recognising the importance of successive adaptation to different historical circumstances, the significance of traditional techniques not only for the rehabilitation of the built heritage but also for socially and environmentally committed contemporary architecture. ACE Architecture, City and Environment E-ISSN 1886-4805 6 ACE, 17 (50) CC BY-ND 3.0 ES | UPC Barcelona, España | Sustainable Development in Rural and Peripheral Areas Through the Safeguarding of Their Immaterial Cultural Heritage. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.5821/ace.17.50.11386 Reimão Costa, M. et al. Figure 2. Master builder Manuel António Guerreiro from Barrosas Source: Prepared by the authors. 3. Traditional music as heritage: an example from Southern Europe Music as a form of expression has always been present in our cultures. In each territory, tradition shapes times and spaces to reproduce sounds that define and represent the community. Exchange and creativity have been building an identity corpus that has a way of living and telling in music and its different genres. However, despite the importance of these expressions, they often go unnoticed when not scorned both by research and by the communities they represent. Often, and especially in rural contexts, the oral traditions, traditional music and dances have been undervalued and forgotten even in moments not too distant in time. The transformations experienced in the rural world, especially in the 1960s and 1970, brought about the abandonment of villages and the distancing between those who left and those who stayed. Within this process, cultural practices (festive rituals, oral tradition, etcetera) underwent important changes and even disappeared. The references arriving from the urban environment were incompatible with the practices of the rural world. The models were replicated, and architecture, festivals and trades had to adapt to "modernity" and the parameters this bestows. The changes in the model of production, entailed by the parameters of globalisation, alongside other aspects, were key to understanding the abandoning of the rural world (both in reality and symbolically). Henceforth, the demographic bleeding has never ceased, although we have in recent years seen the implementation of experiences that have sharply boosted their media relevance, primarily through literature, the media and the use and abuse of the demographic challenge as a point of reference in the manifestos of all political parties. ACE Architecture, City and Environment E-ISSN 1886-4805 7 ACE, 17 (50) CC BY-ND 3.0 ES | UPC Barcelona, España | Sustainable Development in Rural and Peripheral Areas Through the Safeguarding of Their Immaterial Cultural Heritage. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.5821/ace.17.50.11386 Reimão Costa, M. et al. However, the visibility of this problem and the implementation of tools for its mitigation do not result from any current proposals. Since the beginning of the 1990s, community policies, through programs such as LEADER or PRODER, have highlighted the difficulties of the rural world and the need to plan actions to curb depopulation and to bring about the necessary change of mentality in these territories. In these processes, cultural heritage and the development of actions aimed at rural development have played a relevant role. After decades of programs in which incoherence and failures have predominated, there is clearly the need to underline the importance that cultural heritage has had on constructing and reaffirming territories as well as the relevance that heritage assets continue to hold in rural tourism discourses. Thus, the interest in traditional forms has brought a resignification of rural worlds and their cultural practices. In this sense, the heritage safeguarding of rural worlds encounters its key ally in ethnological heritage (Delgado Méndez & Hernández, 2019). The search for identity references that consolidate communities and territory, above all centred on traditional cultural practices, continues to be a widespread and valued proposal. Therefore, the discourses linked to rural worlds find in the festivals, vernacular architecture, food and music, referents that generate visits and consolidate the feeling of belonging to a place that now does matter. As an example, the analysis here focuses on several processes of heritage safeguarding that have taken place in the last decade and deploy traditional music as their common thread. One focuses on the ritual dances of the province of Huelva and its regions of Sierra and Andévalo (Figure 3) and the other on the Portuguese region of Alentejo (mainly Baixo Alentejo and Alentejo Central). Figure 3. Drummer. Paco Carbajo from Hinojales Source: Prepared by the authors. ACE Architecture, City and Environment E-ISSN 1886-4805 8 ACE, 17 (50) CC BY-ND 3.0 ES | UPC Barcelona, España | Sustainable Development in Rural and Peripheral Areas Through the Safeguarding of Their Immaterial Cultural Heritage. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.5821/ace.17.50.11386 Reimão Costa, M. et al. The selected case studies share in common their traditional music, their condition of border territories and that they are spaces that comply with rural worlds, sharing realities and difficulties and that have also both set up projects to safeguard these musical legacies. In the case of the ritual dances in the province of Huelva and Cante Alentejano song, there have been interesting processes of "recovery" and activation of these expressions and their consolidation as an identity referent for their populations. In the case of the province of Huelva, we would point out how these ritual dances are characterised by groups performing various choreographies in festive celebrations of great importance to the local population. These groups are formed by men, except for the Encinasola dance of the tambourine player, who, dressed in a specific costume, dances to the rhythm set by the drummer. Along with bagpipe music (three-hole flute) and the tambourine, some dance groups carry castanets, rattles, or other sonorous instruments (Delgado Méndez, 2016). The revitalisation process for the ritual dances of Huelva province, as well as setting up new groups in localities where they were formerly lacking (San Telmo, Paymogo, Cabezas Rubias), has come hand in hand with substantive change in the meanings of these cultural expressions. The importance dance currently attains is motivated mainly because it has gone from signifier to signified. That spontaneous and accessory character of these manifestations has given rise to new realities and contexts in which dance is presented as a priority identity reference of the community. This fact, in turn, was based on heritage processes that have vindicated the value of these expressions as relevant signs of the identity of the localities in which they are found. However, this situation contrasts with the difficulties that dance went through in the 1960s and 1970s (Agudo, Jiménez, García & Arredondo, 2010). Alongside the "recovery" of dances that had disappeared, we have witnessed the founding of new groups in places where they had not hitherto existed and, in some cases, the relaunch of adult groups that had disappeared. To the prominence acquired by these dances in recent decades and their capacity to become identity referents for a locality, we must add that their relevance to the collective imaginary closely links to the ritual contexts to which they are circumscribed. As pointed out above, the privileged place of dance is not only exclusively centred on its role in festivals but also on its contribution to the most relevant festive occasions of the annual calendar. Closely related to the revitalisation of these expressions is the implementation of mechanisms that establish links between dance and cultural heritage. The heritage processes have delimited new contexts of valorisation for some expressions that, as important signs of local identity, also become regional and even provincial references. Among the different actions promoted by local and provincial institutions, we would highlight the protection process, from the heritage point of view, of the dances of Huelva province and their inscription in the General Catalogue of Andalusian Historical Heritage. The heritage processes applied around the ritual dances have favoured their local recognition while simultaneously generating a certain separation between these cultural expressions. The celebration of folk festivals and other moments of encounter of these dances and other cultural expressions of this territory continue to highlight their diversity and richness as well as their spaces of relationship. However, we cannot overlook the fact that they are diluted by the market logic and the proposals deriving from cultural tourism. The other paradigmatic example of the activation of traditional music according to the patrimonial parameters arrives with Cante Alentejano, a polyphonic song with two voices, performed by choirs whose only instrument is their voice. Among other aspects, these groups are characterised by the peculiarity of their melodies and lyrics, and by the existence of different group interpreters (the "ponto", the "alto" and the "bajos" or "coros") in keeping with their respective types of register and their interpretation. ACE Architecture, City and Environment E-ISSN 1886-4805 9 ACE, 17 (50) CC BY-ND 3.0 ES | UPC Barcelona, España | Sustainable Development in Rural and Peripheral Areas Through the Safeguarding of Their Immaterial Cultural Heritage. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.5821/ace.17.50.11386 Reimão Costa, M. et al. The lyrics, in the form of poems, include both traditional and contemporary themes and therefore correspondingly display a repertoire that deals with aspects such as love, life in the countryside, nature, social relationships and alongside many others. Usually, these groups sing at certain moments that can coincide with working contexts and popular festivals, and, in more recent years, participating in music festivals and meetings. The knowledge of these groups and their stories constitute a magnificent text for analysing the historical and socio-economic circumstances of this Portuguese territory and the difficulties of a complex and poorly understood rural world. In the 1960s and 1970s, the rural exodus resulted in the near disappearance of these groups and, with them, a heritage that has since been recovering its place to become an identity referent, especially for the Baixo Alentejo. For its performers and enthusiasts, Cante Alentejano (Figure 4) embodies a strong sense of identity and belonging. This change in the meaning of this musical expression closely relates to the recognition of these groups and their singing by UNESCO following their inclusion on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2014, under the title "Cante Alentejano, polyphonic singing of the Alentejo (southern Portugal)". Figure 4. The Cante Alentejano group: Os Arraianos de Ficalho Source: Prepared by the authors. Cante Alentejano is also included in the PCI Matrix, the National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage produced by the Portuguese government. This project is a "management system of the National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage, which is also a source of resources for the dissemination of good practices and the valuation of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Portuguese". The inclusion of Alentejo song in the Inventory followed a proposal by Serpa Municipal Council and a prior step to the application for the enrolling this musical expression on the UNESCO Representative List. The present of Cante Alentejano therefore reflects these recognitions even though the primary support and safeguarding measures come from the neighbours in the different localities in which the groups rehearse, share and sing their joys and concerns, building spaces from the past for the future (Simoes, 2022). Closely related to the activation processes for these cultural expressions, we must also identify the role played by establishing venues for dissemination (museums, interpretation centres, etcetera) and the design of proposals (routes, temporary exhibitions, folk festivals, etcetera) aimed at raising the profile of both Alentejo song (Dos Reis, 2019) and ritual dances. These discourses interlink with the deployment of identity as a resource and the definition of strategies aimed at disseminating intangible heritage. ACE Architecture, City and Environment E-ISSN 1886-4805 16 ACE, 17 (50) CC BY-ND 3.0 ES | UPC Barcelona, España | Sustainable Development in Rural and Peripheral Areas Through the Safeguarding of Their Immaterial Cultural Heritage. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.5821/ace.17.50.11386 Reimão Costa, M. et al. celebrating a touch of belonging to their natural landscape were recorded by ethnographic research that sought to trace the continuities and ruptures. Figure 10. Procession with sacred images leaving the village Source: Laranja Azul Produções Culturais. The team coordinated by ethnologist Benjamim Pereira, would have to transcend the scope of any regional museum and become a privileged space both for re-encountering the common past and for participating in local community development. The museum was thereby considered a depository for all the ethnographic collections already carried out in the old village, such as artefacts, documents, and photographs. Also, the museum became a place for indirect testimonies of a certain way of life that would soon disappear. The visual methodologies were then important to storing and recording experiences, actions, environments to invoke the human context inherent to objects, material culture and ritual practices. Audio-visual means were adopted as the preferred format, for their cinematic and sensorial characteristics, ideal for translating and representing the ways the culture was performed. The Luz Museum is a small building made up of three main areas: the Temporary Exhibition room, the Luz room and finally the Memory Room, which stores the overall audio-visual archive and projects images from the archive. This space has a table and chairs and was designed as a kind of in situ place for memories and narratives of the past. The Memory Room, as its name implies, is a privileged space for present and future reflection on the transmutation process in addition to playing a fundamental role in the construction of the local collective memory. It was idealized as a place of meeting between different generations, a place where the inhabitants of Luz could review the images, discuss them, interrogate them, reflect on their present after the change, participate in the construction of their own memory-file, of their self-representation, as a second opportunity to give voice to the participants in the process. While ethnographic artefacts may be defined, segmented, detached and carried out by ethnographers, we cannot take with us the intangible, the ephemeral. To this end, we turn to recordings, films, photographs and other ethnographic documents. As Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (2016) states, "you can detach artefacts from their makers, but not performances from performers" (p. 26). The process of unveiling the rituals associated with traditional ACE Architecture, City and Environment E-ISSN 1886-4805 17 ACE, 17 (50) CC BY-ND 3.0 ES | UPC Barcelona, España | Sustainable Development in Rural and Peripheral Areas Through the Safeguarding of Their Immaterial Cultural Heritage. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.5821/ace.17.50.11386 Reimão Costa, M. et al. culture in Aldeia da Luz was, more than a record of cultural objectifications and reinventions of traditions, a praxis to record what might not be repeated. In this category, there were the recordings not only of activities related to the agricultural cycle, traditional technologies, religious rituals like the Our Lady of Luz festival, Christmas, Easter, All Saints’ Day but also rituals related to food or to the presence of sacred entities inside the houses. The connection between the physical territory and the rituals thus became an important issue that required consideration. On 19 November 2002, the new Aldeia da Luz village was solemnly inaugurated, followed by traditional music playing and dancing, a gesture that remains as the beginning of the new territory's ritual appropriation. The projection of Catarina's Mourão documentary “My Village Doesn't Live Here Anymore” (2006) took place later, in the new square. The film’s director selected images and scenes from the Museum's previously existing archive to tell the story of the changes in Aldeia da Luz. To achieve this, she made specific footage in the new village involving children and young people, asking them to reflect, in the context of a school writing assignment, on the changes they had experienced. The reconfiguration and reappropriation of visual archives can contribute to the sustainable development of territories that are vulnerable not just because of their peripheral condition but, and in the case of Aldeia da Luz, due to their rapid transformation following economic and political changes (Figure 11). Figure 11. Aldeia da Luz during the Dam’s construction Source: Laranja Azul Produções Culturais. The Luz Museum is a small building made up of three main areas: the Temporary Exhibition room, the Luz room and finally the Memory Room, which stores the overall audio-visual archive and projects images from the archive. This space has a table and chairs and was designed as a kind of in situ place for memories and narratives of the past. The Memory Room, as its name implies, is a privileged space for present and future reflection on the transmutation process in addition to playing a fundamental role in the construction of the local collective memory. It was idealized as a place of meeting between different generations, a place where the inhabitants of Luz could review the images, discuss them, interrogate them, reflect on their present after the change, participate in the construction of their own memory-file, of their self-representation, as a second opportunity to give voice to the participants in the process. ACE Architecture, City and Environment E-ISSN 1886-4805 18 ACE, 17 (50) CC BY-ND 3.0 ES | UPC Barcelona, España | Sustainable Development in Rural and Peripheral Areas Through the Safeguarding of Their Immaterial Cultural Heritage. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.5821/ace.17.50.11386 Reimão Costa, M. et al. While ethnographic artefacts may be defined, segmented, detached and carried out by ethnographers, we cannot take with us the intangible, the ephemeral. To this end, we turn to recordings, films, photographs and other ethnographic documents. As Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (2016) states, "you can detach artefacts from their makers, but not performances from performers" (p. 26). The process of unveiling the rituals associated with traditional culture in Aldeia da Luz was, more than a record of cultural objectifications and reinventions of traditions, a praxis to record what might not be repeated. In this category, there were the recordings not only of activities related to the agricultural cycle, traditional technologies, religious rituals like the Our Lady of Luz festival, Christmas, Easter, All Saints’ Day but also rituals related to food or to the presence of sacred entities inside the houses. The connection between the physical territory and the rituals thus became an important issue that required consideration. On 19 November 2002, the new Aldeia da Luz village was solemnly inaugurated, followed by traditional music playing and dancing, a gesture that remains as the beginning of the new territory's ritual appropriation. The projection of Catarina's Mourão documentary “My Village Doesn't Live Here Anymore” (2006) took place later, in the new square. The film’s director selected images and scenes from the Museum's previously existing archive to tell the story of the changes in Aldeia da Luz. To achieve this, she made specific footage in the new village involving children and young people, asking them to reflect, in the context of a school writing assignment, on the changes they had experienced. The reconfiguration and reappropriation of visual archives can contribute to the sustainable development of territories that are vulnerable not just because of their peripheral condition but, and in the case of Aldeia da Luz, due to their rapid transformation following economic and political changes. 5. Conclusions The success of programs, initiatives and measures involving the safeguarding of Cultural and Intangible Heritage is obviously always dependent on the participation and appropriation by communities. In some cases, the importance of knowledge on the different expressions of Cultural and Intangible Heritage is not restricted to the registration and safeguarding of more or less ancestral practices. This may simultaneously constitute a fundamental asset for finding solutions to the new problems and challenges with which society is systematically confronted. In this sense, the safeguarding of intangible culture refers, once again, to the changing dimensions of the various heritage expressions, themselves reflecting ongoing socio-cultural changes. Although the cases here presented are few and sometimes isolated, one may currently find interesting proposals in the Southwestern Iberian Peninsula that envisage new spaces and contexts for the safeguarding of immaterial cultural heritage. However, it still remains necessary to make progress in research as a mechanism of knowledge as well as in the identification of agents who know traditional techniques, play or sing traditional music and practice inherited rituals, reinforcing their daily transfer to new generations and not only as a means of reinterpretation or rehabilitation. Concerning the study of traditional practices, the concept of participation is present in academic discourse, social movements, and public administration but the necessary instruments and resources have not yet been developed to apply it comprehensively in ways that allow its different aspects and meanings to be spun out and its multiple and varied social and cultural functions to be defended based on social innovation and public responsibility. Safeguarding cultural and intangible heritage includes study, recovery, and dissemination. It also implies defending its multiple values for society, which requires a collective effort: committing the time, technical-research personnel, spaces and means necessary to make this co-management of ACE Architecture, City and Environment E-ISSN 1886-4805 19 ACE, 17 (50) CC BY-ND 3.0 ES | UPC Barcelona, España | Sustainable Development in Rural and Peripheral Areas Through the Safeguarding of Their Immaterial Cultural Heritage. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.5821/ace.17.50.11386 Reimão Costa, M. et al. heritage possible. Some of the actions on which efforts should continue to focus are: collaborating in safeguarding the traditional mechanisms of knowledge transmission through formal and non-formal education; promoting the figure of masters or experts in the different arts, crafts, and practices, proposing their teaching in vocational training modules or workshop schools; implementing a fiscal policy favourable to developing traditional activities regarding immaterial cultural heritage, and/or generating a system of incentives for their production, marketing, and consumption; promoting knowledge and appreciation of traditional practices for their inherent social and cultural values by training and dissemination activities; and supporting traditional knowledge and know-how by creating the necessary forums for their transmission; among other aspects. Acknowledgements This work has been developed within the framework of the following projects, which contributed to the funding of editing and proofreading costs: The project "Sistema de Innovación para el Patrimonio de la Andalucía Rural (SIN_PAR)", granted through the 2020 call for R+D+i projects of the PAIDI 2020, attributed code PY20-00298, and the project "Sistema de Innovación Turística para el Patrimonio de la Andalucía Rural (SIT_PAR)", granted through the 2020 call for grants for the implementation of projects of collaborative interest in the field of CEIS, attributed code PYC20 RE 029 IAPH. Both grants come from the Secretaría General de Universidades, Investigación y Tecnología of the Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades of the Junta de Andalucía and have been co-financed by the FEDER operational program in Andalusia for the period 2014-2020. Authorship All authors have been involved in the design, data collection and processing, writing, and revising the work. Blanca del Espino Hidalgo was responsible for the general organisation, conceptual introduction, and conclusions. Miguel Reimão Costa and Ana Costa Rosado were responsible for the trades for traditional architecture. Aniceto Delgado Méndez was responsible for the traditional trades, traditional music and festive rituals. Susana Gómez Martínez and Catarina Alves Costa were responsible for festive rituals. Ana Costa Rosado was responsible for general revision and translation into English. Conflict of interests: The authors declare there are no conflicts of interest. References Agudo Torrico, J., Jiménez de Madariaga, C., García Gallardo, F. J., & Arredondo Pérez, H. (2010). Danzas de la Provincia de Huelva. Huelva, Spain: Diputación de Huelva. Auclair, E., & Fairclough, G. (Eds.). (2015). Theory and practice in heritage and sustainability: Between past and future. 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