| Description |
Intangible cultural heritage can be defined as living expressions inher-ited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants. This includes oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge, and traditional craft. Traditional medicine is related to all of these areas. While the 2003 Convention nomenclature includes heal-ing practices and healing knowledge rather than traditional medicine, for the purposes of this publication, we have opted to use traditional med-icine as an umbrella term to encompass not only healing practices and knowledge but also the associated rituals, products, and experiences of practitioners. Traditional medicine can easily be understood as practices concerning nature and the universe, but as the reader will explore in the following chapters, it also embraces traditional crafts, social practices, oral traditions and performing arts. For example, Emanuela Esposito and Vincento Capuano explain in their article how music can be used both as medical therapy and for our well-being. |
