Folklore: Archive for Peoples Memory

LATTAKIA, (ST) – Heritage represents major humane and civilized value as an archive records and documents the memory of peoples and human societies. This value represents the symbol of nations and without it the history of nations will be empty, without any real substance mentioned as well as from any active role in the course of human life. This urges all nations to adhere to their heritage and be proud of historical, intellectual and scientific, technical and architectural pillars and other aspects of life.

 In this context, Head of Design at the Faculty of Architecture at Tishreen University, Dr. Hani HashimWadah, confirms that heritage is the source of creativity because of religious beliefs and social conditions that were reflected in exquisite images to express these beliefs and circumstances. Heritage, he added, is a link between generations over time, and urges individuals feeling that they are deeply rooted in history and increases their promotion of belonging to the past and present and thus leaving a heritage to their successors later.

Heritage is divided into two main types; the first is the natural heritage and is intended to set a group of natural formations including botanic, geological, plants and rare animals’ habitat, areas with scientific and aesthetic value of forests, waterfalls, etc. The second type is the architectural heritage, which includes the overall activities of the urban planning of society with reference to the presence of rivers, springs and valleys that play an important role in urban planning and its reflection on this architectural heritage, positively or negatively in addition to the architectural heritage including archaeology and a collection of buildings and sites of historical, aesthetic and archaeological value.

 More specifically, we can talk about several subtypes of heritage including local heritage concerning a group of humans in a specific territory due to the variation of these groups in the intellectual, physical and social domains such as the heritage of Tel Syano and Sukas cities, which belong to the Kingdom of Ugarit, in the governorate of Lattakia and the heritage of the popular fashion concerning each region in Syria. The second type is the joint regional heritage of several groups living in similar circumstances in the region and in turn, it includes several other areas.

There is what falls under the name of national heritage, which means the common heritage for several different regions within the same country and living similar conditions in some aspects of their intellectual, physical and social life. The other classification, which is the last and the most important one, is the world, common and human heritage of all human societies in some of the intellectual, physical and social aspects that have the same vision in the importance and value of the human race and the unity of biological and psychological structure of man.

“The Syrian coastal area is considered a source of human heritage both its material and immaterial as it is one of the faces of national identity, and one of the cultural outstanding components. This type also represents a window for civilization communication with the legacy of the peoples and other communities around the world and. Lattakia countryside, which is considered a source of the fertile popular memory, has an eventful record of heritage vocabularies that constitute a well-founded civilized book dates back in its origins to a long period of time,” Dr. Hani added.

For his part, researcher, Nabil Sa’id, a member of the National Registry in Leticia, said that the Directorate of Folklore in the governorate is working on documenting and maintaining domestic heritage. A committee has been formed for this purpose consisting of twenty-five members including Director of Culture in Leticia city and Director of Cultural Centers in addition to specialist researchers in heritage from various disciplines as well as photographers and owners of art galleries and museums, the members working in the folklore bodies and a number of people interested in this domain.

The plan, according to Sa’id, requires audit in the literature and heritage books completed until today about folklore in Lattakia to determine what has been documented of heritage yet to be a prelude to the formation of field work teams roaming villages and meet elderly people to investigate oral legacies to be registered.

“Workers in this field go periodically to the citizens, government institutions and people’s organizations at all levels using large posters that are distributed widely. The workers call for cooperation and contribution to this work and to facilitate the task of this committee and its counterparts in other governorates,” Mr. Sa’id pointed out.

Head of the Heritage Department in the Directorate of Culture, NaghamGhaddour, explained that her department is working hard in this area through continuous communication with specialists to guide them and exchange suggestions with them about ways to collect oral heritage from folk songs to poems and anecdotes, stories, proverbs, customs, traditions, popular dishes and traditional practices.

“The work is ongoing currently as a first step in documenting aspects of this heritage in CDs in an attempt to gather all what put forward by researchers and citizens to be counted and checked prior to print processing later,” Ghaddour added.

For her part, member of the Codification Heritage Committee, NibalTaha, stated that the Committee put forward a number of recommendations and suggestions for the implementation of this task and the classification of priorities in this context. It was agreed to organize a number of heritage seminars that makes up a favorable climate that attracts workers and bodies concerned in the field of heritage and provides an opportunity to communicate directly with them.

“Cultural centers scattered in the countryside of Leticia seek to establish miniature museums in the form of pavilions that collect special, material and heritage possessions in the region such as popular clothes, traditional industries and the tools used in various aspects of life, heritage, business and crafts of creative nature,” Mrs. Taha said.

Sh. Kh