Tangible and

Intangible Heritage
LUISA S. LADORES., LPT., RN
Subject Teacher
 Cultural Heritage

• Legacy is what remains after one’s

time. Handed down from one
generation to another, legacy
magnifies one’s life and living. It is
said that legacy is what cultural
heritage is.
According to John Feather,
cultural heritage is a
human creation intended
to inform.
•architectures such as
buildings, houses, and
structures
• artifacts like books,
documents, objects, images,
clothing, accessories, and
jars
• things that made people who
they are like oral stories,
values, laws, norms, rituals,
and traditions
Cultural heritage is a
representation of the ways of
living established by society or
group and passed on from
generation to generation.
Cultural heritage can be
categorized as either tangible or
intangible.
Tangible means perceptible,
touchable, concrete, or
physical. A tangible heritage is a
physical artifact or objects
significant to the archaeology,
architecture, science
 Objects that can be stored are
included in this category:

•traditional clothing,
•utensils (such as bead
work, water vessels),
•vehicles (such as the ox
wagon),
• documents (codes, laws, land
titles, literature), and
• public works and architecture
built and constructed by a
cultural group (buildings,
historical places, monuments,
temples, graves, roads, and
bridges fall into this category as
well).
 Intangible Heritage
• Intangible is the opposite of
tangible. Unlike tangible
heritage, an intangible heritage is
not a physical or concrete item.
Intangible heritage is that which
exists intellectually in the culture.
 Intangible heritage includes:
• songs,
• myths,
• beliefs,
• superstitions,
• oral poetry,
• stories, and
• various forms of traditional knowledge such
as ethno botanical knowledge.
 Threats to Tangible and Intangible
Heritage
• There was a time in contemporary history when
museums were in constant search and hurry to
look for historical materials to display. Due to the
ascent of demand for cultural materials,
opportunists saw this as an avenue for them to
earn money. They invented materials and claim
that these were excavated or unearthed and
once owned by a cultural group.