Practice and Exploration of Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection from an Anthropological Perspective

Abstract

As a living carrier of human civilization, the protection of intangible cultural heritage (hereinafter referred to as "ICH") essentially involves the safeguarding of cultural diversity and human subjectivity. Traditional ICH protection models often focus on the formalized process of "application, archiving, and performance," which tends to overlook the agency of inheritors and the cultural context of ICH, leading to the predicament of "protective extinction" for some ICH. Based on the holistic cultural perspective of anthropology, the theory of active participation and living transmission, this paper analyzes issues such as misaligned agency, contextual detachment, and transmission gaps in current practices, exploring the application pathways of anthropological methods (e.g., participatory action research and ethnographic writing) in ICH protection. The study finds that an anthropological perspective can shift ICH protection from "objectified preservation" to "subjective activation," achieving the living continuity of ICH by respecting the cultural discourse rights of inheritors, restoring the life context of ICH, and establishing a diversified collaborative transmission mechanism. The conclusions of this paper can provide theoretical references for ICH protection practices, facilitating the dual transformation of cultural and social value for ICH in contemporary society.