Commemorations without Inheritance: folk medicine, mediators of healing, and politics of memory

In this chapter, I argue that certain medical practices should not be considered “intangible cultural heritage” under UNESCO’s parameters due to epistemological and political reasons. To support my argument, I draw on my ethnographic experience, which includes research on folk medical knowledge and practices in Umbria, Central Italy, conducted in the early 2000s. Ethnographic research shows that recognizing the connections between healing knowledge and extra-jurisdictional zones is crucial to understanding agency and power relations involved in healing processes. Moreover, traditional healers' actions can be highly effective in treating illnesses due to their practice and knowledge’s interstitial and fragmented nature. In this context, the taxonomic approach based on patrimonial views fails to address the conflicts, exclusions, and resistance that describe the history of medical knowledge among subaltern classes. This is because present-day approaches to intangible heritage only consider skills used in public rituals such as devotional and ceremonial practices. Such approaches cannot cover the secret actions of individuals or groups literally “outside the jurisdiction.” The anthropological perspective I presented in my discussion shifts our focus toward commemorative acts that do not involve inheritance. I refer to these as “extra-patrimonial commemorations,” which are public and collective acts of remembrance outside of state policies and the international network of intangible goods. Commemoration involves ritual acts that, through repetition, aim to establish a stable connection with the past but also acknowledge the unavoidable discontinuity between past and present, particularly in places where history has been violently interrupted. Remembering through performative and imaginative means is a way to recognize the loss and extraterritoriality of molecular transformations of persons and their embodied knowledge that cannot be inherited. This is a critical and challenging act that deserves recognition and ongoing dialogue.