The ethical void in intangible cultural heritage

Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) has been widely defined by international organizations and national governments, particularly by UNESCO, as encompassing the practices, knowledge, and cultural expressions that communities recognize as part of their living heritage. These definitions emphasize the preservation of traditions, knowledge systems, and cultural practices transmitted across generations. However, they rarely address ethical values as a component of ICH, despite the central role such values play in shaping social norms, community cohesion, and intergenerational transmission of cultural principles. This article examines the absence of ethical heritage within dominant conceptualizations of ICH and explores the theoretical, methodological, and political implications of this omission. It argues that ethics, understood as a culturally embedded and socially enacted system of values, could reasonably be recognized as part of intangible cultural heritage. Through a critical analysis of institutional definitions and academic debates, the article discusses possible reasons for the exclusion of ethical values and proposes reconsidering current heritage frameworks to incorporate the ethical dimension as an essential element of cultural diversity and collective memory.