Introduction

The inventory of ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage’ (hereafter ICH) is an important vehicle in promoting cultural diversity and is significant for livelihood, communal geographical identities, and cultural rights. The elements in the inventory of ICH are inscribed on the standard setting system of the ‘United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’ (hereafter UNESCO). The government of the Republic of Korea ratified ‘the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage’ (hereafter the Convention) of UNESCO. The benefits ‘cultural diversity’ and ‘variability’ are promoted particularly through a ‘Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity’ (hereafter RL) among the three types of lists provided in the Convention. As the elements in RL are well-safeguarded, its time-tested usefulness is certified. The focus of this study is variability and contextualization by roles through the tertiary transmission of education participation.

According to the spirit of the Convention, no ‘territorial exclusivity’ is allowed, and the lists are commonly shared by people worldwide. The beneficiary State Parties that ratified the Convention take responsibility for the management in the territory in which the local community’s practice is present, with the consent of the community or in the local context of this study, civil (i.e., stakeholder) and civic (i.e., shareholder) citizens. The efforts of cooperation with divergent parties within and outside the area have been consistent, regardless of taken-for-granted worldviews. The creation of the list brings ‘peace, reconciliation, and cooperation’, in the future instead of conflict.

The topic to be studied is the local transmission education of ‘Nongak, community band music, dance, and rituals in the Republic of Korea’ on RL. In the inscribed element of the list in 2014, one of the publicized documents is ‘the consent form’ from regional communities constituted of nationally and locally certified subcategories of the Nongak element. The regionally certified subcategories of Nongak are managed by Daejeon city government and the Korean national government ‘Cultural Heritage Administration’ located in Daejeon city because of the distinctiveness of two-tier system in Korea.

The rationale for studying ‘Nongak,’ the community band music of farmers, is because it “establishes a sense of shared identity among community members” (p. 5) according to the nomination form RL2014 - NO.00717. In this study, ‘shared’ identity is civil (i.e., stakeholder) and civic (i.e., shareholder) citizens roles. Utdari Nongak in Daejeon city is effective in studying the relations of citizens in the transmission and education center and their role as citizen students and teachers because Utdari Nongak is still alive as one of the kinds of ‘a Living Heritage’ and transmitted as a way of reproduction, reinvention, and reuse of ‘the tradition,’ even though the worldview of Nongak is often misunderstood patriarchal. As ‘heritage’ is not ‘the tradition.’ It is just a difference, not upperside or downside, right or wrong.

The city ‘Daejeon’ is chosen among the Utdari Nongak region for several reasons. Because multiple levels of organizations are located. To explain, the national government ‘Cultural Heritage Administration’ is located. The local city government is juxtaposed geographically with the cultural foundation and other organizations. In my viewpoint, the metropolitan city is interpreted as a hinterland with multiple layers of intra-national, national, and multiple level heritage stakeholders, and shareholders interconnected beyond the visible locale through intra-country, country, and global-sanctioned elements. Among other Utdari regions, the Utdari Nongak transmission education center is supported by multiple tiers of institutions to make the transmission available to citizens.

The ‘place’ that ‘time-tested ICH element’ transmitted and educated to citizens needs to be focused. Because ‘place’ is exact in terms that explaining intangibility than ‘space’ without identity and belonging, or just ‘site.’ “Heritage is about a sense of place” (Smith, L. 2006, p.75) as the process of meaning making with knowing one’s place and position in social relations.

Among many other variated versions, ‘Utdari Nongak’ in Daejeon city is selected. Because it is best suit to study ‘place, space or territory’ through ICH. Among the certified regional elements of ICH in Daejeon metropolitan city, the first registered element of ICH is ‘Utdari Nongak’ because of its distinctive rhythm, form, and popularity. At that time, the popularity of ‘Utdari Nongak’ in Daejeon city is because of its function as a religious ritual called ‘Ut-da-ri Nongak kut’ or Pungmul kut,’ which is very practically function by farmers in villages. The popularity of ‘Ut-da-ri Nongak kut’ translated as the likeliness of preferring ‘Upper’ village (i.e., sky) as the Right side to pray, Right place (i.e., land) of the right foot locate first when playing it,’ to predict and prey for beneficial weather (i.e., rain, etc.) to ‘the farmland’ which is a territory of man.

The ‘Ut-da-ri Nongak kut’ has been mainly played by farmer mans in their workplace. In the agricultural society, the function of the ritual is ‘displaying’ farmer’s, mainly ‘man’s power publicly’ through sound instruments in their workplace, paddies and outfields, farmland which is an arena of farming work. The workplace is ‘outside’ the household, which is an arena of the family, a territory of women. It is a fit to study upside-downside (i.e., right side to actually take part in) border crossing in spatial dimension, forming neat one-to-one relation mapping. The loud sound on the workplace (i.e., farmland) that crossing the spatial separateness wasn’t problematic at all cause Korea was homogeneous pastoral society.

Currently the role according to the place, space or territory extremely changed that ‘different’ gender considers as ‘in.’ In contrast to agricultural society, as the sociocultural context changes, the use of the element is ‘place-’tested and varied through different kinds of relations: roles played by people. Crossing is an interstitial zone of displacement caused by Korean gender citizens roles: man-selves as others, others as man-selves, and vice versa. In this study, the roles are 1) the local citizens, 2) a holder of the ICH element, and certified trainers and successors as teachers, and 3) administrators that support the implementation of the plan.

To add on, the element in RL indicates the change and variability in representative work ethics from the agricultural society to the modern contemporary society. The literal meaning of ‘Nongak’ is joyfulness of working together in ‘farmland’ where farmers mainly work and play ‘communally’ in the process of work to enjoy the process. The ‘ownership of the role’ is possible through learning, inspiration, and enjoyment by studying ‘within’ the transmission education center.

The element of ICH is representative, well-safeguarded, and ‘still’ representative through ‘its adjusted function,’ such as leisure spending, fund raising (i.e., ‘Pan don’ in Korean, paddies and outfields money, Upping the ante), and promulgation. Here the Pan is ‘paddies and outfields.’ For more information, playing ‘one set of Nongak rhythms’ together among man is called ‘a Pan.’ The power from playing Utdari Nongak is understood as ‘man’ playing loud powerful sound to receive benefit from the upperside (i.e., sky). What they (i.e., farmer man playing Nongak, particularly Utdari Nongak) played in agricultural premodern Korean society in the ‘outside’ of household (i.e., paddies and outfields, Pan) transformed supernatural power, which is a rain, thunder that coming from the sky which is the upperside (i.e., sky that descending the rain, thunder that cultivating the rice to eat).

Currently, the local version element of ICH is transmitted inside ‘Utdari Nongak Transmission Education Center’ near the sports park in suburb venture corporations cooperation area. Other rationale of selecting ‘Utdari Nongak’ is because of the significant symbolic meaning of ‘Utdari’ which indicates the upper part, village, and geographically Chungcheong, Gyunggi province, North Korea which is ‘a shared Living Heritage’ among all ethnic Koreans across the border. Among older varied listings, ‘Utdari Nongak,’ which is a locally certified version of ICH in 1989, is the most appropriate to study as one of the kinds in the list. It is the first locally registered element of ICH by the local government, and at the same time, one of the kinds as the components of ICH elements in the inventory of UNESCO.

The function of the ritual in agricultural society has disappeared, and it has gained a new changed meaning and function through transmission education to citizens. In the changed setting, the transmission of the local, international element of ICH is a source of learning, inspiration, and enjoyment by any citizens who want to learn and play it. Nowadays it is transmitted ‘inside’ the transmission education center regardless job, residence area, and gender. Exploration is required in terms of the interactions between 1) civil citizens student stakeholders, 2) teacher shareholders 3) administrators in the city and their relationships ‘within’ and ‘through’ the transmission education center. In Daejeon locale, cooperation with different parties is implemented ‘for’ the element of ICH transmitted ‘within’ and ‘through’ the transmission education center. So recognized beneficiaries can cultivate conscious citizenry as civil (i.e., student, stakeholder) and civic (i.e., holder, successor, shareholder) citizens through willing participation in the “public presentation of ICH and public education” (Kurin, 2003, p. 15), which is an implementation of policy plan. They utilize locally and internationally inscribed ICH through the method of transmission education.