After 10 busy days in which it toured the villages and centers of the New Valley Governorate, the research mission of the Atlas of Popular Legends affiliated to the General Authority for Culture Palaces, headed by director Hisham Atwa, concluded its field work in the governorate, to enumerate the elements of intangible cultural heritage in the Egyptian capital of culture for the year 2023.
The researcher and poet Masoud Shoman, head of the Scientific Committee for the Atlas of Popular Traditions, explained that the closing day was attended by the village of Al-Rashidah to complete the documentation of digging wells and monitoring the natural therapeutic wells, in addition to documenting traditional architecture in terms of construction methods and methods and materials used, as well as collecting what is related to musical instruments made of Al-Ghab, especially Al-Satawiyyah and Al-Majrouna, and the social occasions in which they are used.
Shoman added that the work team moved past the Farafra Oasis, then the Bahariya Oasis, in preparation for field trips to survey its heritage and popular sayings.
It is noteworthy that the group of researchers undertook the task of listing the distinctive intangible cultural heritage elements of the villages of the New Valley in the context of following up on the recommendations of the General Conference of Egyptian Writers at its thirty-fifth session held last December, and in light of the intensification of activities in the governorates and border and remote areas.
The mission moved between the centers and villages of the New Valley Governorate in search of frequent popular elements before they were lost. It began by visiting several places in Al-Kharga, the village of Bulaq and Al-Munira. The mission also visited the city of Mut, the village of Al-Bashandi, Al-Maasara and Balat to document the elements of the intangible cultural heritage and counted these elements and collected some Its materials, including folk medicine for women and children, folk foods, palm cultivation, well digging, folk architecture, wickerwork, tracing, pottery, weaving, clay oven construction, folk musical instruments, kilims, carpets, wedding songs, and a visit to the Folklore Museum in Dakhla, which is supervised by palaces the culture.
The mission was organized under the supervision and presence of Dr. Al-Shaimaa Al-Saidi, Director General of the Atlas of Popular Traditions, affiliated to the Central Administration for Studies and Research, headed by Dr. Hanan Mousa, and a research team from a number of different governorates from Sohag, Minya, Ismailia, and Giza participated in it, along with researchers from the New Valley Governorate.
It is worth noting that the Conference of Writers recommended in its thirty-fifth session, which was held last December and January, in the New Valley Governorate, the need to send field missions to collect heritage and folklore in the governorate in cooperation with researchers in the region, and the need to pay attention to preserving and caring for the distinctive traditional craft of the New Valley in support of cultural investment.
Sun, Jun. 11, 2023
