Guatemala · Gourd Carving / Pottery
Jícara negra tallada; alfarería de barro negro de Rabinal
Two related dark-material craft traditions of the Achi' Maya town of Rabinal: the hand-carving of geometric designs into polished black jícaras (dried gourds from the calabash tree, Crescentia cujete, also called guacales) to a lacquer-like sheen, and the shaping of dark clay into pottery vessels using techniques the community itself understands as unchanged since the Classic Maya period.
Risk level: Endangered · Not currently inscribed on a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list; Guatemala is a State Party to the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ratified 2006) and could nominate this technique in the future. Note: the related Rabinal Achí dance-drama tradition, performed annually by the same community, was itself inscribed as a UNESCO Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, though that inscription covers the performance rather than this record's carving and pottery techniques.
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