Abstract EN:

This thesis concerns the preservation process of the “intangible cultural heritage”. The case study: The Jama‘ l-fna Square and its storytellers, analyses the safeguarding of “intangible cultural heritage”. It draws, on the one hand, on an anthropological study of the concept of “heritage” based on the examination of the Unesco’s conventions. On the second hand, it relies the analysis of the sociocultural role of orality highlighted through an ethnographic fieldwork conducted among the storytellers (hlaïqiyya) of Jama‘ l-fna Square (Marrakech, Morocco). The study also enlightens the singularities of the patrimonialisation process in Morocco. It shows how legacy management practices and the different business activities which have induced a marginalization of the storytellers which went with a noticeable change of the art of storytelling, nowadays threatened to disappear. Finally, our thesis reveals a discrepancy between the exotic imaginary of the national and international visitors—which makes the practice of tales in the center of this emblematic area—and the socioeconomic difficulties endured by the narrators who are especially exposed to poverty and health problems. Generally speaking, the thesis contributes to the study of the stakes of the preservation of the transmission of the oral culture and the sustainability, and helps to gain a better understanding of the repercussions of globalization in traditional towns opened to global tourism.