| In this material culture analysis. I used narrative inquiry to explore selected Baganda's experiences with bark cloth. In the process, I also showed the tangible-intangible interrelationship of material culture. Bark cloth was widely used in the daily and spiritual lives of the Baganda in the past. Today, the influence of foreign textiles has expanded the uses of bark cloth to include more activities like modern art, crafts and fashion design. Foreign textiles are also gradually replacing bark cloth in the traditional uses like burial and other cultural activities. In the study, eleven participants recalled and shared their lived stories of experience with bark cloth within the metaphorical three-dimensional narrative inquiry space. Working within this space allowed them to travel across temporal and spatial boundaries, to when and where their experiences occurred, and to share these in relation to the present and future. It also enabled them to recall the people with whom these experiences were shared and how the participants felt about their experiences. By telling of their past and present experiences with bark cloth, the participants' stories exposed the intangible wealth laden in the tangible bark cloth. The stories also revealed how, within time and place and the personal/social, bark cloth was experienced. Intangible value was bestowed upon the bark cloth, thus indicating a strong tangible-intangible interrelationship. Using this information, I illustrate that UNESCO's present taxonomy of tangible and intangible heritage, separates, rather than integrate tangible and intangible aspects of material culture. Future comparative investigations may prove to be useful in making more explicit the tangible-intangible interrelationship of material cultural elements. |
