A/76/178 universal. 5 Culture is integrative in nature. As the Palestinian cultural theorist Edward Said wrote, all cultures are involved in one another; none is si mple and pure, all are hybrid, heterogenous, extraordinarily differentiated and unmonolithic. 6 5. Syncretic practices have been foundational everywhere. For example, the accommodation of cultural and heritage practices has always been an expression of faith. 7 These are historical facts. They transcend diverse groups and identities. Understanding and acknowledging such patterns is closely related to the promotion of coexistence. 6. Diverse examples of cultural mixing and syncretism from all regions of the world can and should be documented, celebrated and studied, including in the field of human rights. Only a few can be mentioned here. The South Asian notion of gangajamuni tehzeeb, 8 or mixing of Hindu and Muslim traditions and cultural practices, is critically important to consider. In Indonesia, one of the Kayan peoples has combined traditional practices of religion with Catholic practice, 9 singing hymns in a traditional way and maintaining ancestral accents. Nile bathing on Eid al-Ghattas is a popular heritage practice passed on intergenerationally for literally thousands of years as part of the heritage of all Egyptians and has been enjoyed by Coptic Christians to mark Epiphany, together with Muslims, promoting social cohesion through collective im mersion. 10 7. Another important example is that of creolité or creolization, 11 which subverts an originally colonial notion and emphasizes the composite and unpredictable nature of cultural, linguistic and other identities. 12 One of its most famous theorists, Édouard Glissant, explained that “there are cultures… which… are born of the mingling of cultures… and… not only consent to cross-breeding, but proceed from it”. 13 Glissant’s later work emphasizes the interdependence of the social world, recognizing that there are no absolutes in linguistic or cultural identity. 14 All identities are relational, entangled and changing constantly. From a human rights perspective, his observations remind us that it is essential to consider the cultures and languages of others. Our cultural lives and rights are all connected. 8. Such understandings of syncretism as reflected by creolité or ganga-jamuni tehzeeb cannot be compartmentalized or divided. They are rooted in the lived reality and practices of people on the ground. They link human rights, ideas and fluid intercultural everyday life. This type of syncretism stands in contrast to assimilation and rejects homogenization and binaries that result in cultural polarization. Moreover, it suggests an acceptance of joy around culture, such as through mixed holiday celebrations, and of diverse forms of love. It reaffirms the potential of intercultural __________________ 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 4/22 Cultural borrowing is “today seen as part of the very nature of cultures”. See Charles Stewart, “Syncretism and Its Synonyms: Reflections on Cultural Mixture”, in Diacritics, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Autumn, 1999). Available from https://muse.jhu.edu/article/9538. Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (London, Vintage, 1993). See www.ids.ac.uk/opinions/stop-homogenising-us-mixing-and-matching-faith-and-beliefs-inindia-and-beyond/. K. Warikoo, (2010). Religion and Security in South and Central Asia (2010), pp. 86–90. See https://pulotu.shh.mpg.de/culture/kayan#rousseau1998; see also A/HRC/46/34/Add.1, para. 45. See www.ids.ac.uk/opinions/the-grand-egyptian-festival-religion-heritage-and-social-cohesion/. See, e.g., P. Chamoiseau, R. Confiant and J. Barnabé, Eloge à la Créolité (Gallimard, Paris, 1993). “Creole draws attention to the inequities of power that allowed European colonizers to discursively legislate the importance of ‘race’, culture and environment in determining where one fits along a chain of being that placed the Old World homeland and its subjects at the pinnacle.” See Charles Stewart, “Syncretism and Its Synonyms”. See also https://www.migrationinstitute.org/files/news/ patrickchamoiseauinterview_f.pdf. See https://sites01.lsu.edu/wp/theglissanttranslationproject/2017/10/20/the -poetics-of-the-worldglobal-thinking-and-unforeseeable-events/. See www.migrationinstitute.org/files/news/patrickchamoiseauinterview_f.pdf . 21-10019