Abstract
Nigerian is a country endowed with a lot of cultural heritages sourced from its multicultural communities. Contemporary status of most Nigerian cultural heritages (both material and non-material) is best described as endangered. This research work derives from a functionalist perspective which descriptively presents a historical, anthropological, and archaeological account of the Nigerian cultural heritage. Efforts at preserving these heritages are obstructed with daunting challenges, particularly human activities such as trafficking and exportation of Nigerian arts, thefts and looting of museums, vandalism, iconoclasm, Christianity, civilization, commerce, change, and developmental projects among others. Hence, the clarion call for its preservation due to avalanche of prospects derived from an adequately preserved cultural heritage.
Introduction
Globally the importance of heritages to countries and even in developing nations like Nigeria cannot be over-emphasized. This is due to its economic, historical, tourist, aesthetic, educational and research significance. For a critical and comprehensive understanding of Nigerian Cultural heritages, the approach adopted in this chapter is anthropological, archaeological, and historical and the pattern of presentation is purely descriptive. Heritages are cherished characteristic features of a society passed down from generation to generation through conscious preservation. Heritages refer to the riches of extinct and extant societies which are of historic, educational, recreational, and economic importance, preserved and handed over from one generation to another. Put differently, heritages are significant endowments emanating from man and nature. Following from the above, heritages could be categorized into two, based on their sources namely: ecological/natural heritages and cultural heritages. Nigeria is endowed with both types of heritages. “Nigeria is a country located in the Eastern part of West Africa”, (Aremu, 2008, p. 175). Geographically Nigeria occupies a space of 923,768 square km. It is the most populated (over 140 million based on the 2006 census figures) multi-ethnic and multi-lingual country in Africa, with over 250 ethnic groups. It has the Igbo to East, the Yoruba to the West and the Hausa-Fulani to the North as major ethnic groups among other perceived ‘minor’ ethnic groups. Ecological or natural heritages emanate from nature and environment. Ecological heritages can be defined as the relatively undisturbed or uncontaminated natural areas with its wild plants (flora) and animals (fauna) and its geomorphic features (caves, rivers, lakes, hills, mountains, cataracts) conserved for the specific objectives of studying, admiring, and enjoying the scenery which it affords (Duke in Aremu, 2008; Eluyemi, 2002). Nigeria is endowed with ‘about 29 game reserves, 1129 forest reserves, 4 game sanctuaries, 2 strict nature reserves and 8 national parks’ (Marguba, 2008, p. 37). It is pertinent to state that ecological heritage is outside the scope of this paper, therefore we are going to concentrate on the second type of heritage mentioned above which is cultural heritage. Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_heritage). Cultural heritages evolve from man’s ingenious activities, preserved and transmitted through oral traditions or in written concrete forms across generations of human societies.