The human-animal relationship and debate

A quest for post-human culture and the debate on human-animal relationship inspires professional communities to the enrichment and the diversification of the world culture of our times. Undoubtedly, falconry should be regarded as valid and important, because it is a form of cultivation that refers to an ancient heritage, just like shepherd dogs, building a link between past and present, reinforcing identities through the transmission of a lore from generation to generation, situating the contemporary man in a larger context of lasting, immemorial values. Moral identity is the core question one should cope with these days to find fulfilment in life. Being a living culture, falconry remains strongly rooted in the past. This aspect has been recognised and accentuated in the UNESCO statement on falconry as Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Humanity, that describes and qualifies it using such expressions as “traditional activity” and „cultural heritage” that is “passed on from generation to generation”, providing “a sense of belonging, continuity and identity”. Similar happens when more than a decade ago UN gave birth to a genetic preservation program focusing on shepherd dogs of the world. The aims that the resolution indicates and the activities it proposes have essentially the character of “conservation”: increasing the “awareness of intangible cultural heritage and its importance” in order to ensure its “transmission”. Such expressions situate the falconry as a connection between the present and the past, a very ancient past indeed.