Influence of Social Behaviors toward Cultural Heritage Sustainability in World Heritage Site, Melaka

Cultural heritage is constructed from the intrinsic relationship between three fundamentals: society; tangible cultural heritage (TCH); and intangible cultural heritage (ICH). To sustain, cultural heritage relies on the social behavior of society. Thus, reflecting fragility of heritage. Hence, this paper attempts to discourse the society’s behavior towards ICH. Exploratory case study was employed by adapting five social behavior related-criterions required by UNESCO. The data was analysed using two techniques: (1) simple statistical; and (2) thematic. The results indicate that the status of ICH is threatened due to the weak viability level and minimal safeguarding effort by the ‘society’.© 2016. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies, Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.Keywords: Social behavior; intangible cultural heritage; world heritage site, threatened