was just reading some entries on the representative list of intangible heritage and have a few questions concerning one entry:

is there a probable connection between malawi's chongoni rock art site and the gule wamkulu practice? although the former concerns the female role in chewa society, the latter concerns the male role. so value wise, the whs does not fully reflect the value represented in the intangible heritage list, but complements it in a way. i'm just not sure if the place where the gule wamkulu is practiced overlaps with the site of the chongoni rock art. the gule wamkulu is listed as shared between malawi, mozambique and zambia, so obviously the locality is somewhere in the border area. the chongoni site, according to the nomination file, is situated near malawi's border with mozambique. so based on this and subject to further confirmation, there is a possibility of adding a new entry to the connection.

also, just realized that there is a good number of entries in the representative list that deals with the role of women in society, which is quite interesting. in the world heritage list, as noted in the connection, only three sites convincingly showcase the role of women.

Yes m_m there certainly should be a connection between Chongoni Rock Art and Masterpieces of Oral and intangible Heritage via Gule Wamkulu!!
This is not mentioned in the current UNESCO entry for the inscribed site BUT the old T List entry (which somewhat surprisingly still remains in place!) specifically refers to the link (last sentance of "description")
http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/916/

Quite why these words in the T List description were not carried forward to that of the inscribed site isn't clear to me - I can't see that it was due to any reduction in the inscribed area. And the link to Gule Wamkulu is only indirectly referred to in the Advisory Body Evaluation via its references to the nyau secret society. But perhaps I am too ready to look for hidden motivation in what UNESCO etc do and do not do! There is a fine English phrase concerning why "unexplainable" things happen - "Conspiracy or cock up"!

There are other Web links too which clarify the connection. E.g. search on Chongoni within this PDF
http://www.nomadic-adventures.net/assets_d/4238/portfolio_media/letter_from_malawi-fi nal-edit.pdf
Specific places mentioned in this article e.g Chentcherere and Mphunzi are identified on the map within the Chongoni evaluation. I have been planning a visit to Malawi and it was interesting that the company I have been dealing with didn't seem to have taken anyone to Chongoni - but was prepared to take me - though i would want to sort out "local permission" issues. The Article mentions that the increasing numbers of visitors has actually reduced the traditional value of the sites. Unfortunately the author doesn't seem to state exactly where he saw the Gule Wamkulu - though he does establish a strong link between it and sites within the inscribed area.

PS It occurs to me that it ought to be possible to identify a connection for "Secret Societies" - Chongoni/Nyau plus Oshogbo/Ogboni gives us 2 straight away. There could be a few definitional problems though - e.g are the Jesuits a "Secret Society"? But they already have their link so perhaps we could have a connection of "secret societies not connected specifically elsewhere". There ought to be a number of "western" sites connectable to Freemasonry and if enough were found perhaps it would justify a separate link. In the mean time putting Masons in with other (e.g African) Secret Societies then Monticello will provide the 3rd Connection. I thought I remembered a potential masonic aspect for Jefferson from my long past American history studies - see
http://wiki.monticello.org/mediawiki/index.php/Freemasonry

PPS. Another Masonic connection -
Classical Weimar - Widows (or "Dowager's) Palace
http://www.weimar.de/en/tourism/homepage/sights/museums/details/wittumspalais/
Goethe was a member of the Lodge Amalia which met there

also, while reading chief roi mata's domain's advisory body evaluation, the role of women was mentioned to justify criterion vi. this might be included in the "role of women" connection. however, unlike the other sites placed in that connection, the role of women in this case is more passive (i.e. conflict resolution through matrilineal descent).

jonathan alerted me to this filter at the unesco website. It shows Masterpieces of oral and intangible heritage with "Elements potentially related to World Heritage sites":
https://ich.unesco.org/en/lists?text=&inscription=0&country=0&type=0&domain=0&multina tional=3&related_to_whc=1&display1=inscriptionID

They seem to take this quite liberally though and end up at 57 WHS. I would not know what the link is between "Al Azi, art of performing praise, pride and fortitude poetry" and the Al Ain WHS, to take just the first on the list for example. Why do they say "potentially related" anyway - they have no clue themselves?

We have our connection strictly defined to " the WHS is a major or the sole location for the occurrence/performance of a Masterpiece and/or is closely associated culturally with it", with only 28 now:
http://www.worldheritagesite.org/connection/Masterpieces+of+Oral+and+Intangible+herit age
I'll go through the list and will see which can be added. Maybe someone else can do this as well, as 2 pairs of eyes notice more than one.

In the meantime we can start discussing whether the Neapolitan pizza should be connected to the Naples WHS.

My vote is yes.
1) Food is one of the most essential as aspects of human existence, local responses can tell us an awful lot about the inhabitants, their agricultural heritage and trading history.

2) They are delicious.

Basically it is for the second reason we should include it but the first one gives it some sort of flimsy credence :)

Pizzeria Da Michele is an institution, a reference, and is located in the central area.

I think this is a valid reason