Objetivo: Identify the most obvious social tensions related to the safeguarding of five intangible assets in the process of Instructing the Registry located in the North-East region of Brazil from 2005 to 2015. Method: It uses exploratory research methods in accordance with the objectives, documents in accordance with the procedures and the documentary analysis technique to describe the proposals submitted and characterise them as intangible cultural heritage in the Northeast Region. Result: On the basis of the data analysed, the most significant social tensions were broken down about the values of representativeness, recognition, community intervention without the assistance of a government institution and legal guidelines. Conclusions: Intangible cultural patrimony consists of a set of intangible practices and activities that can be recreated and adapted by a social group over generations. In order to ensure the preservation of intangible assets, the Instituto de Patrimônio Histórico e Artiística Nacional has an administrative and social legal and social procedure known as the Instruction of the Register, in which the entry of the property in one of the books of the Patrimônio IMaterial is operational. The five items under investigation for registration studied are of inherent importance for memory in the formation of identities, social relationships, collective inheritance and historical continuity.