Paper short abstract:

The aim of the presentation is to analyze the affective and emotional dimensions of food heritage making in Mexico. I focus on the ways in which emotions are used by different actors engaged in heritage tourism industry to mobilize and manage work and public image of ethnic female cooks in Oaxaca.

Paper long abstract:

Based on the results of extensive multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2011 and 2014-17 as well as the analysis of secondary sources (cookbooks, mass media, food heritage policies) this paper focuses on the affective and emotional dimensions of food heritage making (both top-down and grassroot) in the south of Mexico.

Oaxaca foodways (peasant, ethnic and communitarian, based on skills and embodied knowledge of women) until recently considered low brow, backward and even morally dangerous have in recent years become the flagship of regional economy.

In order to successfully promote local gastronomy different actors engaged in heritage tourism industry have used emotions to mobilize and actively manage work as well as public image of ethnic female cooks in Oaxaca. The special emphasis has been put on the display of the adequate and expected emotions like pride in local food cultures (orgullo oaxaqueño).

The aim of this presentation is to look at the affective heritage practices of female cooks in the state promoted as “the heart of Mexican cuisine” yet one of the poorest regions of the country. The analysis of gendered emotions – in this case pride - and their contextual, performative and discursive aspects can reveal the relationship between affective practices, power and privilege in vernacular heritage-making processes.