Paper short abstract:

The Mediterranean diet was inscribed in the UNESCO ICH Representative List in 2010. The presentation returns the results of an ethnographic study of the impacts of the heritagization of this cultural practice in the rural regions of Cilento (Italy) and Soria (Spain), and the community participation after the UNESCO ICH status conferral.

Paper long abstract:

The more we try to frame its multiple meanings, the more its conceptual contours escape us: The Mediterranean diet gathers touristic, cultural and food imaginaries as well as geopolitical, commercial and socio-cultural utopias. Drawing on results of an ethnographic study, the proposed presentation explores the impacts of the heritagization of the Mediterranean diet on two (out of seven) Mediterranean “Emblematic Communities”. Inscribed in 2010 on the Representative List of the ICH by UNESCO, the Mediterranean diet was proposed by a consortium of Mediterranean countries (Spain, Greece, Italy and Morocco in 2010; followed by Cyprus, Croatia and Portugal in 2013). This research proposes to analyze the concept of the Mediterranean diet as a reactionary and revolutionary bulwark against the specific problems affecting modernity – from neo-capitalism to mass touristic consumption – and rural communities (demographic shrinkage, among others). In this sense, the presentation brings a new key to reading the functionality of the Mediterranean diet as a means of understanding new global food trends, articulated in the contemporary paradigms of glocalization and sustainability. The novelty the research brings is the updating and comparative analysis of the Mediterranean diet as a UNESCO ICH, and the extent of the community participation to the viability of this cultural practice. The analysis reveals that the question of community participation is far from being resolved. This arises the question: Can heritage be called so when its “cultural bearers” are not even aware of its existence and/or of its value? I used a methodological approach based on multi-site ethnography in two different communities: the Cilento sub-region in Italy and the city of Soria (and its rural surroundings) in Spain. This methodology includes in situ participant observation and semi-directed interviews.