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Anikó Báti and Patricia Lysaght (eds.): Living eating habits, revitalized foodways and the concepts of tradition and food heritage. 95–115. Budapest: ELTE RCH, 2025. |
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Eszter Csonka-Takács: Food Heritage: Paradigm Shift in the Implementation Practices of the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage |
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Abstract: This article explores the concept and governance of food heritage within the framework of UNESCO’s 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The primary aim of this Convention is to preserve the heritage of supranational communities. From the beginning, there were typical heritages that were promoted by a member state as a kind of national identity, and although the professional evaluation body had, quite early on, reflected on the wording of the community/national character element in the nomination documents (the terms ‘unique’, ‘special’, ‘individual’, were included in the list of prohibited terms), the themes promoted in some cases have continued to reinforce this trend. In recent years, national/regional identity foods have become more common in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Although, based on the definition of the Convention, the nomination documents are not about the product or the individual food (beverages, for example), but about the customs and traditions of their preparation and consumption, it is still about food heritage, which has the same meaning as national character. Recently, there has also been a discussion about the definition of food heritage as a separate domain, because, at the moment, and based on current classifications, this heritage element can appear in several sites in the nomination documents. In my article, I will outline how the type of food that defines the national character of a country becomes heritage – how it is formulated as being an aspect of communal knowledge, practice, and form of expression. I will also introduce the concepts used in the Hungarikum system and the principles laid down in law in this regard. |
