<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>This article examines the inventorying of Finnish intangible cultural heritage with regard to UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. I analyse the participatory <italic>Wiki-inventory for Living Heritage</italic>, concentrating on entries that discuss food and foodways to study how food, materiality, and the national intertwine with practices of producing intangible cultural heritage. The article’s theoretical background draws from the fields of banal nationalism and critical heritage studies. Food is eminently important in narratives of Finnishness: by using the concepts of naturalness and pastness, I show how Finnish food becomes interpreted as ‘authentic’ Finnish heritage. The concepts illuminate the complex processes in which the materiality of food, the Finnish terroir and landscape, narratives of the past, and the consumer who prepares, eats, and digests the heritagised food are tied to each other. These processes reinforce the banality of Finnishness, although the practices of inventorying paradoxically strive for the ideal of cultural diversity that UNESCO promotes.</p>
</abstract>

This article examines the inventorying of Finnish intangible cultural heritage with regard to UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. I analyse the participatory Wiki-inventory for Living Heritage, concentrating on entries that discuss food and foodways to study how food, materiality, and the national intertwine with practices of producing intangible cultural heritage. The article’s theoretical background draws from the fields of banal nationalism and critical heritage studies. Food is eminently important in narratives of Finnishness: by using the concepts of naturalness and pastness, I show how Finnish food becomes interpreted as ‘authentic’ Finnish heritage. The concepts illuminate the complex processes in which the materiality of food, the Finnish terroir and landscape, narratives of the past, and the consumer who prepares, eats, and digests the heritagised food are tied to each other. These processes reinforce the banality of Finnishness, although the practices of inventorying paradoxically strive for the ideal of cultural diversity that UNESCO promotes.

Digesting the Finnish Nature and Past: Food, Pastness, and the Naturalness of the National in the <italic>Wiki-Inventory for Living Heritage</italic>

Postdoctoral Researcher, Folklore Studies, Department of Cultures

Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Digesting the Finnish Nature and Past: Food, Pastness, and the Naturalness of the National in the 

This article examines the inventorying of Finnish intangible cultural heritage with regard to UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible...

Digesting the Finnish Nature and Past: Food, Pastness, and the Naturalness of the National in the Wiki-Inventory for Living Heritage

Publié en ligne: 22 déc. 2021

Pages: 89 - 111

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jef-2021-0019

Mots clés
food heritage, intangible cultural heritage, nationalism, naturalness, pastness

© 2021 Heidi Henriikka Mäkelä, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Digesting the Finnish Nature and Past: Food, Pastness, and the Naturalness of the National in the Wiki-Inventory for Living Heritage

Publié en ligne: 22 déc. 2021

Pages: 89 - 111

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jef-2021-0019

Mots clésfood heritage, intangible cultural heritage, nationalism, naturalness, pastness

© 2021 Heidi Henriikka Mäkelä, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Mots clés
food heritage, intangible cultural heritage, nationalism, naturalness, pastness