hrvatski

All these wonderful dishes: older persons talking about good Dalmatian food

In 2013 Croatian Mediterranean diet was added to the list of 14 Croatian cultural domains in need of urgent safeguarding (UNESCO/Intangible Cultural Heritage 2013). However, the Mediterranean diet is not just a nutritional model but a complex socio-cultural system of food production, preparation, cooking, sharing and consumption (UNESCO/Intangible Cultural Heritage 2013). Furthermore, previous studies have shown that the household area has traditionally been defined as the feminine domain and food obtaining and meal preparation have been predominantly considered as a women's job within the domestic division of labour (Kramer 2011 ; Wharton 2012 ; Ivanišević 2017). According to Kemmer (2000), food research should not marginalize men's share of food procurement and contribution and make their experiences invisible. Apart from gender and gender roles, every meal includes some other dimensions because food functions as an "intrinsically multilayered and multidimensional subject" (Holtzman 2006, p. 362). The question is, what are the social, symbolic and cultural meanings of traditional Dalmatian food and meals for the older people, the perennial inhabitants of Zagreb, originally from Dalmatia? Based on in-depth interviews, the authors analyze experiences, understandings, interpretations and meanings about Dalmatian food from the perspective of the older people and their life narratives. Lastly, this analysis will give further insights into the well-known critique of the UNESCO intangible cultural paradigm operating more as an elite-driven competitive global concept than as a tool for cultural safeguarding and inclusive development (Matta 2016).

Dalmatian food, cooking, gendered division of labour, older persons, interviews, qualitative methodology

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