engleski

Heritage Animals – Why Not? Anthropocentrism Notwithstanding

The anthropology of animals, as defined by socio-cultural anthropologist Barbara Noske, can be – or ought to be – a segment of ethnographic studies of the 21st century. Why do we have a list of national animals (e.g. pine marten is the national animal of Croatia) but fail to include said animals (only individual species) in the concept of heritage – why are the concepts of Nature and Culture still anthropocentrically segregated? The fact is that one can only talk about heritage species (especially traditional or autochthonous livestock breeds), but not about heritage animals (the animals in the concept of heritage). For instance, Boškarin or Istrian ox was a symbol of life a long time ago – the ox was more important than one’s own children (cf. Ivona Orlić 2007) – but today the ox has been revitalised only for the purpose of profitable agro-tourism and gastro-tourism. The aforementioned concept of promoting the Boškarin as a gastro-phenomenon was the dominant feature of the project Boškarin with Potatoes (2012-2014) by the City of Pula, developed as the confirmation of collaboration with the French town of Villefranche-de-Rouergue that became the partner city of Pula in 2008. As part of the project, local products were presented – Istrian Boškarin (i.e. the Boškarin was presented as a product rather than an animal) and the Ségala potato variety from the French region of Midi-Pyrénées. Hence the Boškarin i.e. Istrian ox, autochthonous Croatian livestock breed, has been "revitalised” in the 21st century as the economic and gastronomic victim/sacrifice of the EU project.

The anthropology of animals; Boškarin

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