The Manifestations of Mediterranean Diet in Egyptian Intangible Cultural Heritage

Document Type : Academic peer-reviewed articles

Authors

1 Heritage Management Professional, Founder of “Heritage For All” Initiative

2 Curator, National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, Museums Sector, Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities

Abstract

The Mediterranean diet was inscribed in 2013 on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) list. It is considered knowledgably a life style including a group of activities. Although this inscription was exclusively restricted in some European states, this mixed or connected-separated kind of a living heritage is not well-recognized in Egypt. It has been estimated by the researcher some examples of Egyptian countries, cities or governorates where people indirectly apply the Mediterranean diet including various actions such as a traditional food, crafts, social practices and construction. The researcher puts a good strategy to preserve it along the future generations and to invest it developing the local socio-economic context. Finally, the researcher presents the recommendations linking culturally and economically between the Mediterranean diet-related activities and the Egyptian cultural identity. Respectively, this linkage contributes raising an awareness of the Egyptian local community for the cultural significance of ICH and pushing them, as an initial inventory body, to preserve their heritage and operationalize the factor of sustainability through the transformation process of the cultural heritage knowledge

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