| dc.description.abstract | The social and economic changes that happened in the world during the last century, greatly
impacted the food sector, with the consequent emergence of a food globalization and
homogenization, which wasn´t well accepted by the population, due to the distance between
production and consumption that beyond to causing suspicion, sharpened the fear of loss of
identity of products. As a form of resistance to industrialized products, regional cuisines
emerged, encouraging an innate and local diet, with appreciation of traditional knowledge,
transmitted between generations, which give rise to unique products. These constitute as a
gastronomic heritage full of memories, identifying and distinguishing the territory that produces
it, as can be seen in the central region of Rio Grande do Sul, known as Quarta Colonia. This
territory is made up of nine municipalities and was colonized by immigrants, mainly Italians
and Germans, in the 19th century, still maintaining part of the culture inherited from overseas.
The Quarta Colonia is in the process of being evaluated for recognition as a Geopark by United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in a joint project of ProRectory of Extension of the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM) with the municipalities,
through the Consortium for Sustainable Development of the Quarta Colonia (CONDESUS).
This possibility of recognition constitutes a great opportunity to preserve the local gastronomic
heritage, considering the holistic nature of geoparks, which combine protection and
development. Trying to safeguard this culinary heritage, to don´t be lost in time, the following
problem arises: which preparations, as well as the know-how linked to them, of the Italian
immigrants and descendants of the Fourth Colony can be vindicated as Geopark´s food? Trying
to answer for this concern, the objective of the present study is to identify, among the
gastronomic heritage of Quarta Colonia, the descendants of Italian immigrant’s foods with the
potential to become Geopark´s foods. Therefore, it´s necessary to: recall recipes, techniques
and instruments used by the Italian immigrant´s community and their descendants; disseminate
these recipes in the community itself as a way of feeding back into the cultural identity debate;
provide material on the regional culinary culture for the cultural activities for implementing the
Geopark. This research was developed in the Graduate Program in Cultural Heritage at the
Federal University of Santa Maria, in the area of concentration Architecture and Material
Heritage within the research line Preservation of Material Heritage. This study is anchored in
qualitative approach, having as a product a book of recipes with the discrimination, photos and
curiosities about the preparations chosen as identity by the research. | |
