6533b828fe1ef96bd128959c

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Retour d’anthropologie : le "Repas gastronomique des Français". Éléments d’ethnographie d’une distinction patrimoniale

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Anthropology’s boomerang and the « gastronomic meal of the French » : elements for an ethnography of patrimonial distinction. The inscription of the “gastronomic meal of the French” on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in November 2010 has been generating many comments — in the French press, of course, which let out a triumphant “cock-a-doodle-doo”, seeing this distinction as the sign of French excellence, but also amongst UNESCO authorities responsible for the Convention for the Safeguarding of ICH. The history of the creation of this application file – a project officially announced by the President of the Republic – reveals a redefinition of its object so as to make it acceptable under UNESCO norms. What has been inscribed, in the end, is a festive and ritualized meal, but not French gastronomy as it was envisaged at the start. Nonetheless, in the end, it is the latter that is considered to have been recognized, just as registration is regarded as a label of excellence. What does this example tell us ? This article argues while it has been said that the new category of ICH contributes to reversing Eurocentric notions of heritage, this case shows that we have not heard the last of Eurocentrism. The French are distinguished and identified by their eating practices through a kind of anthropological boomerang effect that identifies such heritage with a national community. Thus we witness one of the principal and paradoxical effects of the 2003 ICH Convention : re-nationalizing heritage.