Intangible Heritage and Territorial Identity in the Multifunctional Agrarian Systems of Vineyards in Castilla-La Mancha (Spain)

Ángel Raúl Ruiz Pulpón,María Del Carmen Cañizares Ruiz

doi:10.3390/land11020281

Ángel Raúl Ruiz Pulpón, María Del Carmen Cañizares Ruiz

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/land11020281

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Journal: Land	Publication Date: Feb 13, 2022
Citations: 5	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Castilla-La Mancha

Abstract

Vine cultivation has a strong territorial character derived from the environmental, social, cultural and economic interactions with the space in which the vines are grown. In Spain, this activity is clearly representative of Mediterranean agrarian landscapes, where vineyards have a dynamic and multifunctional character, as a consequence of the social and economic processes that they have always incorporated. This character is also complex as it has natural and anthropic components. The links between vineyards and territories drive the configuration of identity-based feelings in local communities, which identify with the work, rituals and symbols that are present in the production and manufacturing processes. Therefore, territorial identity is a strategic key for the necessary revalorisation of endogenous resources, and it is a factor of territorial development, as well as an element that is needed to reaffirm the multifunctional character of the winemaking system. The aim of this paper is to study these kinds of identity-based elements in the vineyards of Castilla-La Mancha, the main wine production region in Spain, emphasising the elements that are related to intangible heritage, and specifically, their roles in festivals and folklore, which reinforce the territorial and multifunctional character of agrarian land use. In other words, not only do these factors promote the education and awareness of local cultures about the values of their territory from a heritage perspective, but they also have potential as tourist attractions, which can promote economic diversification of agricultural activities in the recent debates between productivism and post-productivism.

Highlights

There is a great historical tradition of viticulture in the European countries of the Mediterranean basin [1]
The objective of this article is to identify these identity-based elements that are related to intangible heritage, those found in festivals and folklore, as they reinforce the territorial and multifunctional character of land use
Even though the practices associated with winemaking are over a century old, this territorial and multifunctional character is only starting to become significant in the festivals that are currently being organised

Summary

Introduction

There is a great historical tradition of viticulture in the European countries of the Mediterranean basin [1]. The influence of these geographical factors can be more clearly recognised in the characteristics and qualities of the final product from grapevines than in any of the other crops These characteristics include aspects such as soil type, hours of sunlight, the nature of air masses and humidity, which are interrelated with human factors such as know-how, tradition, agrarian land use systems, the ways in which production is organised and the perfection of agronomic techniques. All of these factors are present in the final product. These different elements interact in a specific area, acting as a spatial foundation, in which winemaking practices have been carried out for centuries, and that currently defines a landscape that expresses both tradition and modernity

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