Uncovering the sociomaterial assemblage of a culinary heritagization: The Wildschönauer Krautinger schnapps

Abstract

In the search for geographical and historical distinctiveness, the issue of culinary heritage has taken an important role in agri-food studies for safeguarding local culinary knowledge and traditions of food cultivation and production practices. However, it remains unclear how salient culinary heritage emphasizes the intertwining of tangible and intangible elements, and how sociocultural values and notions of terroir, tradition, and identity enable or constrain community-driven heritagization processes. In this paper, we aim to shed light on the sociomaterial assemblage of culinary heritagization by focusing on the case of a distilled turnip schnapps from the Alpine community of Wildschönau in Austria. We demonstrate how the Krautinger schnapps transitions from a subsistence to a commercial product, and how increasing marketization and demand challenges the relationship between commercialization and preservation of cultural heritage. By combining relational perspectives, sociomaterial approaches, and assemblage thinking, we discuss the constituent intertwining of human and nonhuman entities in the process of culinary heritagization. We apply the sociology of translation as a conceptual framework and identify four decisive moments that highlight the progression and continuity of the Krautinger's sociomaterial assemblage. Our study reveals issues and challenges that may arise for the local community in these moments of heritagization, including the chance of internal reconsolidation by recognizing nonhuman agency and bridging potential risks.