Sjenica cheese as immaterial cultural heritage. An anthropological approach to the issue

Abstract

The paper deals with traditional technologies as immaterial cultural heritage and offers an ethnography which is the result of fieldwork conducted as part of the project of preparing documentation to list the technology of cheese manufacturing in the Sjenica region on the National list of immaterial cultural heritage. As part of this, the traditional technology of manufacture of Sjenica cheese has been considered, as well as the attempts by local actors to protect and preserve this technology. Following this there is an analysis of data collected through interviews with members of the local community - from cheese manufacturers themselves to individuals in different governing positions. This segment focuses on the ideas and comprehension which local actors exhibit on the topic of the importance of the product that they're trying to preserve, and as they themselves state "brand", but foremost on the issues which they face in this process. In the end, the potential possibilities of realizing the project of constructing an application which would help include Sjenica cheese on the list of Immaterial cultural heritage are analyzed. This segment focuses on the actions of local management as well as the possibility of professional anthropologists helping in the realization of this project.