Chapter Ten Naturalizing Culture in the Pyrenees: Heritage Processes and the Eternalization of Rural Societies Camila del Mármol and Ferran Estrada Introduction The analysis of heritage processes in the Catalan Pyrenees allows us to discuss the ‘naturalization of culture’ in rural contexts. These phenomena refer to the displacement of the concept of culture onto an idealized field of ‘nature’, allowing for the disguise of the underlying conditions of heritage politics. In these processes we find a particular intertwining of local ideas of authenticity, nature and the past; concepts that are fundamental for the making of heritage. From an ethnographical perspective, we focus our study on specific processes of naturalization of culture within rural contexts and in particular the fields of heritage production, rural architecture and food production.1 By ‘naturalization of culture’ we understand a historical and social process by which the conception of culture moves towards an idealized representation of nature. Building on a critical tradition stemming from Marx’s analysis of the eternalization of the relations of production, we analyze the mechanisms through which culture, and hence cultural heritage, becomes naturalized in the making of heritage. The understanding of heritage as an objectifying process by which some elements are reinterpreted and isolated from their original relations of production has already been denounced by several authors (Guillaume). Of course, we understand that this process is not exclusive to rural contexts. Rural contexts are likely to be understood as the optimal scenarios in which nature and culture appear to be ideally integrated, enabling a naturalization of rural culture and cultural heritage processes. This situation allows for the concealing of the political, economical and historical intermingled logics that are inherent to heritage practices. In this article we focus on the specific fields of rural architecture and food production in order to explore the processes by which 1 This research is based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in the Catalan Pyrenees developed by the two authors in different periods (especially between 2006 and 2011). This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science and the FEDER Program under Grant [‘Patrimonialización y redefinición de la ruralidad. Nuevos usos del patrimonio local’ (CSO2011-29413)]. 220 | Camila del Mármol and Ferran Estrada they become ‘naturalized’. Our analysis shows some of the sociopolitical consequences that the naturalization of culture brings about, highlighting its ability to preclude dissent and debate. In the next section we introduce some characteristics of the territory in which research has been carried out: Heritage, and more specifically heritage processes, are a crucial aspect of its current economic development. Following this, we discuss the naturalization of heritage in rural contexts and analyze the mechanisms by which present rural culture gradually becomes defined as belonging to the fields of ‘nature’, reminiscent of the past and of authenticity. Finally, we delve into certain domains of heritagization in the Catalan Pyrenees, namely rural architecture and the so-called productes de la terra (regional food products), to explore how the naturalization of culture is shaped within heritage processes. Heritage in the Catalan Pyrenees The Catalan Pyrenees, in northwest Spain, have experienced a complex set of transformations during the last century; these have brought about a new organization of social, economic and political structures that offer new ways of conceiving the territory and new uses of the existing resources (Vaccaro and Beltran; Roigé and Frigolé; López i Gelat et al.). Our research was conducted in different areas of the Pyrenees and the adjacent mountainous areas of Catalonia, such as the Alt Urgell, Val d’Aran, Alta Ribagorça and the Montseny Massive. Analogous processes to those observed in this territory can be found in other areas of Europe: a changing rural economy and occupational structures that have allowed for a diversified and uneven developing of the land, which has brought about new activities and services (see Lowe et al.). However, these processes should not be understood as a sudden change; ie as the sudden abandonment of traditional agriculture in favor of a tourist based economy; but rather as a progressive transformation that owes much to the dynamics of depopulation, to the local effects of the global economy and to the development of new values and uses of the territory towards a new rural modernity (Collantes). During the 20th century, the progressive weakening of traditional subsistence livelihoods based on small-scale agro-ranching activities and forest uses was a common feature of the Pyrenees’ regional economy. These processes came together with the implementation of new economic activities such as mining, large scale timber extraction, hydropower plants, and factories of all types (Vaccaro; Campillo et al.). In some areas an important dairy industry developed, changing the previous patterns of traditional activities (Tulla; Gascón). These changes, together with the impact arising from the economic interactions with the industrialized lowland areas, resulted in profound social transformations, including an acute dynamic of rural depopulation (Ayuda and Pinilla; Molina). Naturalizing Culture in the Pyrenees | 221 The successive transformations experienced during the 20th century ended up reorienting the use of the territory towards new conceptualizations of the territory. Landscape, nature, and culture became new commodities for urban consumption, giving rise to a leisure economy based on the heritagization of nature and culture (Vaccaro and Beltran; Frigolé, Producció cultural de lloc). By heritagization we refer to a series of processes that affect the local uses of the past, adapting them to the standardized models of representation and interpretation of the past within heritage hegemonic discourses (Smith 2006). Heritage products are one result of these processes, ready for consumption by a widely urban population. The expansion of heritage as a hegemonic idiom worldwide has been largely discussed by several authors (Herzfeld; Franquesa; Collins, among others). In the past decades, heritage processes have developed in mountain areas together with the restructuring of the productive model. The progressive disarticulation of traditional agroranching activities, together with the impacts of global capitalism and European policies, have enhanced the intensity of the restructuring of these territories’ profitability in the face of the new demands and needs of the contemporary economy, thus fostering the emergence of new postindustrial landscapes (Sivaramakrishnan and Vaccaro). We understand heritagization as a process that alters the significance of an array of elements from the past within a specific, present social and economic context, resulting in new products which are labelled as ‘heritage’. By outlining it as a “mode of cultural production”, heritage is understood as a process of meaning-generation which produces new categories and acts as a device that re-signifies territories, resources and people (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 7). Nature, landscape and local culture have been thus transformed and redefined within these new discourses, allowing for a reconceptualization of both the material contexts and the local imaginaries. Different authors have referred to the ever-increasing array of elements that are considered heritage (Heinich; Bendix), thus fostering an inflationary dynamic by which almost everything can be turned into the legitimate heritage of a certain society (Hartog). In the following pages we provide a characterization of the ways in which these general processes of heritagization materialize; in particular, heritage politics within specific rural areas of the Catalan Pyrenees. Rural areas in Europe share common features in relation to demographic, economic and social patterns. Though not identical, they have been considered from a generalist perspective by some government bodies, for example the European Union. In the framework of the EU structural funds, and especially regarding some documents such as the report The Future of Rural Society (European Commission 32) which is seen as the first step towards rural development in Europe, tourism has been identified as a strategic development sector for rural and mountainous areas. This document analyses the characteristics of European rural areas and their evolution over the past decades, stating a situation of “structural backwardness” especially in the Mediterranean regions (European Commission 22 – 23). The aim of the European Commission seems here to define a pol- 222 | Camila del Mármol and Ferran Estrada icy framework that deals with the standard problems confronting these areas, one of them being the “protection of the environment and development of the countryside”, in order to promote the development of areas “providing recreation and leisure for the city-dwellers” (European Commission 32). This document also stresses the need to defend “the cultural heritage (architecture, folklore, etc.) […] not only in its own right but also because in many areas it is the key to the development of tourism” (European Commission 40). The concept of heritage appears as a tool that underlies the wider process of creating new tourism destinations. Incentives to develop tourism in the Catalan Pyrenees were part of local government plans and measures and EU structural development funds, mostly from the 1980s onwards (Del Mármol). The conversion of the Pyrenees into a tourist destination originated in the 19th century and was influenced by similar processes to those occurring in the Alps (Briffaud). However, it was not until the 20th century that the tourist development infiltrated the whole area. From the 1980s onwards, the tragic reality of depopulation has been turned into an idyllic representation of seclusion that is thought to be attractive to visiting urban dwellers. Many actions have been implemented, including the creation of natural parks, a series of town planning measures to preserve the landscape, the improvement of transport infrastructure, the recovery of old paths, the creation of ethnographic heritage sites such as ethnographic museums, an increase in the appreciation of local festivals and celebrations, and the restoration of churches and monuments that are considered to be of historical interest (see Frigolé, Producció cultural de lloc; Roigé and Frigolé; Roigé and Estrada; Vaccaro and Beltran). The discourses transforming the Pyrenees into a tourist attraction responded to the strategic objectives defined within different developmental plans, as with the aforementioned approach put forward by the European Commission as well as similar documents stemming from national and Catalan governments. Considered together, it could be said that these development plans place the region within a political agenda that integrates a series of common directives for the future of European rural areas (Vaccaro and Beltran). At the same time, the outcome of this integration of the regions into a major social representational model is to promote a unified Europe that finds in its rural areas the remnant of its traditions and the roots of its immanent identities. These new ways of considering the territory have resulted in new sociopolitical and economical uses of the past that are a fundamental aspect of the heritagization of the Pyrenees. Naturalizing Culture We contend that the naturalization of culture is a characteristic of heritage processes in rural areas. By ‘naturalization of culture’ we mean a historical and social process by which the conception of culture moves towards an idealized representation of nature. In his Grundrisse, Marx unfolds the processes by which Naturalizing Culture in the Pyrenees | 223 production is presented “as encased in eternal natural laws independent of history, at which opportunity bourgeois relations are then quietly smuggled in as the inviolable natural laws on which society in the abstract is founded” (37). This critical tradition paves the way for an analysis oriented to restoring the historic and social processes that allow for the naturalization of the social as an eternal and universal abstraction. Bourdieu argues along these lines when analyzing the historical mechanisms responsible for the relative dehistorization and eternalization of the structure of the sexual division. In this sense, he reminds us that “what appears, in history, as being eternal is merely the product of a labor of eternalization performed by interconnected institutions such as the family, the church, the state, the educational system” (viii). Following his claim of “combating these historical forces of dehistorization” (viii), we propose to analyze the mechanism by which culture is being naturalized within certain heritage processes, turning it into an element detached from history; an abstraction, eternal and absolute and devoid of its historical meanings. The ‘naturalization of culture’ as a social process works by projecting qualities associated with the realm of nature into sociocultural elements. If ‘nature’ is regarded as “trans-historic, trans-social and trans-cultural” and it “builds a consensus in relation to its safeguarding” (Jeudy 5),2 the naturalization of culture would imply the transference of this array of attributes to the domain of culture. Marc Guillaume has already denounced the ‘naturalization’ of conservation politics that gives rise to a naturalized vision of heritage both natural and cultural. In order to understand these processes, we examine the various meanings of the concept of nature in our societies. This topic has been discussed thoroughly by different authors (Descola; Strathern; Williams). Williams long ago stated that an analysis of the different ideas of nature, its changes and historic transformations, would be far beyond the scope of a single piece of writing (68). We do not pretend to delve into the complex characteristics and meanings of the dichotomy of nature-culture within the Western tradition, since Strathern has already argued that “nature and culture cannot be resolved into a single dichotomy” (178). We will leave aside the debate around the contending interpretations concerning the different ontological settings for the idea of “nature” or the “environment”, such as those positions defended by well-known contemporary scholars (e. g. Latour, Descola, Viveiros de Castro, Ingold, Escobar). Instead, we will focus on three main aspects of the meaning of nature in a local context that we place within the consciously overgeneralized pool of “Western-capitalist” societies.3 What we will try to do therefore is to explore general assumptions about the concept of nature, 2 3 In French in the original: “appelle un consensus autour de sa sauvagarde malgré toutes les formes de destruction qu’elle peut subir.” For these ideas we are building on common definitions of the term ‘nature’ in English, Catalan and Spanish (see Oxford Dictionary, Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana de l’Institut d’Estudis Catalans and Diccionario de la Real Academia Española). 224 | Camila del Mármol and Ferran Estrada and to understand what we have come to call the naturalization of culture in the Pyrenees as: 1. The understanding of the phenomena of the physical world as a reality external to humans. 2. An idealized image of the environment, unscathed by human activities. 3. The basic, essential, innate or inherent features, character, or qualities of something or someone, carrying within this a sense of inevitability. Building upon these meanings, the naturalization of culture would imply: 1. On the one hand, a conceptualization of culture as a reality external to humans, that is, an abstraction with a life of its own, emulating the process by which nature is understood as external to humans. In this sense, culture is represented as an isolated and reified concept; uprooted from the uncertainties of social relations from which it emerges. 2. On the other hand, the naturalization of culture involves casting certain idealized attributes and essential qualities associated with nature over sociocultural realities. These realities, or a part of them, are therefore thought of as being close to nature; this would mean that certain elements of the social and cultural life of people share attributes with an idealized and rather fixed idea of nature that escapes the social process of becoming. 3. Finally, and related to the second point, naturalizing culture supposes perceiving some elements of the social and cultural realm as essential features of society; in the sense that they are (or should be) what they are on the basis of a natural imperative. It is ‘natural’ that they are like this. Authenticity, Past and Nature Diverse authors (Poulot; Lowenthal; Heinich; among others) have pointed to the role of concepts such as ‘authenticity’ and the ‘past’ as central categories for understanding heritage processes. In order to analyze the naturalization of culture within heritage we should also attend to the intertwining of these categories with the idea of nature. Accordingly, we will follow the meanings of these concepts as a way of disclosing the constituting relationships that underpin some of the ideological foundations of what we call the naturalization of culture. ‘Authentic’ can be split into two basic meanings: the first is related to the undisputed origin or authorship of an element; its genuine character; its legitimacy to represent a significant feature of something. The second definition is related to the idea of being true or loyal to the original, or to its principles or origin. Thus, an important aspect of ‘authenticity’ is its relation with origin. Benjamin states that “the authenticity of a thing is the essence of all that is transmis- Naturalizing Culture in the Pyrenees | 225 sible from its beginning, ranging from its substantive duration to its testimony to the history which it has experienced” (221). This origin means also a relation to the past; that is, to the history of the object in the sense of its tradition. In fact, what is at risk in the era of mechanical reproduction is the ‘aura’ of the work of art, since “the technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition” (221). MacCannell has long followed a similar line of thinking: For moderns, reality and authenticity are thought to be elsewhere: in other historical periods and other cultures, in purer, simpler life-styles. In other words, the concern of moderns with ‘naturalness’, their nostalgia and their search for authenticity are not merely casual and somewhat decadent, though harmless, attachments to the souvenirs of destroyed cultures and dead epochs. They are also components of the conquering spirit of modernity – the grounds of its unifying consciousness. (3) A nostalgic approach to the past is a common feature in the search for authenticity and in heritage politics. The further away something is considered to be, in temporal or spatial terms, the more authentic it is perceived as being. The idea of origin is developed within an evolutionary approach in which ‘older’ works are also considered to be ‘more authentic’. García Canclini posits that “the idea of authenticity idealized some moment of the past as a sociocultural paradigm; thus throwing into oblivion the fact that every culture is the result of selection processes” (187).4 There is indeed a certain correlation between ideas of past and authenticity and the concept of nature as understood in our societies. On the one hand, the different meanings of authenticity are closely linked to the meaning of nature explored above. ‘Authentic’ in its sense of ‘trustworthy’ is close to the idea of ‘nature’ as referring to the essential features of something or someone (a person, an element or institution) that has not been transformed or ‘denaturalized’ but has remained authentic. On the other hand, ‘authentic’ is related to the meaning of ‘nature’, as we have seen, in the form of an idealization of the environment. As for the concept of the ‘past’, it is also closely related to assumptions regarding ideas about nature and culture. We have already referred to a conception of nature and culture as opposed and differentiated entities prevailing in our society (Descola; Strathern; Yanagisako and Delaney). Nature is usually conceived as being prior to culture: an entity that is preexistent and independent from human development (see Fabian).5 The tendency to assimilate the ‘natural’ with an a priori has already been denounced by Strathern as being a consequence of a specific intellectual tradition within our own culture. The basic conception under4 5 In Spanish in the original: “la idea de autenticidad idealiza algún momento del pasado como paradigma sociocultural, y olvida que toda cultura es resultado de una selección.” Yanagisako and Delaney (4) explore the transition from a ‘God-given’ nature in the biblical worldview to a “rule-governed Nature, stripped off it cosmological moorings and therefore presumably generalizable to all peoples.” 226 | Camila del Mármol and Ferran Estrada lying these ideas is that humanity, in the course of its evolution, grew progressively apart from nature due to the development of culture. From this stems the idea that the older a cultural element, the more ‘natural’ it is. Furthermore, one could say that in heritage processes the reverse relation is likewise important: the more ‘natural’ an element is considered to be, the older it is. In this sense, those sociocultural elements that are thought of as being closer to nature are also deemed more ancient. This would be the case in the practice of transhumance, for instance, which is seen, analyzed and valorized as a millenary practice that has not changed since Neolithic times (see Estrada, Nadal and Iglesias); such logic however ignores the contemporary context of transhumance and the actual ways it has been practiced up until the last decades of the past century. These kind of local, ethnohistorical observations can be framed within more general analyses concerned with the uses of the past and its values in contemporary societies (Appadurai; Lowenthal; Jameson; Bensa and Fabra; Kaneef). Frigolé (Patrimonialization and the mercantilization of the authentic, 28) contends that the production of heritage also entails the production of the past, allowing for the emergence of a new multiplicity of conceptions and uses of it. He argues that an important conception of the past, as it works within heritage processes, is the one related to the origins. These “origins”, as a special vision of the past, are widely spread within heritage discourses. It is usually referred to as an original state of elements; these elements are considered aside of any logic of transformation that could eventually ‘denaturalize’ them. As we have seen, both the concept of ‘authenticity’ and the ‘past’ are closely related to idealized conceptions of nature, especially within heritage processes. As we will see in the next section, we can also find these concepts to be central ideas of the discourses that configure the new values and practices of heritagization in rural contexts. Approaching Culture to Nature in Rural Contexts In our field research, we observed that the Pyrenees have undergone a specific process that has shaped the place as a tourist attraction, especially over the last thirty years. We have referred to this as a process of enchantment, in which negative considerations have been transformed into attractions that feed from romantic traditions and bucolic perspectives to entice visitors (Del Mármol). Nature has been an important aspect of this process and it is still considered an essential feature of the tourist attraction. Natural parks and protected areas have long existed in the Pyrenees but they proliferated particularly from the 1980s onwards due to the new legislative framework that emerged after the Franco dictatorship and with the influence of the European Union environmental programs (Vaccaro and Beltran). As an example: 46,6 % of the Alt Pirineu and the region of Aran (encompassing most of the Catalan Pyrenees territory) is currently located within some Naturalizing Culture in the Pyrenees | 227 type of natural protection area.6 Nowadays, this area is described in tourist brochures as: A place where you and nature are in perfect harmony, making you feel beautiful and good inside. A land marked by soaring mountains, a rich cultural heritage and exceptional cuisine. Unspoiled nature surrounds you as you enjoy sports activities, visits to natural parks and a culture stretching back to ancient times. A cradle of cultures where ancient customs and traditions have been preserved. Calmly savour the essence of a life that retains its authenticity.7 Bruner and Salazar, among others, have studied the multiple links between tourism and imagination, offering a critical analysis of some social representations of such links. For Bruner (21) “Metanarratives are the largest conceptual frame within which tourism operates.” Salazar, in turn, understands imaginaries as “socially transmitted representational assemblages that interact with people’s personal imaginings and are used as meaning-making and world-shaping devices” (864). Salazar focuses on tourist imaginaries to understand the way in which tourism (re)invents and (re)shapes identities and destinations. The ‘natural’ character of rural areas must be thus thought of as part of these imaginative devices that support tourist discourses. Salazar calls for us to understand such imaginaries not as fixed meanings; rather, we must remain alert to new forms of meaning-making and their circulation, as this is what currently shapes many parts of the rural world. Heritage processes in rural areas are therefore mediated by specific imaginaries that have historically shaped social representations of place. The Catalan Pyrenees have for a long time been represented by a romantic vision under the auspices of famous writers and intellectuals close to the Renaixença (Jimenez and Prats). 8 From the perspective of this movement, the Pyrenees are seen as the cradle of Catalan identity. The mountains are understood as a place of purity, where nature is expressed in all its majesty. Thus, the Pyrenees were represented as a refuge of old values and ancient traditions. In the same vein, the way the inhabitants were regarded changed from close-minded and unpleasant people to a new image which is closer to that of the ‘noble savage’ (see Roma). An idealized image of nature in its pristine form has ever since been a structural component in the shaping of the Pyrenean imaginaries. Vaccaro and Beltran (17) have already referred to a recent ‘naturalization of rural landscape’ in the form of an environmental recovery occurring after the decrease in agricultural pressure on the land. To this we must add the naturalization of culture and cultural heritage that finds in the rural context an idealized scenario in which culture and nature appears to 6 7 8 Source: Departament de Territori i Sostenibilitat, Generalitat de Catalunya. Idescat, 2013. Visit Pirineus, Generalitat de Catalunya. Available from: <http://www.visitpirineus.com/ca/ pirineus> Last accessed 13/08/2014. The Renaixença is a romantic literary movement interested in the revival of Catalan language and culture that developed in Catalonia at the beginning of the nineteenth century. 228 | Camila del Mármol and Ferran Estrada converge. They are a direct consequence of the idealization of the rural world, believed to be more ‘natural’ than the urban contexts. Within this idealization, fields became nature (Acosta). Agricultural and mountain areas where industrialization had an uneven impact have been turned into representations of an alleged pristine nature detached from the urban and modern world. This comes hand in hand with representations of traditional ways of life, purer environments, natural and healthy productions, etc. Acosta argues that these areas work nowadays as reservoirs of cultural and natural meanings (91). In the following examples we will emphasize the hegemonic character of heritage processes in order to follow the impact of discourses oriented towards the naturalization of culture. As we will show, the stress on the hegemonic character of developmental plans and policies is important to understand the evolution of the area.9 Architecture Architecture in the Catalan Pyrenees has undergone a process of heritagization in the past decades. Old images from the towns can be seen in different contexts. They illustrate tourist pamphlets and brochures and decorate walls in bars, restaurants and private houses. What is noteworthy when observing these pictures from the past is the similarly outward appearance that some hamlets seem to conserve. At first sight, ochre hues and earthy color tones prevail, and in some cases the size of towns remains rather similar to what it was in the past. These features can lead the distracted observer to believe that continuity with the past is a natural result of a traditional way of construction that remains alive in the present. A closer analysis however, confronts us with the strategic aims of a rural architecture that in recent times has become a touristic attraction of the Catalan Pyrenees (Roigé, Estrada and Beltran). Local architecture in these areas has been subject to a strict selection of features that shape an idealized ‘traditional style’. Adherence to such features has been ensured through specific measures such as legal documents on urban planning that define and apply these new conceptions of traditional style to the Pyrenean towns. Interestingly, these external representations of the ‘local style’ have been largely accepted by local populations, changing the representations and values of what is considered ‘appropriate’ and ‘beautiful’ regarding architecture. 9 Nonetheless, we do not ignore the counterhegemonic power embedded in heritage discourses, which has been thoroughly analysed in recent works (Collins; Breglia; Franquesa; De Cesari; Smith et al.). We have elsewhere analysed the production of heritage discourses on a local level, unpacking the competing definitions that must be contextualized in broader processes of debate and opposition (Roigé and Estrada; Del Mármol). Though the growing interest of those working on heritage studies in the complex implications of heritage processes that go beyond simplistic top-down approaches, the hegemonic character of heritage discourses cannot be ignored. Naturalizing Culture in the Pyrenees | 229 Building techniques and styles have become a common topic of conversation, through which to discuss changing values and conflicting visions of the territory. Both the analysis of the legislation on urban planning, rules and documents10 as well as our ethnographic research reveal a novel definition of a legitimate “rural architecture”, referred to as the “traditional way of construction” of the area. In this regard, we contend that heritage processes outlining the architectural “tradition” of the Catalan Pyrenees have led to a naturalization of certain styles and building techniques. As a result, a somewhat homogenized style can be observed across the mountains, a clear dominance of stonewalls and red or grey slate roofs and wooden doors and windows. It is not just the materials that are strictly determined by urban and construction regulation (mostly stemming from local and regional authorities); the heights of the buildings, the degree of inclination for rooftops, openings and designs are also regulated. Recent depopulation and the isolated character of some villages have helped in many cases to prevent the excesses of the construction bubble that have been the norm in Spain in recent decades. Other areas more related to tourism and secondary house development11 in the past years have also implemented specific measures to preserve the idyllic appearance of rural traditional construction. This style, defined as traditional and rural, is understood as an inheritance of ancient ways of life that are recalled as being “embedded nature.” An example can be found in the type of materials used for the exterior of buildings in the area. Houses are usually built of stone, wood, grey or red slate: these materials are deemed as being “local” and they reinforce the image of natural constructions, using elements extracted directly from nature without being previously transformed. There is an extended idea that this traditional style responds to a functional way of building, adapted to the natural conditions of the environment and to the needs of its dwellers. In this sense, it is con10 Llei 4/1980, de 16 de desembre, de creació de l’Institut Catalá del Sol; Llei 9/1981, de 18 de novembre, sobre protecció de la legalitat urbanística; Llei 37/1984, del 9 de gener, de mesures d’adecuació de l’ordenament urbanístic de Catalunya; Projecte de Delimitació de Sòl Urbà dels Municipis de Fígols-Alinyà, la Vansa-Fórnols y Josa-Tuixent; Llei 2/2002 de 14 de març, d’urbanisme (DOGC 3600, de 21/03/2002) modificada per la Llei 10/2004 d’urbanisme (DOGC 4291, de 30/12/2004), i definida pel Decret Legislatiu 1/2005 de 26 de juliol (DOGC 4436, de 28/07/2005); El Pla Territorial Parcial de l’Alt Pirineu i Aran (DOGC 4714, de 07/09/2006) deriva de la Llei 23/1983 de Política Territorial (DOGC 385, de 30/11/1983) i del Pla Territorial General (LLei 1/1995, de 16 març). 11 Population patterns are an important aspect of the recent transformations in the Catalan Pyrenees. After several waves of depopulation during the 20th century, this tendency stagnated at the end of the past century. The villages in the upper valleys usually present very low population indexes that is composed of mainly older local residents and some younger inhabitants that could be both locally born or neo-rurals, as they have come to be called. Another important category of local population, especially in the most depopulated villages, are second residents owning a summer or weekend house. They could be both emigrants that have always kept their family houses, or just outsiders (normally originating from other areas of the Catalan territory) that felt attracted by the area. Bigger cities should be excluded from this rough draft that corresponds to small villages and hamlets situated mostly in the upper valleys. 230 | Camila del Mármol and Ferran Estrada ceived as a ‘natural architecture’, in opposition to artificial and modern types of construction. Traditional architecture would thus ˝emanate from the territory.”12 The documents referred to above clearly define a new “traditional typology” that must be adhered to, which includes guidelines about permitted materials and even the colors of the outside walls. This new typology, based on alleged traditional practices, will outline the current and future appearance of most villages and buildings in the area. These processes have been shaped by associating local architecture with traditional methods of construction that are supposedly ‘more natural’, since they are understood as being a result of traditional knowledge that has been passed down from rural societies from the past. Thus, the new architectural parameters have been shaped under the influence of specific images of rusticity that give rise to an ‘aesthetics of nature’. ‘Natural’ materials and construction techniques are prioritized, as well as chromatic tones using natural pigments that mimic the nuances of the local landscape. The bucolic ambience that these normative features would appear to give to the villages and hamlets obscures a strict regulation that has prevented many valleys from attempting alternative avenues of economic development. Following traditional patterns of construction and prioritizing specific materials often results in an increase in building prices. The obligation to respect the traditional volumetric parameters of construction also makes it difficult to open small enterprises that would need bigger units to be able to operate. These regulations become stiffer when referring to hamlets that are within or close to the natural parks. In this regard, many local inhabitants criticize the current legislation on urban planning on the basis that it limits the diversity of possible uses of the territory. The emphasis these norms and legislations put on the decorative and aesthetic aspects of construction in the area ignore other negative impacts on the territory and its people. For example, the growing residential areas oriented towards secondary residences in different areas of the Pyrenees require urban services such as drinking water, sewage systems and garbage collection; such services will be required for only a few days every year and are not economically sustainable by local councils out of the peak season. Moreover, this construction model generates speculative dynamics that prioritize building activities over agricultural and ranching practices, which are forced to compete for scarce land in mountain areas. These processes have an important effect on the depopulation indexes in these territories, since the increased prices of land and houses push the younger generation to emigrate. 12 Plan Nacional de Salvaguarda de la Arquitectura Tradicional, 2014. Naturalizing Culture in the Pyrenees | 231 Productes de la Terra The concept of productes de la terra (regional produce) has similar connotations in Spanish, French and Catalan speaking regions, usually alluding to the link between some products (ideally manufactured) with the land and the territory (Bérard and Merchaney; Grasseni). Regional food products are an excellent example of an element that integrates ideas of nature and culture, authenticity and the past, in the complex process of its heritagization. Several examples from the Catalan Pyrenees and adjacent areas exemplify the heritagization of the productes de la terra (Espeitx, Massanés and Cáceres). These processes can be framed against the backdrop of the notion of ‘risk’ projected towards the production of food under the industrial condition of global capitalism (Medina). According to Medina, this is expressed in the increasing alienation of the production processes involved in the food industry. A prevalent idea is that ‘traditional processes of production’ are directly controlled by people, in contrast to the industrial modes of production, that are perceived as escaping human control. The result is an increasing nostalgic desire to consume ‘traditional products’ that are deemed ‘purer and more natural’. Traditional forms of production are being shaped and revalorized within complex processes of evaluation and meaning that include the production of ‘traditional practices’ that must however match current regulations and markets. The label of heritage is applied to food products in the form of certificates of origin (for example PDO -protected designation of origin- and PGI -protected geographical indication- within the EU). One example is the cheese production of the Alt Urgell, in the Catalan Pyrenees. Building on a long tradition of milk and dairy industry developing from the beginning of the 20th century, the region has more recently struggled to reach new markets with its artisanal cheese. This transformation of meanings and products is built on two separate local traditions that nowadays have merged into a single narrative. The first tradition in question is the region’s long history of milk and dairy industry that has prompted an important transformation of the local productive patterns both in relation to agricultural uses and industry development (see Del Mármol and Vaccaro). From the 1950s onwards, the local dairy industry developed a specialization in cheese and butter, to be sold mostly in urban areas. The second local tradition is relatively more recent, first appearing in the 1980s, but is symbolically connected with older traditions. New inhabitants attracted by the material and social conditions of the territory settled in at a time when the area was strongly depopulated; inspired by an ideal of self-sufficiency these new categories of the local population came to be known as ‘hippies’. Many of these new residents developed new handicraft activities, targeting the new markets opened by a growing tourist economy. Many of them specialized in the artisanal manufacturing of cheese. Besides the technical developments in these modes of production, an important symbolic work has been undertaken in order to explicitly relate these contemporary artisanal activi- 232 | Camila del Mármol and Ferran Estrada ties with past practices developed within peasant households in the context of the subsistence economies. Part of the new artisanal activities were imported practices and know-how from different contexts, as we can infer from the fact that many producers of artisanal cheese traveled to France in order to learn the local methods and knowledge of cheese production. These separate histories were presented as being convergent within the new narratives that tried to position the Alt Urgell area as a cheese production center for the Pyrenees. Accordingly, an important trade fair of artisanal cheese products has been organized in the capital of the region every year since 1999, and several certificates of origin within the European Union regulations have been obtained. These certificates work as legitimating devices, adding value and meaning to forms of production that are reminiscent of the natural territory and traditional and vernacular ways of subsistence in which they originated. Despite the clear discontinuities in the history of the milk and cheese production in the area during the past century, the efforts to present a discourse of continuity reveals the inner-workings of heritage processes. The discourses of continuity within an imagined past are key to understanding the production of value (both economic and symbolic) and the legitimatization of current practices of production. This example illustrates how the association of contemporary practices with specific values related to ‘nature’ and ‘rural culture’ is fundamental for the production of heritage processes in rural areas such as the Catalan Pyrenees. The positive connotations of concepts related to nature and rural culture work as instruments of the politics of heritage. Certificates of origin are part of this process, by which ideas of authenticity of origins, tradition and closeness to nature are used to promote new products. The emphasis on an idealized past both conceals the complexity of the relations of production that is a constitutive part of the new products and obscures the contradictory relations that these practices have with global and national regulations (Bérard and Marchenay; Paxson). Patterns of hygiene and environmental restrictions are in this regard an important aspect of the contemporary economy of ecologic and certified productions, sometimes overshadowing their disciplinary consequences over products, places and local forms of social organization (see Grasseni as an example). Conclusions In this essay we have explored the ‘naturalization of culture’ as a driver of logics within heritage processes in rural contexts. Exploring the specific context of heritagization in the Catalan Pyrenees, we have reflected on the current dynamics of heritage politics. As a result, we have shown how ‘nature’ can work as a powerful device, creating symbolic values that can be transformed into economic values in the market. Authenticity and antiquity have also been examined as powerful domains of social imagination mobilized within these processes. Nature can Naturalizing Culture in the Pyrenees | 233 be idealized as a collective good, but also, through the process of its heritagization, transformed into a commodity ready to be consumed (Vaccaro and Beltran). In this sense, the naturalization of culture seems to involve the revalorization of certain cultural elements. We have argued that this revalorization aims at commercializing some “authentic” natural-cultural elements that are made salient within the logics of heritagization. Despite our specific ethnographic context, we think that our case study can contribute to a rethinking of the politics of heritage in rural contexts in general. We have stressed the role that the perception of the ‘naturalness’ of certain cultural elements plays in the process of their heritagization and argued that in some cases those elements considered to be closer to nature may become the ideological and material drivers of some heritage processes. Within the domain of rural architecture, we have seen how traditional methods of construction that are allegedly more natural have been identified as being “the local architecture,” both by governmental bodies and from the perspective of the local population. To a great extent, the heritagization of rural architechture is sustained by the hegemonic understanding that local architectural forms stem from the traditional knowledge of rural societies from the past. 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