Cultural aspects of Cultural aspects of Mediterranean salinas Mediterranean salinas

Abstract

.

Besides having been the ‘white gold’ on a global scale, salt and salt-making in the Mediterranean have been so important that one can refer to salt as a ‘cultural molecule’. Salt can be obtained in many ways that are related to its uses and applications; the culturally richest form of salt is the artisanal product. In the Mediterranean, salt has shaped history and given rise to towns, highways and trade routes. It has inspired philosophy and religion, challenged living and eating; sophisticated morals and customs; left behind strong symbolic and spiritual connotations in everyday language in the form of vocabulary, idioms, technical terms and place names. Due to their idiosyncratic saltmaking techniques, salinas host a variety of forms of cultural heritage such as tools, engineering devices, buildings and other architectural structures. Today, the Mediterranean salinas are disappearing due to their low competitiveness in a global market, and the artisanal salinas are facing the biggest challenge of all. In addition to their low competitiveness in comparison with other forms of salt manufacturing, artisanal salinas suffer from threats such as changes in their biophysical features, unco-ordinated management and sheer ignorance of their values. There are, however, many reasons why efforts to conserve Mediterranean salinas should continue: they host a unique biodiversity with extraordinary survival mechanisms and population numbers, with their distinctive microscopic flora and fauna, their halophytes and their large bird communities. They are a source of inspiration for material and intellectual creativity, as well as for mere aesthetic contemplation. To conclude, Mediterranean salinas can today serve as poles for local development in the region: they provide perfect settings for educational and cultural activities, attract specialised tourism and offer high quality products for gastronomic, therapeutic, industrial, and biotechnological use. This range of uses is helping to generate new jobs for qualified staff, as well as a reinforced sense of belonging for the stakeholders involved, which in turn strengthens the values of the sites.