Changes in Pumpkin Seed Oil Production and Local Communities. Examples from the Hungarian-Slovenian Borderland
Changes in Pumpkin Seed Oil Production and Local Communities. Examples from the Hungarian-Slovenian Borderland

Summary/Abstract: The present study examines the heritagization processes associated with pumpkin seed oil, a product typical of the Slovenian-Hungarian borderland, that have evolved since the 2000s in a settlement in the Őrség region of Hungary and a settlement in the Slovenian region of Goričko. The study explores how innovations — in our case, the introduction and spread of new varieties of pumpkin — have transformed seed oil processing technologies, and the impact that this transformation has had on the culture of the local communities. Both examples can be regarded as success stories in their own way, since the examined communities can be said to have taken ownership of, and “appropriated,” this aspect of their traditional culture in advance of other settlements in the same region by connecting and binding it to their own locality. Today, there can be no doubt that these two settlements have “earned the right” to be permanent representatives of this unique cultural heritage and to exploit the opportunities it offers.

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