The DIAITA project aims to study in a deep and interdisciplinary way a fundamental theme common to Portuguese and Brazilian cultural heritage and identities: food history and culture.
It is constituted by a research network, ground-breaking in the Lusophone world, gathering Portuguese and Brazilian researchers. The team of researchers is from different areas (Philology, History, Archaeology, Museology, Art, Dietetics, Gastronomy, Nutrition, Media and Tourism), from Antiquity up to the present day.
Based on rigorous scientific research and on the reliable knowledge of the sources (written, material and iconographic), the goal is to write the history and evolution of food patterns that are still present today in Portuguese and Brazilian heritages.
The studies focus on the translation, analysis, and edition of written sources, either new or unavailable in Portuguese (such as Greek and Roman classical texts that are the matrix for the knowledge regarding the original Mediterranean food pattern, which was afterwards taken to Brazil by the Portuguese). Also, material and iconographic sources will be selected, analysed and made available for the first time, in digital format or paper (mostly texts), both for academic and general audiences.