Cultural Value

Economic studies on the enhancement of cultural heritage usually suffer because of the misunderstanding of basic cultural notions, which subsequently compromises product policies. In particular, the notion of culture is interpreted according to an idealistic vision rather than a richer, updated anthropological meaning. Consequently, cultural value is reduced to an aesthetic dimension, viewed merely for entertainment and not for increasing human capital through the knowledge of history. The notion of landscape is also interpreted as an aesthetic notion and not as a palimpsest of past civilisations. The mission of the enhancement of cultural heritage is not usually appreciated as a merit good. Moreover, many professionals from the humanistic milieu commit the same mistakes, because their education is anchored in the idealistic tradition rather than to the statute of historical sciences as modified in the second half of the twentieth century according to the new social, economic, political and cultural context. These obstacles, combined with the lack of an interdisciplinary approach, produce a restricted vision of both the assets and the potential offer and the latent and current demand. To overcome such difficulties, this chapter aims to clarify the meaning of “historical cultural value” as historically determined and of additional notions including culture, cultural heritage, landscape, enhancement, and museum. In addition, particular attention is paid to the historical cultural value of food with respect to the need for authenticity in historical documents.