The DIAITA transnational network aims to engage in a thorough and interdisciplinary exploration of a fundamental theme common to Portuguese and Brazilian cultural heritage and identity: food history and culture.
As the first research network of its kind in the Lusophone world, the project brings together Portuguese and Brazilian researchers. The researchers within the team specialise in different areas, including Philology, History, Archaeology, Museology, Art, Dietetics, Gastronomy, Nutrition, Media, and Tourism, fields that span from Antiquity to the present day.
Based on rigorous scientific research and reliable knowledge of written, material, and iconographic sources, the project seeks to document the history and evolution of food patterns that remain central to Portuguese and Brazilian cultures today.
The studies focus on the translation, analysis, and publishing of written sources, either new or unavailable in Portuguese. Examples of these would be Greek and Roman classical texts, the matrix of knowledge regarding the original Mediterranean food pattern, which would be later exported to Brazil by the Portuguese. Material and iconographic sources will also be selected, analysed, and made available for the first time, in digital format or paper (mostly through texts), for academic and general audiences alike.