O cavalo como agente de transmissão do patrimônio cultural Europeu

The purpose of this European project is to question the role of the horse and riding within European heritage, contributing to Europeanization by sharing a common heritage of practices, representations and values. We will examine horses and riding through the prism of associated activities (sport, leisure, tourism, breeding, culture, agriculture etc.) and in terms of their image as symbols of European heritage. The construction of an equine heritage, through everyday riding in the context of agriculture, military, art, sport and leisure, is part of a collective European imagination with which the horse is closely associated. Pictorial and literary representations, and more recently those in film, reflect the symbolic richness which the horse has acquired since ancient times, and its evolution throughout the annals of European history.

This interdisciplinary study will question the extent to which traditional and modern breeds and uses of horses reflect lifestyle fashions, or European societies models, through questioning the relevance of scale (at a national level or at a more local level in regions such as the Mediterranean or Nordic areas) to the (re)production and transmission of European heritage. We will question the practices and processes through which this heritage is passed on, focus in on the stakes of its sustainability at each level.