Scientists and remaking heritage: the case of shiitake cultivation in a globally important agricultural heritage system in Japan

A growing number of traditional agricultural systems around the world have been designated Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS), as they are exemplars of the accumulated wisdom of human communities and their close relationship with the local ecology. Heritage inscription is a strategy used to conserve and increase awareness of this inheritance. However, the role of scientists in the construction and inscription of the agricultural heritage has been understudied. Through a qualitative methodology and participatory-observation research, this study examines biocultural heritage construction in a GIAHS in the Kunisaki Peninsula of Oita, Japan. Drawing on actor-network theory and based on the experience of scientists who specialise in traditional log-cultivated shiitake farming, this study demonstrates the role of non-human actors – a fungus-covered chip and shiitake, in particular – in the heritagisation process and the role of scientists in stabilising and destabilising the heritage network. I find that the heritage inscription process of the tradition of log-cultivated shiitake farming has created a new form of identity and moral capital associated not only with the conservation of Japanese food and agricultural heritage but also with the continued existence of local rural villages, protection of national food security and global environmental health.