Paper long abstract:

The last decade of the 20th century in Serbia was marked, among other societal phenomena, by tremendous changes in people's everyday diet and the proliferation of new recipes. This change was a direct consequence of massive pauperization of population, caused by the economic crisis and the UN sanctions imposed in the early 1990s. As a result of rapid pauperization and constant shortages of basic food products in the early 1990s, people had to adjust their diets and to make do without most foods they used to consume until 1990s. Even though the socio-political situation has changed since 2000, with the liberalization of the market and opening of the economy to the world, thus ending the food shortages, the abundance of food in supermarkets today is still out of reach for majority of its citizens because of very high prices of food and monopolization on the food market in Serbia.

Paper short abstract:

In postmigrant society of western Poland, after collapse of communist ideologies, when the memories of prewar dwellers are fading away, the regional tradition of winemaking needs to be reinvented. Throughout last decade wineries came back, and many different histories of wine identity are created.

Paper long abstract:

In postmigrant society of western Poland there is a huge social demand for the "story about homeland". After collapse of communist ideologies, and when the memories of prewar dwellers are fading away, the regional tradition needs to be revitalized or, simply written, reinvented. For fifty years after WWII the German identity of the region have been erased and wineries disappeared from the social memories. Throughout last decade wineries came back, and the 'wine identity' of the region is becoming more and more popular. At the same time there are a few social interpretations, "histories" crystallized around wineries and winemaking. These histories are legitimating wine producing and supporting regional identity but also constitute divisions inside the community. The structure and content of each history reflects the position of social agent using it. In that sense the social interpretation of winemaking became the scene of negotiating regional identity and "domesticating" the new homeland.

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Paper long abstract:

This paper analyses how food, subject of policies, plays an essential role in the organization of cuban society and in the construction of an imagined world. Based on my ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Ciudad de la Habana since 2007, the paper shows how Cubans seem to prefer "Status food"- bought in US dollars and above the potential incoming - to "State food"- given by the State through the "libreta" and bought for a few cuban pesos. My ethnographic interviews let me focus on how the State is an object of imagination and how it is involved in the desires sphere of the population.

The island of Cuba is under an economic restriction and a commercial embargo stiffened up in the 1990s by U.S.A. Despite that, according to recent statistics, Cuba is characterized by an high index of human development in relation to education, health, and birth expectations. This complex social, economic, and political situation sets Cuba apart from the rest of the Third World. Alimentation is one of the rights guaranteed by the State that - through the so-called "Canasta Basica" - provides food rations for the daily nutritional needs. Thus, in this paper, I assume that the predilection for "status food" has a political outcome and allows cuban people to express their idea of a new "imagined State", neighter only concentrating on aesthetic issues - fat body or slim body - nor on the creation of individual, social, religious or ethnic relationships.

Paper short abstract:

The paper examines foodways in a Bolivian Andean community and analyses how the inhabitants use food in order to position themselves in relation to other people. While I describe everyday practices, I also take a self-critical look at the legitimacy of my work.

Paper long abstract:

During fieldwork in 2008/09 in Cabreca, a small community in the Bolivian Andes, I became fascinated with the ways in which the inhabitants use food in order to position themselves geographically and in relation to other people. My presentation will focus on everyday practices revolving around production and consumption and show that for Cabrequeños food is not only a source of energy; it is used as a medium in order to confirm and challenge social relationships. Rules whether explicitly stated or unspoken are reworked, and social networks are negotiated through foodways and the sharing of food. While permanent movement in the area has always characterised Cabreca lifestyle, attempts to connect to the global world constantly raise new challenges.

In this self-critical reflection on anthropology and on ethnography I ask how legitimate my work is and how the anthropology of food contributes to a deeper understanding of Cabreca life.

Paper short abstract:

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Paper long abstract:

In January 2010, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) was to publish a list of accepted health claims made on industrial food products. Most of these health claims concern the alleged benefits of micronutrients present in or added to industrial food products or functional foods. The first part of this paper will give an overview of innovation and technology in the European food industry with the aim of providing physical or psychological health benefits 'beyond basic nutrition'. In the second part, food will be looked at through the lens of power. Throughout human history, different authorities have prescribed what one should (not) eat. What is at stake then, when health claims and food become technological? Finally, it will be tentatively argued that an anthropology of technofood should translate the discourse of market, competitiveness and 'optimized health' in terms of techno-scientific imagination, magical thinking and (bio)power.

Paper long abstract:

In contemporary society, characterized by the spread of contradictory discourses around food, by alimentary hyper-reflexivity and by the gradual individualization of food choices and the risks related to them, food is increasingly becoming a means of personal (e.g. nutritionism, scientific and spontaneous dietaries, eating disorders, consumption of industrial organic products) and global (alternative modalities of production and consumption) identity crisis management, as well as a tool that allows the construction of new subjectivities, forms of belonging and planning, and of specific worldviews.

The paper critically examines some of the hegemonic discursive forms (nutritionist rhetoricals, advertising narratives, techniques of food traceability and labeling, certification, speeches which promote alternative food production and consumption) that determine those food choices and consumption practices through which individuals try to create a certain model of self and the world. Food may be considered as a "technology of the self" and alimentary practices may be considered as strategies, creative modes of resistance and subversion of institutionalized structures of power.

Paper short abstract:

Bimby (aka Thermomix) has gained wide sales success in many southern European countries and is a kitchen appliance that promises to revolutionize the way people cook. In a period of economic crises the paper looks at the demonstrator's discourses and creative practices of frugality and food re-use.

Paper long abstract:

Bimby (aka Thermomix) has gained wide sales success in many southern European countries and is a kitchen appliance that promises to revolutionize the way people cook. In a period where concerns are raising about the demise of cooking skills, Bimby is being heralded in the media and the Internet as a magic gadget that turns dreadful cooks into notable 'chefs'. This cooking appliance is directly sold by sales representatives, after a demonstration in future clients' houses. The demonstration mixes economic, social and cultural elements - a good illustration of the cultural economy workings operating in them. Based upon a case study of a demonstration this paper pays special attention to the vendor's discourses around frugality and economic crisis along with occurring creativity processes (e.g. improvisation, shortcutting steps in recipes to save money). The empirical material is based on a visual ethnography to record both performative and discursive elements of cooking practices.