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- Convenors:
-
Melanija Belaj
(Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research)
Jelena Ivanišević (Institute of Ethnology and Foklore Research)
- Stream:
- Food
- Location:
- A218
Short Abstract:
Present food practices are anticipated as the means by which we on a personal level compensate the lack of values that we identify with industrial food, while on a general level we emphasize the gaps and disproportions between local and global food policies.
Long Abstract:
Western food culture is distinguished by food anxieties (like mistrust in the food we consume and the fear of obesity as a result of various food shortcuts of developed societies), which feed fuel to, until recently oppositional, food practices such as slow food, organic food and similar movements. The utopian view of the former table stresses seasonality and locality of victuals, cooking as materialization of love and care, while at the same time it conceals basic modesty and rationality of former culinary practices, as well as large part of quotidian menus. How can romanticist enchantment by Grandma's cooking and industrially made home-style food products be explained? How can the traditional role of nourishing mother and rhythm of modern life be reconciled, what are the home/work balancing strategies available today and what kind of help can we get in keeping the families around the table? How has the culinary past, that comprised fasting, hunger and monotonous diet, turned into coveted paradise, a wishful model of eating in comparison to the reality that gives priority to feeding (fast food, for example)? How does the development of well-fed gourmet culture influence seeing food as part of cultural heritage and what does it actually mean in terms of preservation and conveying the culinary knowledge? If we consider food as an analytic tool, then we must raise the question what are the strategies of overcoming the gap between reality and fantasy.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Ewa Kopczynska (Jagiellonian University)
Paper short abstract:
The ideal of self-sufficiency is twofold basis for contemporary food patterns: as continued tradition and as inspiring myth. The paper examines self-sufficiency-oriented households' practices in Poland. It points their cultural meaning and economic functions in maintaining households’ food security.
Paper long abstract:
Self-sufficiency used to be the fundamental model of agricultural household. Nowadays economy, with its specialization, division of labour, and intense trade-type exchange challenges and cancels traditional food patterns. Self-sufficiency taken literally as self-provisioning and producing home-made food does not fit into conditions and demands of globalized food system. It does not match modern lifestyle, mobility and gender roles.
At the same time the imaginary past nourishes economically developed mass societies with the nostalgic picture of family's and households' integrity and sovereignty. Table full of one's own food is a symbol of the family's integrity. This picture inspires alternative food movements and innovations. It also revalue private and traditional foodways and home-scale food production.
This paper examines the contemporary 'self-sufficiency-oriented' households' practices, both habitual (like making preserves, home-made and home-consumed meals culture, strong family/food networks, small garden production) and innovative (foodies culture, urban gardening). Which elements of self-sufficiency utopia can be part of today's food culture? What is the economic, cultural and political function of self-sufficiency nowadays? The paper also points the role of self-sufficiency in maintaining households' food security and nutritional security: in households of low material status, during communism time or during economic and political transition in Poland.
Maja Godina Golija (ZRC SAZU)
Paper short abstract:
Short Abstract Festive food is nowadays important part of ethnic and cultural identity. In contemporary Slovenia festive dishes are a substantial part of festivities, but also very important part of family life and cultural heritage.
Paper long abstract:
Long Abstract
Food is not only a component of the material world, but also plays an important role in culture and social life of a community. Preparation and consumption of food, especially festive dishes connect people, creates new relations, and strengthens the position of an individual within the community. Food and food practices also represent a means of establishing and maintaining their ethnic, social and cultural identity. Like some other elements, festive food shapes and impacts the life of family members, and in turn these members importantly participate in the creation of meaning of certain dishes, giving them new form and content. Nowadays, in time of economic crises and lack of time for preparing food, cooking is materialization of love and care. Festive dishes and gathering of families around the festive table became a confirmation of personal values and of life style philosophy. They remind individuals of the past, their childhood, and home, and keep alive Slovene traditions that are perpetuated by means of rituals and values. The utopian view of the former festive table and especially festive dishes and family life does not only symbolize social ties and social division but also actively participates in their creation and rebirth. Having become a symbol of cultural affiliation festive dishes serve to materialize individual's' social, ethnic and cultural identity.
Tanja Kockovic Zaborski (Ethnographic Museum)
Paper short abstract:
Growing desire for connecting with the food that we eat is maybe obvious in decision to buy locally grown, healthy food on farmers markets instead of supermarkets. But, is the food that we are buying there really healthy and locally grown or is it mostly from the same source as food in supermarkets?
Paper long abstract:
Lately we can testify to the ending of the myth about old ladies, so-called "kumice" that are growing the vegetables in their own little gardens and selling us that locally grown and healthy food on our farmers markets. Because the reality is so much different. Majority of "dear grannies" that are the symbols of growing the food in a traditional way (healthy, local) buy fruit and vegetables from big supermarket suppliers. (And we are seeking homemade and healthy food in farmers markets rather than in supermarkets.)
The question is, do we, as buyers, believe in myth of grannies that are selling us their home-sown and grown tomatoes from old seeds? Do we believe that they didn't use industrial fertilizers? In that context of lack of belief in food quality that we are consuming today, fear of GMO, pesticides and industrial fertilizers that are bad for our organisms and organisms of our children, I will try to answer is it justifiable or is it necessary to organize organic farmers markets in Croatia (with emphasis on organic market in Pula).
Jelena Ivanišević (Institute of Ethnology and Foklore Research)
Paper short abstract:
Today's traditional Istrian cuisine, represented by once festive dishes, is a result of romanticized view of food traditions. Typical dishes are no longer associated with celebration or doing hard labor, but are rather becoming an part of hedonistic or gourmet lifestyles.
Paper long abstract:
As part of the research undertaken for the purposes of the project "Taste of tradition - the specialization program for chefs of traditional cuisine", an ethnological field study of Istrian cuisine was carried out. It re-examines the concepts of indigenous and/or traditional cuisine, its representational and identity roles in today's eating habits, as well as its significance in Istria's tourism. The results of the study, including a cookbook with a limited number of typical Istrian dishes, both everyday and festive, demonstrate conceptual difficulties in the interpretation of traditional cuisine as well as the need to re-evaluate its position with regard to everyday food choices. The gastronomic identity of Istria, today symbolically represented by truffles, Istrian prosciutto, wine and olive oil, is the result of the transformation of private culinary practices, perpetuated through the saying "just like grandma used to make", in which the mechanism of deliberate forgetting plays a large part. That is to say that traditional Istrian cuisine is today represented by once festive dishes, those which used to indicate a respite from humble everyday food, yet today, they are no longer associated with celebration or doing hard labor, but are rather becoming an important part of hedonistic or gourmet lifestyles.
Melanija Belaj (Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research)
Paper short abstract:
Croatian accession to the European Union changed the legislation related to domestic production of rakija. I will try to show in what way and to what extent this change of legislation influenced the traditional production and consumption of rakija in Croatia.
Paper long abstract:
Production of homemade rakija from the remains of grapes when making wine and of various fruits is widespread throughout the Croatian territory and neighboring countries. During many centuries domestic production of this type of alcoholic beverage rooted itself in family life and in the life of small rural communities as a special form of sociability. Production of rakija is an event that brings together more members of the family in socializing, and sometimes an occasion for a special feast in the wider rural community. Testimonies to that fact can be found in the ethnographic material ranging from the mid-19th century to the present day. Rakija within the traditional culture and the culture of drinking in general is a symbol of unity and sharing. Rakija as a wedding gift or ritual prop is a part of life and annual customs and an indispensable part of the tradition of families and communities. Croatian accession to the European Union changed the legislation related to domestic production of rakija. It regulates the production amount of alcohol per one household and its distribution. Decades ago Mary Douglas deliberated on drinking culture as following: alcoholic beverages make the world as it is, also, they, in some way, make the world as it should be, and besides that they are a part of the kind of alternative economy. In this presentation, I will try, by applying Douglas' reflections, to show in what way and to what extent this change of legislation influenced the traditional production and consumption of rakija in Croatia.