Paper short abstract:

Is the “tomato day” still a rite de passage of a world with an uncertain future? The study of this tradition highlights the ecology of what today, in hyper-modern societies, are called “circular economies”, but in popular cultures have existed before.

Paper long abstract:

Major crises triggered by environmental disasters, climate change, economic upheavals, and devastating wars all hold many lessons and offer tactics for dealing with and coping with suddenly emerging complications. And so, we ask, what are the everyday practices of coping with uncertainty?

Arranging food for future consumption is the most ancient economic policy: you move it from the time or place where it is abundant to the time or place where it is scarce. For the last two centuries, the tomato - a prized fruit native to the Americas - has been the heart and soul of Mediterranean cooking and is still preserved at home to be consumed when it is out of season, namely in winter. A jar of tomatoes made by a grandmother is the alternative to store-bought kind. It is not some silly tradition, but a symbolic therapy that reminds how nature is rich, generous, and powerful. Setting aside resources for tougher times focuses on future generations and through them on the future of humanity.

My proposal focuses on the “red culture” as a legacy of small, well-balanced economies and on the ritual of “making salsa” between myth and morality and is supported by pictures and videos on the “big day of tomato” I recorded in Europe. How people (re)interpret the past and past cultures and how they (re)invent the future considering the uncertainties that face us? Is the “tomato day” still a rite de passage of a world with an uncertain future? The study of this tradition highlights the ecology of what today, in hyper-modern societies, are called “circular economies”, but in popular cultures have existed before.