Copyright by Pauline Adema 2006 The Dissertation Committee for Pauline Adema Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: FESTIVE FOODSCAPES: ICONIZING FOOD AND THE SHAPING OF IDENTITY AND PLACE Committee: Steven D. Hoelscher, Supervisor Janet M. Davis Deborah A. Kapchan Mark C. Smith Brian Stross Festive Foodscapes: Iconizing Food and the Shaping of Identity and Place by Pauline Adema, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2006 Acknowledgements A research project of this size cannot be completed without assistance and input from many people. I am particularly indebted to Chris Filice of the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association. For more years than anyone else she endured my questions and was tireless about answering them. She was a significant factor in making my work on the Gilroy Garlic Festival as wonderful as it was. Many other people in Gilroy contributed as well, and to each of them I am grateful. In each research community I had the benefit of interacting with people who shared with me their passions for their towns and the town’s representation as a foodscape. I am very appreciative of the skills and commitment of the librarians at the local public libraries, especially those in Gilroy and Coppell. My thanks go to my committee, Janet Davis, Deborah Kapchan, Mark Smith, Brian Stross, and to my advisor, Steven Hoelscher. Each of them contributed to my development as a scholar and the betterment of this dissertation. I am grateful for their encouragement and support throughout this protracted process. Others at the university who played contributing roles in the production of my work include Robert Crunden, whose sudden death silenced an important voice; Robin Doughty, who helped me think and write about landscape in new ways; and Cynthia Frese, whose long-distance assistance helped me successfully navigate the nuances of university administration. I am fortunate to have worked with each of you. I am grateful to the Department of American iv Studies for allowing me to pursue food studies research when no one else was, and I thank them again for making possible an early research trip to Gilroy by awarding me a Robert M. Crunden Memorial Research Award. This dissertation is greatly enhanced by the maps of cartographer Manual Peralvo of UT’s Department of Geography. Manuel was patient and accommodating, and made my first foray into creative cartography an easy one. Thank you, Manuel. Most of all I would like to acknowledge the love and support of my family and friends. They shored me up by offering reassurance during periods of self-doubt, by challenging me to think in new ways about my research and ethnography, by making me tea and pouring me wine, and by giving me space to accomplish the task at hand. I am grateful for each of you. My sister Julia deserves special recognition: not only did she drive me to the Gilroy Garlic Festival for more years than she would have liked, she did it with good humor. She helped me note subtle changes in the Festival from year to year, had a keen eye for merchandising trends, and joined me in tasting all the garlic creations. My parents instilled in me a curiosity about and passion for life. Their unfaltering encouragement, emotional support, and respect give me strength. For their presence in my life I am most thankful. An additional and most appreciative acknowledgement goes to my mother, whose careful reading of each chapter kept me from committing gross linguistic solecisms. Any remaining errors are mine. v Festive Foodscapes: Iconizing Food and the Shaping of Identity and Place Publication No._____________ Pauline Adema, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2006 Supervisor: Steven D. Hoelscher This dissertation explores the deliberate symbolization of food as iconic of place and community identity through consideration of food-themed place branding. When the association between a place and a food item is abstracted and promoted, and the food becomes emblematic of the place, the communal landscape becomes a foodscape. When a locality stages a festive performance of its food-themed identity, it becomes a festive foodscape. Drawing on ethnographic studies of the successful Gilroy (CA) Garlic Festival and the failed Coppell (TX) PigFest, I demonstrate how image makers aim to generate a sense of place and a sense of community by commodifying place and identity vi through place-based food festivals. Cooking contests and other competitive festival events provide affirmation of the food-place association. Locale aggrandizement, a neolocalist impulse articulated through claims of “world” capitaldom and performed through festivals, is an attempt to secure place differentiation through place branding. Through case studies of cities that claim spinach and peach capitaldom, I demonstrate, however, that the rhetoric of distinction can instead foster place brand similitude. Incorporating the French concept terroir, which recognizes agricultural products as unique to their specific geographic places of origin, into place branding rhetoric would give expression to the food voice that constitutes foodscape. In becoming place-specific symbolic and identity capital, food often is abstracted from its cycle of production, as well as from its associations with particular ethnic foodways. As my discussion of garlic’s transition from a food on the fringe of American foodways to a food fad evinces, through the re-contextualization of place branding, a food can become suitable for fetishization, iconization, and festivalization. The transactional character of food – its multivalence and malleability as a symbol – makes it an attractive focus for image makers charged with community building and place differentiation. Consumption of place and consumption of identity are made palatable in a festive foodscape. vii Table of Contents List of Tables .........................................................................................................xi List of Figures....................................................................................................... xii Chapter One Introduction Foodscapes: The Communicative Capacity of Food ..............................................1 Food as Symbol: Theory and Praxis...............................................................5 Foodscape: An Emulsion of Food and Landscape........................................12 Festival as Cultural Performance: Performance Theory...............................17 The Festival Frame: Time Out of Time and Everyday Life .........................22 A Taste of Things to Come...........................................................................27 Chapter Two Sense of Community, Sense of Place: Community, Commodification, and Place-Based Food Festivals ...................................................................................33 Community: Theoretical Construct and Phenomenological Essence...........34 The Perceived Decline of Community..........................................................40 Sense of Community, Sense of Place, and the Paradox of Modernity .........44 Commodification of Community and Place .................................................48 Place-Based Food Festivals: Food, Locality, and the Theming of Identity..53 Place Branding and Terroir...........................................................................60 Conclusion ....................................................................................................65 Chapter Three Evolution of Identities: Gilroy and the Iconization of Garlic................................68 Gilroy, California: Past and Present .............................................................71 Creating and Celebrating Community in Gilroy...........................................81 From Foreign to Fad: The Mainstreaming of Garlic in American Foodways.............................................................................................93 Food as Icon: Forming a Food-themed Identity for Gilroy ........................111 Conclusion ..................................................................................................114 Chapter Four Place Branding: Creating Identity Capital and Marketing Communal Pride ......118 Marketing Distinction.................................................................................120 viii Chapter Four (continued) Place Branding: Differentiation and Marketing a Food-centered Communal Identity............................................................................130 Garlic and Gourmet as Cultural and Identity Capital .................................139 Conclusion: Generating Identities through a Festive Foodscape................143 Chapter Five Consuming Identity: Competition, Implied Commensality, and Social Order in the Festival Frame............................................................................................148 “It’s not a beauty pageant”: The Garlic Queen Pageant and Community Ideals..................................................................................................150 Cooking and Recipe Contests: Implied Commensality and Communitas.153 Garlic Braiding and Topping: Symbolic Displays of Nature and Power ...176 Conclusion ..................................................................................................194 Chapter Six “This little