Stirring the Pot in Poland: Traditional Plum Jam, Regional Identity, and Rural Development in the Lower Vistula Valley
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STIRRING THE POT IN POLAND: TRADITIONAL PLUM JAM, REGIONAL IDENTITY, AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE LOWER VISTULA VALLEY A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Olivia Margit Hall August 2012 © 2012 Olivia Margit Hall STIRRING THE POT IN POLAND: TRADITIONAL PLUM JAM, REGIONAL IDENTITY, AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE LOWER VISTULA VALLEY Olivia Margit Hall, Ph.D. Cornell University 2012 This dissertation uses Polish Plum Jam from the Lower Vistula Valley (Powidła Śliwkowe z Doliny Dolnej Wisły) as a case study of a regional food product seeking a geographical indication from the European Union (EU). Thereby it serves as a lens onto the seemingly contradictory nature of the EU’s different policies: harmonizing and standardizing on the one hand, particularly in the area of food and agriculture; and promoting “diversity” on the other, whether in food, languages, or regional identities. This neoliberal project of defining sellable “identities” and “traditions” plays out in the lived experience of EU citizens, leading to negotiations and conflicts over the definitional ownership of these concepts. Here existing local social conditions and hierarchies come to bear. Whether teachers define a regional identity to imbue in their impoverished students or producers debate the authenticity of different jam making practices in order to register their product for a special designation, some voices are privileged while others are silenced. Advantages of cultural and social capital give a regional elite the upper hand in these negotiations. Thus the EU’s attempt to promote diversity in the area of traditional food products has an ambivalent effect. On the one hand, it is creating markets and consumer awareness and supporting the identification and development of traditional foods through such avenues as Local Action Groups. On the other hand, the demands of the registration process are leading to the exclusion or withdrawal of participants and the narrowing of traditional practices to those supported by the most influential voices in the debate. iii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Olivia Margit Hall was born in Dortmund, Germany in 1979. As the daughter of a Black American and Japanese mother and a German father, she became curious at an early age about the cultural and social forces that shape her family and identity. Pursuing a career as an anthropologist is a professional extension of a role she has played throughout her life as a participant observer in a variety of cultural and linguistic contexts. She graduated from Harvard College with an AB cum laude in psychology in 2002 and was awarded an MA in anthropology from Cornell University in 2007. Her academic interests include food and culture, agriculture, identity, regionalism, Eastern Europe, and the European Union. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is a great pleasure to thank Jane Fajans as well as David Brown, Saida Hodžić, and Dominic Boyer for their patient guidance through the dissertation research and writing process. I could not have completed it without them. I am also thankful to Keith Hjortshoj, who helped me to gain confidence in my writing voice. I am particularly indebted to the people of the Lower Vistula Valley, who welcomed me in their midst and shared so much of their lives with me. Among them, Jarosław Pająkowski, director of the Lower Vistula Valley Landscape Park, deserves special thanks. A constant source of information and resources, he provided invaluable connections and support for my research. I have drawn much inspiration from his enthusiasm for and skill at realizing his visions for the region. Jadwiga and Andrzej Cholewscy became true friends and gave me an oasis of home away from home. This research was carried out with generous support from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program and the Cornell Institute for European Studies (Luigi Einaudi Graduate Fellowship). Funding for preliminary field research and language training was provided by the U.S. Department of Education (FLAS), CIES (Michele Sicca Grant), and the European Union Studies Association (Haas Fund Fellowship). Professor Andrzej Kaleta and the Department of Rural Sociology at the University of Toruń kindly offered an academic affiliation in Poland. Finally, I would like to thank my husband Andrew and my parents for their unwavering support. v TABLE OF CONTENTS BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ......................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................................................................................. v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ......................................................................................................... ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................................................... x GUIDE TO POLISH PRONUNCIATION ................................................................................... xii PREFACE .................................................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER 1 ................................................................................................................................... 1 Framework for Analysis .............................................................................................................. 3 EU Policy on the Ground ............................................................................................................ 6 Chapter Overview ....................................................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER 2 ................................................................................................................................. 12 Historical Overview .................................................................................................................. 13 The Lower Vistula Valley Landscape Park............................................................................... 17 The Friends of the Lower Vistula Society ................................................................................ 20 Poverty in the Polish Countryside and the LVV ....................................................................... 22 Bringing Home the Bacon – by the £: Labor Migration in the LVV and Poland ..................... 27 Orchards, Plums, and Plum Jam in the LVV ............................................................................ 29 The Powidła Renaissance .......................................................................................................... 36 Cooking Powidła ....................................................................................................................... 39 CHAPTER 3 ................................................................................................................................. 46 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 46 The (Re)Invention of Plum Jam ................................................................................................ 48 Loss of Regional Traditions after World War II and during Socialism .................................... 50 Government Framework for Regional Education ..................................................................... 55 Nested Identities ........................................................................................................................ 56 Plum Jam against Poverty ......................................................................................................... 60 Regional Education in Practice ................................................................................................. 64 Teachers as Authorities of Place ............................................................................................... 65 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 68 vi CHAPTER 4 ................................................................................................................................. 70 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 70 A Timeline................................................................................................................................. 73 Plum Jam’s Many Parents ......................................................................................................... 78 Choose Your Weapons .............................................................................................................. 79 History Is Written by Victors - Framing and Preserving the History of the Powidła War ....... 83 Plum Power ............................................................................................................................... 87 Conclusion: The Godfather and his Cronies ............................................................................. 92 CHAPTER 5 ................................................................................................................................. 96 Introduction ..............................................................................................................................