The Study of the Religious Meaning of Food Towards Value Creation: a Case of Olive in North Africa
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The Study of the Religious Meaning of Food towards Value Creation: A Case of Olive in North Africa January 2019 Tamaki KITAGAWA The Study of the Religious Meaning of Food towards Value Creation: A Case of Olive in North Africa A Dissertation Submitted to the School of the Integrative and Global Majors, the University of Tsukuba in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Food Innovation (Doctoral Program in Life Science Innovation) Tamaki KITAGAWA Table of Contents Pages List of Tables iii List of Figures iv General Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………..1 1. Food innovation on olive 1 2. Importance of eating in the history of human beings 5 3. Approach of history of religions 6 4. Studies on food in the history of religions 9 5. Contemporary meaning of food 12 6. Fieldwork 13 7. Outline of the chapters 15 Chapter 1. Symbolism of Olive in the Mediterranean Region and the Customs in North Africa……………... 18 1. Introduction 18 2. Nature and function of symbols 18 3. Symbolism of olive in the Mediterranean region 19 3.1 Olive in myths 19 3.2 Olive in Bible 22 3.3 Olive in Quran 24 4. Olive symbols in modern North Africa 25 4.1 Beliefs, customs and symbolic meaning of olive 26 4.2 Exorcism and purification 26 4.3 Ritualistic tools and medium of powers 27 4.4 Fertility and blessing 27 4.5 Transformation of olive custom 29 5. Conclusion 29 Chapter 2. Saint Veneration with Symbolism of Nature in South Tunisia…………………………………….. 31 1. Introduction 31 2. Categories of saints 31 3. Saint veneration related to natural objects 33 3.1 Sidi Gnaoua in village Z 33 3.2 Sidi Yakhref in village Z 36 3.3 Shīkhadra'a between villages B and M 38 3.4 Shamseddīn and Sidi Ali Boumedien between villages B and M 42 3.5 Camoul Brel in village T 44 3.6 Sidi Yakoub and Sidi Thāmal in Village B 47 4. Difference of the types of saints among Arab and Amazigh influences 48 i 5. Conclusion 50 Chapter 3. Pilgrimage to Olive Trees in Village T……………………………………………………………... 52 1. Introduction 52 2. Issues of saint veneration and natural objects 52 3. Symbol of olive in the context of veneration of trees 55 4. Practice of pilgrimage to olive trees 57 4.1 Environment of the village 58 4.2 Features of the olive-saint complexes 60 4.3 Ritual practice 66 4.4 Folktales of olive-saint complexes 70 5. Symbolism of olive-related saints 79 6. Conclusion 83 Chapter 4. Agro-food Culture of Olive and its Expression in the Festival of Village T………………………... 84 1. Introduction 84 2. Olive agriculture in South Tunisia 84 2.1 Traditional farming 84 2.2 Traditional pressing 88 3. The dietary and medicinal culture of olive 92 3.1 Dietary olive culture in South Tunisia 92 3.2 Evidence of folk medicinal usage of olive 96 3.3 Symbolism and folk medicinal usages of olive 98 4. Olive culture in the agricultural festival 100 4.1 Approach to the festival 101 4.2 Traditional agricultural rituals in South Tunisia 102 4.3 New festival: Mahrajan in village T 105 5. Conclusion 113 Chapter 5. Potential Value-added Products with the Cultural and Religious Meaning of Olive…………….. …114 1. Introduction 114 2. Literature review 115 3. Model 116 4. Data collection and methodology 118 5. Empirical results 120 6. Conclusion 126 General Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………………………... 128 Acknowledgement……………………………………………………………………………………………….133 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 134 ii List of Tables Pages 1. Olive-related customs in Morocco and that common with Tunisia in gray 28 2. Comparison of the geographical and linguistic conditions among four villages 48 3. Classification of saints related to natural objects in four villages 49 4. Population transition (Gouvernorat de Gabès en chiffres 2014, First Census results 2014) 58 5. Activity rate according to area (Gouvernorat de Gabes en chiffres 2014) 59 6. Groups of clans in village T 59 7. Characteristics of olive-saint complex sanctuaries visited by residents of village T 61-62 8. Traditional remedies with olives and their respective evidence 96 9. Comparison of songs of Onmok Tambo (Ummak Tambu) 104 10. Selected olive oil attributes and their corresponding levels 119 11. A choice experiment sample card 120 12. Explanation of the cultural and religious attributes of olive 120 13. Selected sample characteristics 122 14. Estimation results 123 15. WTP for each attributes 124 16. Consumers’ interest in each explanation shown in Table 12. 124 17. Estimation results according to information preference 125 iii List of Figures Pages 1. Questionnaire sheet 14 2. The contest between Athena and Poseidon, red figure hydria, 350 BC 20 3. Goddess Pax (Eirene) holding olive branch (Fiske 1839: 439) 20 4. Tetradrachm of Athens 22 5. Noah and a dove with an olive branch (Kambanis, 2006, p. 126) 23 6. Zāwiya of Sidi Gnaoua 34 7. Olive grove of Sidi Gnaoua and Sidi Louijen 34 8. Zāwiya of Sidi Yakhref 36 9. Olive tree called Ghdīr Insaīd 36 10. Zāwiya of Shīkhadra'a 39 11. Olive tree of Shīkhadra'a 40 12. Zāwiya of Shīkhadra'a on the top 40 13. Map of the sanctuaries and the venerated objects near Shīkhadra'a 42 14. Zāwiya of Sidi Ali Boumedien and the mountain of Shīkhadra'a 43 15. Sacred carob tree and the votive clothes 43 16. Offering bukhōr to Camoul Brel 45 17. Camoul Brel and its kobba 45 18. Olive tree of Sidi Yakoub 47 19. Kobba and the jujube tree of Sidi Thāmal 47 20. Location of the olive-saint complexes and the central village of T 65 21. Onm Chemlali and its kobba 68 22. Symbol of olive tree with flowers 82 23. System of jessour (El Amami 1984 modified by Snane et al. 1996) 85 24. Slope and sedimentation tank of majel 86 25. People drawing water from majel 86 26. Olive farm in a jessour 87 27. Troglodytic house 87 28. Piled olives sorted for each client in new village M 89 29. Crushing fruits by single rotary mill 90 30. Piling up shwami on the press 90 31. Twin rotary motor mill in new village M 90 32. Centrifugal separator in new village M 90 33. Crushing fruits by hand mill 91 34. Bsisa and dried olives prepared for the pilgrimage in village M 92 35. Bread dipped in olive oil for a wedding in Sousse 92 iv 36. Khadem offering mulukhiya to Onml Ma'asla 94 37. Dishes for Ehtifel in village Z 95 38. Dried olive pomace with white kernels 97 39. Doll of Onmok Tambo in village Z 105 40. Program of Mahrajan kbir organized by the governorate of Gabes 106 41. Departure of the palanquin 107 42. Map of the eight sections of the central village T and the parade route 108 43. Ritual scepter 111 v General Introduction 1. Food innovation on olive In recent years, innovation has become a key issue in various sectors of our society, such as economy, investment behavior, and organizational management. Although this term is often used in the sense of technical innovation generally (Nihei, 2014), Shumpeter, who used this concept for the first time, determined the term neue Kombination (new combination) later replaced by innovation in his writings, to signify the introduction of a new good, a new method of production, the opening of a new market, the conquest of a new source of supply of material, and the carrying out of a new organization (1934/1983, p. 66). This “new combination” is a dynamic concept that could possibly form a new industrial sector through the development and marketing of a new thing, and provide energy to shift the social system and society’s way of thinking (Nihei, 2014). The issues related to innovation have been studied not only in economics and management, but also in sociology (Gopalakrishnan & Damanpour, 1997; Rogers, 2003) and psychology (Amabile, 1983; West & Altink, 1996). The definition of innovation is fluid due to its application in various fields. According to Katz, it can be defined as "the introduction of something new" at its most extensive sense (Katz, 2003, p. 775). Without limiting it to technological innovation or the development of a production method, this thesis aims for the innovation of food by the elucidation of the traditional olive culture in North Africa, based on the classic and the most applicable definition of innovation as the introduction of new combinations in production factors. Eating food is an experience common to all human beings and involves many different categories of society from individuals to intergovernmental organizations. The level at which innovation occurs can also be widely developed from the production to distribution system, as well as demand-oriented fields such as the market. As the most urgent role of the agro-food sector is the innovation of production technology to cope with the increasing world population (demand), the traditions related to food and agriculture that have been cultivated so far must not be neglected. Toward the realization of a sustainable society, agriculture adapted to the local environment and production methods with low environmental footprint have being reconsidered as alternatives of methods with heavy environmental load focusing on high productivity. The religious cultural meaning of traditional olive production in North Africa examined in this study might have an impact on the global olive oil market, especially on consumer behavior that it has been rarely examined in combination with religious values of olive. The traditional production of olive/olive oil and religious-cultural customs of olive practiced in Tunisia contain the traditional meaning of "food" that can hardly be grasped by modern measures and values.