Reimagining Marginalized Foods: Global Processes, Local Places

reimagining marginalized foods Reimagining Marginalized Foods Global Processes, Local Places edited by elizabeth fi nnis Tucson The University of Arizona Press www.uapress.arizona.edu © 2012 by The Arizona Board of Regents Open-access edition published 2019 ISBN-13: 978-0-8165-0236-3 (cloth) ISBN-13: 978-0-8165-3923-9 (open-access e-book) The text of this book is licensed under the Creative Commons Atrribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivsatives 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means that the text may be used for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Finnis, Elizabeth, 1976– Reimagining marginalized foods : global processes, local places / edited by Elizabeth Finnis. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8165-0236-3 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Food habits. 2. Food preferences. 3. Food supply. I. Title. GT2850.F53 2012 394.1’2—dc23 2011039694 An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access for the public good. The Open Access ISBN for this book is 978-0-8165-3923-9. More information about the initiative and links to the Open Access version can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org. Contents Introduction 1 Elizabeth Finnis 1. Loving People, Hating What They Eat: 15 Marginal Foods and Social Boundaries Richard Wilk 2. Highland Haute Cuisine: The Transformation 34 of Alpaca Meat Lisa Markowitz 3. Redefi ning the Cultural Meanings of Sinonggi during 49 the Indonesian Decentralization Era Wini P. Utari 4. When the Marginal Becomes the Exotic: 67 The Politics of Culinary Tourism in Indigenous Communities in Rural Mexico Lois Stanford 5. Discovering Pom’s Potential 88 Karin Vaneker vi · Contents 6. Redefi ning and Re-presenting Minor Millets in South India 109 Elizabeth Finnis 7. Developing Cheese at the Foot of the Alps 133 Cristina Grasseni Conclusions: Culture, Tradition, and Political Economy 156 John Brett About the Contributors 167 Index 171 reimagining marginalized foods Introduction Elizabeth Finnis This volume offers a series of ethnographic considerations of the ways marginal foods may be reimagined in the process of bringing them to mainstream consumers. When we use the term marginal, we specifi cally refer to distinct foods and culinary practices that have tended to be associated with peripheral or non-elite populations and cultural groups; these may include indigenous cultures, migrants, or local groups that have been, at least offi cially, subsumed by notions of one coherent, national, and domi- nant whole. In discussing marginal foods and non-elite populations, we consider how marginality plays out in specifi c locales and times, and the multiple ways—cultural, social, economic, geographic, and political—it may be manifested and articulated. The contributors to this volume en- gage with a number of questions relating to food and marginality, includ- ing, How are foods symbolically repackaged in the process of entering mainstream markets? What tensions emerge between new representations of foods and local cultural meanings? and, How do processes of reimagining crops and cuisines intersect with notions of authenticity, identity, inclusion and exclusion, the nation, and conservation? Marginality is, of course, not an uncontested category. What is considered a marginal food at one time and place may be an everyday item in another location and during another period. A food that one group con- siders inedible, inappropriate, or low status may play important roles in dietary diversity or the creation and maintenance of social bonds, identity, and livelihoods for another. Similarly, what is understood as exotic and rare in one context may be associated with scarcity and poverty in another 1 2 · Elizabeth Finnis (see, for example, Van Esterik 2006). The chapters in this volume discuss foods and cuisines that in one way or another are or have been considered marginal in whichever specifi c time and place is being considered. We examine how this marginality may be contested through the enacting of social, cultural, political, and commercial practices or consumption per- formances that attempt to move foods to more symbolically or physically central locations in local and national food behaviors. The incorporation of marginal foods and culinary practices into mainstream consumption behaviors requires more than the simple introduction of products and tastes to new consumers. Foods and cuisines may need to be reimagined and re-presented in strategic ways in order to garner public attention and interest, and to reconfi gure their association with lower- status food practices (see, for example, Gutierrez 1984; Pilcher 2004). In this reimagining, specifi c agendas may be bolstered or created, longtime consumers may lose access to traditional food practices, or they may re- claim practices that had become unpopular or uncommon for a period of time. Foods and culinary practices may become ubiquitous within a new target market, even as they are modifi ed to suit new tastes and merge with existing cuisines and consumption behaviors. Thus, the outcomes of reimagining “local” food practices and products for “nonlocal” populations can vary. This volume is a result of discussions that began during a lively Culture and Agriculture-sponsored session at the 2008 American Anthropological Association meetings. The session brought together academic and non- academic participants to consider the ways that foods considered marginal or low status may be reconceptualized and reimagined in different cultural contexts by government offi cials, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), or individuals as part of diverse identity, livelihood, political, and conservation projects. The chapters in this volume demonstrate some of the tensions, complexities, and inconsistencies in the ways marginal foods and cuisines are considered, and provide insights into how foods can be harnessed by diverse actors and organizations pursuing specifi c goals that may—or may not—refl ect the priorities, practices, and preferences of the populations associated with the these foods. Contemporary Food Contexts and Questions Research into food and culinary practices and the systems in which they are embedded has a long history in anthropology, refl ecting the reality that Introduction · 3 human societies and individuals within those societies are preoccupied, to one degree or another, with the procurement, preparation, serving, and consumption of food; food is as much about cultural practices as it is about physical necessity. Anthropological research from across the sub- disciplines has demonstrated the rich and complicated ways that human groups have gone about creating, modifying, and transporting individual food commodities, food practices, or broader food systems, with both posi- tive and negative consequences. One approach to such research complements large-scale analyses of food systems and global economies with considerations of the local-level consequences of such economies. For example, Mintz’s (1985) important work on the historical rise of global sugar consumption demonstrates how this phenomenon intersected with and shaped manifestations of economic, cultural, and political power and disempowerment; Scheper- Hughes (1993) shows the everyday implications of sugarcane plantations for the lives of impoverished and disempowered plantation workers in Bra- zil. Pelto and Pelto’s (1983) analysis of historical trends towards dietary delocalization is complemented by Waldram’s (1985) demonstration of the ways that hydroelectric dam development in Canada has contributed to the loss of local food resources among indigenous peoples, and of a food culture based on ideas of ecology and human-animal relationships. Although anthropologists have had a long-standing interest in food production and consumption, there has been a relatively recent resurgence of food-related research within anthropology and other social science and humanities fi elds. This renewed interest refl ects a number of contemporary issues. Public engagement with food-related issues is changing as contemporary concerns about food capture the public imagination and encourage public discourse and activism. Emerging and ongoing food crises in diverse nations; questions about health and nutrition and the tensions between over- and undernutrition; ongoing environmental change and degradation; questions about agro-biodiversity and global agricultural heritage; and the rising interest in preserving and maintaining diverse foods, culinary traditions, and tastes in the face of global homogeniza- tion of food practices are all contributing to public and academic discussions and actions that question food systems in everyday contexts. These can also translate into political or social movements that, as Pietrykowski (2004:319) points out, can “seek to come to terms with desire and pleasure of consumption” while also questioning systematic food inequities (see also Friedmann 2007; Raynolds 2000). In the global North, for example, increasing public and academic attention has focused on movements that 4 · Elizabeth Finnis support local producers via farmers’ markets, the social capital of 100- Mile Diet movements, and discussions about the ethics of eating and modes of agricultural production. Yet, food-related

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