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Diversity of Food Traditions: A Historical Perspective on Invention and Transformation

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Food Diversity Between Rights, Duties and Autonomies

Part of the book series: LITES - Legal Issues in Transdisciplinary Environmental Studies ((LITES,volume 2))

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Abstract

Starting from the concept of “invented traditions” coined by E. J. Hobsbawm and T. O. Ranger in 1983, this contribution examines how the misrepresentation of national histories can be prejudicial. An analysis of how this term may be applied to Ancel Key’s invention of “the Mediterranean diet”, after his 1952 journey to Italy, follows. According to Keys, a Mediterranean diet prevents heart disease, because of the appropriate combination of vegetables, carbohydrates, natural proteins and olive oil, thus explaining the low cholesterol rates in the Mediterranean area compared to those of people living in the US.

However, although Keys’ intuition may be correct from a clinical point of view, his all-encompassing historical reconstruction reveals itself to be an imaginary description of a world that has never existed. This perspective proves to confound classical antiquity with a modern way of life, based on exotic and orientalistic view of the Mediterranean area. While this reconstruction strongly contributed to the declaration of the Mediterranean diet as intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2010, it is worth underlining that this decision was made at a time when globalization is widely menacing local communities with well-defined cultural identities.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Tomasi di Lampedusa (1958), part Four.

  2. 2.

    Gilmour (2003), Bottino (1973), Masi (1996), Lanza Tomasi (2001), Vitello (2008) and Nigro (2012).

  3. 3.

    Braudel (1958), pp. 725–753.

  4. 4.

    Martinoni (2011) and Orlando (1998).

  5. 5.

    Bloch (1949), Febvre (1952) and Furet (1982).

  6. 6.

    Hobsbawm and Ranger (1983).

  7. 7.

    Hobsbawm (1983), pp. 1–14.

  8. 8.

    Harris (1998).

  9. 9.

    Giancristofaro (2012).

  10. 10.

    Moro (2014).

  11. 11.

    Truswell (2010).

  12. 12.

    Mancini and Stiemler (2004), pp. 52–57.

  13. 13.

    Keys (1950).

  14. 14.

    Keys et al. (1954), pp. 328–335.

  15. 15.

    Rubba et al. (2007) and Stamler (2013).

  16. 16.

    Keys and Keys (1959).

  17. 17.

    Toshima et al. (1994) and Kromhout et al. (2002).

  18. 18.

    Keys and Keys (1975) and Nestle (1995).

  19. 19.

    Mackenback (2007).

  20. 20.

    Pugliese Carratelli (1980), pp. 269–280.

  21. 21.

    Interestingly, the Keys’ home in Pioppi was named “Minnelea”, syneresis of Minneapolis—the American town where Ancel Keys had his class—and Elea, the old toponym of Pioppi, to indicate the historical continuity between Magna Graecia and Cilento.

  22. 22.

    Braudel (1977–1978).

  23. 23.

    Keys (1995).

  24. 24.

    Cantarelli (2005).

  25. 25.

    Ginsborg (1990).

  26. 26.

    Cassano (2011), Cassano and Consolo (2000) and Cassano and Zolo (2007).

  27. 27.

    Latouche (1999, 2011).

  28. 28.

    Appadurai (1996) and Bauman (1999).

  29. 29.

    Clemente and Mugnaini (2001) and Mariotti (2013).

  30. 30.

    Skounti and Tebbaa (2011).

  31. 31.

    Montanari (1997).

  32. 32.

    Grimaldi (1990).

  33. 33.

    Scovazzi et al. (2012).

  34. 34.

    UNESCO (2010) Nomination file 00394. http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php. Accessed 10 Jan 2016.

  35. 35.

    Scovazzi (2012).

  36. 36.

    Scepi and Petrillo (2012).

  37. 37.

    Buckland et al. (2008), La Vecchia and Bosetti (2006) and Trichopoulou and Vasolopoulou (2000).

  38. 38.

    Moro (2013).

  39. 39.

    Bellini (2000) and Cercola et al. (2010).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, Society and Human Studies, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy

    Alessandro Isoni

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  1. Alessandro Isoni
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, Society and Human Studies, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy

    Alessandro Isoni

  2. Department of Legal Studies, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy

    Michele Troisi

  3. Department of Legal Studies, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy

    Maurizia Pierri

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Isoni, A. (2018). Diversity of Food Traditions: A Historical Perspective on Invention and Transformation. In: Isoni, A., Troisi, M., Pierri, M. (eds) Food Diversity Between Rights, Duties and Autonomies. LITES - Legal Issues in Transdisciplinary Environmental Studies, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75196-2_12

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