06.06.05 |
Slow food, fast genes: the different timescapes of innovation and responsibility in the anthropology of food (2) |
(continua da "Slow food, fast genes... (1)" - continuing from "Slow food, fast genes... (1)") Timescapes of authenticity
Nevertheless, the very project of food diversity and conservation is a sign of (post)modernity and the means by which such project is carried out include sophisticated media usage, legal tools and laboratory studies about the input of material culture on the quality of the produce, both in terms of nutritional contents and of organolectic characteristics. It also presumes an unprecedented reflexivity about the experience itself of food consumption. For instance, during the tasting workshop devoted to Valtaleggio's taleggio and strachitund, the participants were guided by a wine and a cheese expert through the experience of sniffing and tasting three types of taleggio cheese (fresh, seasoned and the Strachitund variant) with four different types of white and red wines. Headphones were provided for translation into English and many had a digital camera at hand. Considering how taleggio cheese is the peasant cheese par excellence, made by dairy herders "on the move" between one alpine pasture to another, with the milk made by their "tired cows" (strache, hence strachi') after long transfers on mountain trails, we can appreciate how far is the post-modern reconstruction of a culture of taste to its "traditional" origin.
At its roots, though, the (post)modern domestication of the senses goes hand in hand with the domestication of marginal agriculture. While protocols of production discipline and standardise the everyday gestures of dairy breeders and cheese-makers in the name of hygiene and public safety, the sensibility of (post)modern customers shifts towards a marked commodification of taste - an experience that cannot be sold without proper visual "packaging". While EU hygiene regulations practically outlaw raw-milk dairy products of the alpine high pastures, the "poetics of authenticity" (Herzfeld 1992, 1999, 2004) ignores a marked standardisation of sensory experience, as an ethnographic analysis of taste can show. REFERENCES - Bassetti, P., 2003. Innovation, social risk and political responsibility, https://www.fondazionebassetti.org/02/docs/bassetti-lse-14may2003-engl.htm - Herzfeld, M., 1992, The Social Production of Indifference: Exploring the Symbolic Roots of Western Bureaucracy, Oxford, Berg. - Herzfeld, M., 1999, Cultural Intimacy. Social Poetics in the Nation-State, New York, Routledge. - Herzfeld, M., 2004, The Body Impolitic: Artisans and Artifice in the Global Hierarchy of Value, Chicago, Chicago University Press. - Strathern, M., 2000 (ed.) Audit Cultures: Anthropological Studies in Accountability and the Academy, London: Routledge. |
05.06.05 |
Slow food, fast genes: the different timescapes of innovation and responsibility in the anthropology of food (1) |
In apertura della rubrica sull'antropologia dell'innovazione ho ritenuto opportuno segnalare ai lettori del sito la recente conferenza annuale dell'Association of Social Anthropologists (ASA), tenutasi ad Aberdeen dal 4 al 7 aprile 2005, sul tema "Creativity and cultural improvisation". In particolare il panel su "Creativity and temporality"si proponeva di trovare risposte antropologiche alle seguenti questioni (riportate dall'abstract a cura di Sharon Macdonald ed Eric Hirsch): "What kinds of change over time should be counted as evidence of 'creativity'? What are the reasons for so much emphasis on creativity in certain periods, including the present?. ... People say they follow the way of the ancestors but their conduct and material culture register signs of modernity. Is 'creativity' the right word to apply here? How does it compare with, say, discourses of creativity as key to business success or an emphasis on personal (especially childhood) creativity as key to individual success? ... Is a world-view informed by a belief in 'progress' more productive of creativity than 'non-progress-oriented' worldviews? Or do such worldviews imply different kinds of creativity that need to be analytically distinguished? ... How do notions of 'the past' or 'history' pose limits on creativity or, conversely, act as a spur? Are some times, and some time-scales more productive of the creative than others, and, if so, why? Quanto segue è un breve estratto del mio intervento al panel, basato sulla mia ricerca etnografica in aree rurali montane e in particolare sulla trasformazione dei prodotti tipici in un articolo di "heritage" culturale. L'intervento è stato presentato a nome dell'Università degli Studi di Bergamo e della Fondazione Bassetti. Lo riporto dall'originale in inglese. This is a first attempt at focussing on issues and questions of timescapes, responsibility and creativity with regard to the issue of the production and consumption of food in contemporary Italy. I hope to elicit questions and making links between the realms of the anthropology of the senses, the anthropology of food, the emergent issue of an "audit culture" (Strathern 2000) and how this links with creative attempts at, on the one hand, re-inventing food as tradition, and, on the other hand, inventing new ways of deciding about and assessing "new" foods. (continua.... -- more...) |
04.06.05 |
Presentazione - Introduction |
Questa rubrica, dedicata all'antropologia dell'innovazione, si prefigge di coniugare un aspetto di servizio a favore dei lettori del sito con quello scientifico della ricerca. Il punto è proprio quello di cercare di definire questo campo ancora inesplorato, segnalando ricerche e siti relativi. Il primo intervento è stato presentato a nome dell'Università di Bergamo e della FGB alla Association of Social Anthropologists in occasione del convegno annuale 2005 ad Aberdeen. Si tratta di un primo esempio di caso etnografico "locale" che suscita riflessioni sugli aspetti globali dell'innovazione e della responsabilità. La rubrica svilupperà anche un secondo aspetto, di ricognizione bibliografica e sitografica sugli aspetti antropologici dell'innovazione e della responsabilità, sempre cercando di collegare la dimensione locale e quella globale dell'antropologia dell'innovazione. Per esempio, gli aspetti legati al territorio e ai prodotti locali, ma anche segnalando testi recenti su ricerche etnografiche sulle comunità di pratica (Lave, Wenger) e su riflessioni più "globali" sulle comunità creative (Florida), sull'economia dell'attenzione (Davenport e Beck), sulle Audit cultures (Strathern). |
English version This space is devoted to the anthropology of innovation and strives to offer both a service to the readers and a scientific contribution. The aim is precisely to try and define this relatively unexplored and undefined field, drawing the readers' attention to related publications and web sites. The first post is a paper presented at the Annual meeting of the Association of Social Anthropologists in 2005 at Aberdeen University, on behalf of Bergamo University and of Fondazione Bassetti. It is a first example of an ethnographic case study which hinges on local strategies of innovation, whilst connecting with broader reflections on innovation and responsibility on a global scale. This space wishes to develop a second aspect, related to the construction of a bibliography and a web site archive on the anthropological aspects of innovation and responsibility, connecting the local dimension to the global aspects of innovation. For instance, there will be references to local products and local development, but also to the concepts and tools that have been developed in the ethnographic research on communities of practice (Lave, Wenger), on creative communities (Florida), on attention economy (Davenport and Beck), and on Audit cultures (Strathern). |