Food, National Identity and Nationalism: From Everyday to Global Politics PDF
Preview Food, National Identity and Nationalism: From Everyday to Global Politics
Food, National Identity and Nationalism This page intentionally left blank Food, National Identity and Nationalism From Everyday to Global Politics Atsuko Ichijo and Ronald Ranta KingstonUniversity,UK ©AtsukoIchijoandRonaldRanta2016 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2016 978-1-137-48312-6 Allrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionofthis publicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission. Noportionofthispublicationmaybereproduced,copiedortransmitted savewithwrittenpermissionorinaccordancewiththeprovisionsofthe Copyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988,orunderthetermsofanylicence permittinglimitedcopyingissuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency, SaffronHouse,6–10KirbyStreet,LondonEC1N8TS. Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorizedactinrelationtothispublication maybeliabletocriminalprosecutionandcivilclaimsfordamages. Theauthorshaveassertedtheirrightstobeidentifiedastheauthorsofthis workinaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Firstpublished2016by PALGRAVEMACMILLAN PalgraveMacmillanintheUKisanimprintofMacmillanPublishersLimited, registeredinEngland,companynumber785998,ofHoundmills,Basingstoke, HampshireRG216XS. PalgraveMacmillanintheUSisadivisionofStMartin’sPressLLC, 175FifthAvenue,NewYork,NY10010. PalgraveMacmillanistheglobalacademicimprintoftheabovecompanies andhascompaniesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld. Palgrave®andMacmillan®areregisteredtrademarksintheUnitedStates, theUnitedKingdom,Europeandothercountries. ISBN 978-1-349-56104-9 ISBN 978-1-137-48313-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137483133 Thisbookisprintedonpapersuitableforrecyclingandmadefromfully managedandsustainedforestsources.Logging,pulpingandmanufacturing processesareexpectedtoconformtotheenvironmentalregulationsofthe countryoforigin. AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Names:Ichijo,Atsuko,1967– | Ranta,Ronald. Title:Food,nationalidentityandnationalism:fromeverydaytoglobal politics/AtsukoIchijo,KingstonUniversity,UK,RonaldRanta,Kingston University,UK. Description:Basingstoke,Hampshire;NewYork,NY:PalgraveMacmillan intheUKisanimprintofMacmillanPublishersLimited,[2015] Identifiers:LCCN2015021904 | ISBN9781137483126 Subjects:LCSH:Foodhabits—Politicalaspects. | Foodhabits—Social aspects. | Nationalcharacteristics. | Nationalism. Classification:LCCGT2850.I332015 | DDC394.1/2—dc23 LCrecordavailableathttp://lccn.loc.gov/2015021904 Contents ListofFiguresandTables vi Acknowledgements vii Introduction 1 Part I Unofficial/Bottom-Up:Nationalismand NationalIdentitythroughFoodAwayfromtheState 1 EverydayCreationoftheNation 21 2 WhenGroupsParticipateinDefiningtheNation 43 3 ConsumingNations:TheConstructionofNational IdentitiesintheFoodIndustry 61 Part II Official/Top-Down:TheNation-State,Food andNationalism 4 FoodandDietin‘Official’Nationalism 85 5 NationalFoodintheInternationalContext 107 Part III FoodandNationalism/NationalIdentityat theGlobalLevel 6 Norms,FoodandNationalism 127 7 InternationalOrganisations,FoodandNationalism 146 Conclusion:Food,NationalismandPolitics 164 Notes 171 References 177 Index 193 v Figures and Tables Figures 2.1 ExamplesofIsraelimass-produced‘Arab’hummus 54 2.2 DianaKosherIsraeliGrill 59 6.1 Themenulists5differentitems(redmeat,processed slicedtailfin,bacon,skinandtendon)substantiatingthe claimthattheJapanesedonotwasteanypartofawhale 134 Tables 1.1 Thequantitativeoutlineofextractedrecipes 33 1.2 Thecodingscheme 34 1.3 Descriptivestatisticsofthreesetsofrecipes 35 7.1 Thelistofelementsrelatedtofoodculture/cuisineinthe RepresentativeListoftheIntangibleCulturalHeritageof Humanity 150 vi Acknowledgements This volume has been long in the making. The whole project started when Ronald Ranta, then a part-time lecturer at Kingston University, burst into Atsuko Ichijo’s office to demand to know whether she had organisedapanelonfoodandnationalismatarecentconference.That weshareaninterestinfoodandnationalismwasthenestablished,and we started to have occasional conversations on the topic. When Ichijo got to know Philippa Grand at Palgrave Macmillan, our dream started totakeamoredefiniteshape.WewouldfirstliketothankPhilippafor hersupportontheproject. After having started to work on the book, Ranta was appointed as a fixed-term lecturer at Kingston University, and his contract was then convertedtoapermanentone.Sharingtheofficewasusefulintermsof communication, but we both underestimated the implication of work- loadinapost-1992university.HarrietBarker,whotookovertheproject fromPhilippaGrandatPalgraveMacmillan,hasbeenveryunderstand- ingandpatient,andwewouldliketothankherforhergenerosity.Our thanks also go to Amelia Derkatsch, Harriet’s assistant, for keeping a carefuleyeontheproject. As the volume draws from our research over a long time, there is insufficientspaceheretoacknowledgethehelpwereceivedfromevery- one.However,Ichijowouldliketoacknowledgethatpartoftheresearch conductedforthevolumewasfundedbytheResearchCapabilityFund of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Kingston University. Ichijo also thanks Mr Mitsuru Suda of Washoku Japan for sparing time to provide background to the application process for the inscription of washokuinUNESCO’sintangibleculturalheritagelist.Rantawouldlike tothankthemanychefsandfoodacademicsandwritersheinterviewed inIsrael/Palestine,aswellasYonatanMendel,withwhomhehadcon- ducted much of the research into food and nationalism in the context oftheArab–Israeliconflict. And of course, both Ichijo and Ranta would like to thank their respectivefamiliesfortheirpatienceandunfalteringsupport. Needlesstosay,allerrorsareours. vii Introduction Food is essential to life and therefore it is fundamentally political in many ways. This has been widely recognised as a quick glance at the range of literature on food and politics will confirm. However, despite the fact that we live in a political world based on the nation-state, the enduring power and appeal of nationalism, and the fact that food is considered in many cases to be ‘national’, the relationship between food and nationalism/national identity has not been systematically addressed.Ofcourse,foodcanhaveothercharacteristics;itcanbeeth- nic, regional, local, gender- or generation-specific. Clearly, the national does not have monopoly on food and there is constant tension and conflict between the different forces that try to appropriate food. Still, thefactisthatthepoliticsoftheworldwelivein,ofwhichfoodisan importantpart,isdeeplyentrenchedinthenation-statesystem.Thatis whyfoodandnationalismisafascinatingaxistoinvestigatethenature ofpoliticssinceitshedslightonavarietyofdimensionsofpoliticsand thewayitmatterstous. The current volume has two aims. First, it aims to shed light on a neglected area in the study of nationalism, that is, the relation- ship between food and nationalism/national identity. As we elaborate further below, while the centrality of food in and to human life is well acknowledged, the relationship between food and nationalism has not been systematically investigated in the study of nationalism despite the recent rise in interest in ‘everyday nationalism’. Secondly, itattemptstodrawthereader’sattentiontotherelevanceofthe‘food- and-nationalism’ axis to studying and understanding politics, political economy and international relations. Needless to say, nationalism is an integral aspect of politics, political economy and internationalrela- tions,andfoodisoneoftheessentialcommoditieswithwhichpolitical 1 2 Introduction powers at various levels are concerned. As such, neither nationalism nor food in itself constitutes a novel aspect to investigate the political. What the volume aims to illuminate is that food and nationalism can serve as an axis to bring together analyses of the political at different levels. For instance, the ‘food-and-nationalism’ axis can link everyday nationalismexpressedincommonplaceactivities,suchascooking,eat- ing and drinking, to the sensitivity surrounding food aid and thus connect the mundane to international politics and political economy. Another example is the use of banal nationalism, through the pro- motion of food items as authentic and part of a particular cuisine, by commercial entities. This forms and influences the way in which indi- vidualsnegotiateandunderstandnationalism/nationalidentitiesandis alsorelatedtoandaffectedbygovernments’policiesoneconomicand food security issues. The volume therefore aims to showcase how the ‘food-and-nationalism’axiscancutacrossvariouslevelsandspheresof politicsandofferanintegratedunderstandingofwhatishappeningin ourpoliticalworld. Below, we set out the background to the volume and elaborate whyaninvestigationintotherelationshipbetweenfoodandnational- ism/nationalidentityisapromisingexercise.Thisintroductiontouches on the issues to be taken up by the following chapters as well as those thatarenotpursuedinthevolumeforthereasonofspace. Foodandnationalism:Thebackground There are a number of ways to investigate the link between food and nationalism. Food, or more precisely food culture, builds and sus- tains a particular relationship between the individual and the nation. By food culture we ‘do not simply mean a particular diet, but rather the manner and methods, in which food is prepared, commodified, and consumed by a particular society’ (Mendel and Ranta, 2014: 414). FromtheEgyptian‘Pitariots’thatprecededthe2011revolutiontogov- ernments’ policies regarding their rice supplies in Asia, it is clear that food holds significance beyond the mere fulfilment of physiological needsandthathowpeopleperceivefoodimpactsuponhowtheyview themselvesandtheirnationalidentity.Thisisnotonlyaboutfoodand identity in general but about how particular groups of people perceive their food culture and how this in turn helps them to imagine them- selves as part of the nation; according to National Geographic (2008), during the ‘Tortilla riots’ in Mexico, protestors shouted Tortillas si, Pan no!(Tortillasyes,Breadno!).Theimportanceoffoodtonationalidentity
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