Bread as World:

Food Habits & Social Relations in Modernizing Sardinia--Carole Counihan

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Bosa, Sardinia

Once men grew wheat & women baked bread together in their homes

Bread was shared through kin & friendship networks

Bread was consumed communally

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Let’s begin with a premise: Human nature is a product of history &

society (Gramsci, Marx) In Sardinia, people practiced communal

labor & reciprocal exchange Identity was based on group,

lineage, family membership

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Sardinian Context

Geographic isolation, low population density

Tradition of sheep raising & wheat cultivation

Subsistence economy

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Bread…

Is the nexus of economic, political, social, symbolic, and health concerns

78% of diet in 1930s (+ vegetables, cheese, pasta)

Astounding variety & beauty of breads Bread as a symbol of life

“One who has bread never dies”

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Wheat Production

Wheat as major crop until 1960s Concentrated land ownership, but large

landowners rented land to landless peasants for wheat production

Harvest & threshing involved reciprocal cooperation

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Wheat Threshing

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Women

Took grain to mill Collective labor (neighbors, relatives)

for baking every 10-14 days Social communication: “While they

prepare dough & bake bread they make an X-ray of the town,” reinforced social norms

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Baking Bread

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Post World War II Massive cultural & economic change Capitalist agriculture replaced

subsistence production Decline in subsistence agriculture

& pastoralism Mechanized agriculture reduced employment Bosa imports consumer goods, & sends

workers to the industrial North of Italy ¾ of the adult populations depends on

government assistance

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Capitalist economic production & market exchange Today Bosans no longer grow wheat Abandonment of wheat cultivation in

1960s dealt a final blow to home baking Today, not one woman bakes bread The 1st bakery opened in 1912 but viewed as

a source of shame Today they buy bakery bread distributed

according to market principles & consume it individually

Modernization Without Development

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Individualization:

Atomization of social relations Reduction of inter-dependence among

people Men’s work groups for threshing Women’s organized labor for baking Men’s & women’s mutual dependence

Decline in gift-giving Decisions & actions become more

independent of community ties

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Distribution of Wheat

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Bosa transformed from a pre-war commercial center to what Counihan now describes as the “end-of-the-road” & commercially obsolete

Shift from small neighborhood stores that were centers of social relations to large, centralized, self-service stores

Loss of reciprocity as the basis for economic relations

“For a plate that goes, let a plate come back” “My mother always said that if you were baking bread & a

person came to the door, you must always give him apiece of freshly baked bread”

“A gift of bread…was one of the most enjoyed gifts, and they reciprocated it every time that they lit their ovens”

One of the most important forces in linking people together—reciprocal prestations—is fading away & with it goes people’s interdependence”

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Consumption

Meals are a central arena for family in Italy

Festive consumption took place within the community

People knew who grew the wheat,

Who baked the bread

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Consumption of bread reaffirmed the complimentarily of men & women and of family & society —the locus of identity

Community feast days: Exaggerated consumption at an exceptional time & place Excess consumption brings the community

together, temporarily obliterates social & economic differences, satiates hunger collectively, at least for one day

Demise of community feasts

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The Ethic of Consumption in the World Market

Today “opulent” consumption takes place privately, satisfying the individual, rather than altruistic, communal ends

What happens to humans if they become increasingly separate, losing communal ties?