Nationalism and Food: The Morality of Eating within a Greek / Arvanite Community

This chapter examines how food is used to express the shifting Arvanite Identity. Though the Arvanites have been an active part of Greek history dynamically taking part in construction of the Greek Nation, they still hold an relatively ambiguous position as an ethnic group and/or as Greeks in Greece because of their ‘Albanian’ origins. This talk examines how a group of Arvanites use food and the perceptions of food to manipulate their sometimes ‘fuzzy’ identities. In contrast with many other food studies, I suggest that food is not used only to create boundaries between groups but that it is used to eliminate difference too. Its taxonomy, its public and private presentation, and its consumption, express homogeneity with their national, ethnic, or regional culture. Because food is also a sensory-based entity, food and all that goes into its procurement, production and consumption is imbued with strong emotions and memories. I conclude that these emotions and memories may not always be consistent with national discourse. This chapter illustrates how food becomes a medium of expression; expressing ethnicity, nationalism, and even masculinity. I show that food is a part of a moral system. Thus, the perceptions of food’s procurement, production, and consumption are used as forms of resistance, conformity, subjectivity, and/or contestation.