The Role of Food in the Dialogue between "Us" and "Others" in Southern Italy

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2022-2/274-291

Abstract

This article is devoted to a rather poorly studied aspect of migration research in the scientific discourse – the role of food in cross-cultural contacts between migrants and the local population, "newcomers" and "hosts". It uses concrete examples to consider food, its choice (the binary opposition "our"/"someone else's"), and the transition to a new foreign-cultural alimentary system not only as a reflection of the socio-cultural interaction of these two categories of the population in the context of modern Italian society but also as a factor in the formation and optimization of relations between them. Special attention is paid to a wide range of factors that influence the nature of these relationships on "food soil" and alimentary-motivated behavior of both migrants and the people of Italy. These include both historical, social, and cultural backgrounds and traditional attitudes of the population of certain social strata and certain regions. The analysis of purely "dietary aspects" of the immigration problem also allows us to clearly highlight the regional diversity of the population of Italy. Special emphasis is put on discussing migration policies of different autonomous regions of the country and its historical regions, which largely shape the way the broad layers of society see migrants and the role of the historical memory of the population in forming stereotypes about the "Other".