From Affluence to Austerity: The Importance of Meat in Italians’ Collective Imagery, through Emigration and Economic Crises

Throughout history, food has always had a fundamental symbolic role in our lives. We use food to survive, to entertain, and for political reasons. We can use food both to establish bridges between different cultures, and to divide cultures and communities from one other. When I carried out a small project about how the perception of Italian culture and cuisine changed in the US between the 1970s and the 1990s, I came to realize not only that gastronomy represented an important economic aspect of Italian American communities, but also that through a renewal of the status of Italian cuisine in the United States – and especially through the concept of frugality – these communities were able to improve their citizens’ social status. I decided to correlate these findings with my current doctoral research on austerity and consumption in Italy during the 1970s. Studying the same period – but from a perspective from both sides of the Atlantic – has shown me how different political and economic situations can influence how concepts like frugality, or commodities like meat are perceived by people