'The Real of the Real': Kyoto's Heirloom Vegetables and Articulations of Authenticity SUE SAMUELSON AWARD FOR FOODWAYS SCHOLARSHIP 1st PLACE WINNER 2011
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Abstract
This essay is concerned with social scientific understandings of authenticity. Using Kyoto’s heirloom vegetable industry as a case study, I argue that for social scientists, authenticity may be usefully approached as the product of a discourse. Treating authenticity as the product of a discourse acknowledges that although the “authenticity” of a tradition or object may be socially ascribed in the present, it is not an arbitrary process but in fact is ascribed according to culturally determined criteria. Based on participant observation in Kyoto as well as interviews with farmers, chefs, local government officials, food experts, and consumers, I argue that Kyoto’s food industry highlights four main criteria in its articulations of authenticity: origin, content, process, and continuity. This production of authenticity has transformed Kyoto vegetables into value-added craft foods by stimulating in consumers an appetite for the “authentic” taste of a place that has become a nostalgia-laden national touchstone.
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