Is there Lettuce in Greek Salad?
Fabricating Authenticity - Jason W.M. Ellsworth
Russell T. McCutcheon [+]
University of Alabama
Russell T. McCutcheon is University Research Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama, USA. He publishes widely on the history of the study of religion, the tools scholars use in their work, and the practical implications of that work. Among his recent publications are Reading J. Z. Smith (with Willi Braun; Oxford University Press, 2018), ‘Religion’ in Theory and Practice (Equinox Publishing, 2018) and Fabricating Religion (de Gruyter, 2018).
Description
In this chapter, McCutcheon complicates the notion of authentic Greek food. Using personal stories based on encounters with popular food such as Greek salad and dolmas (grape leaves) he shows how claims of authenticity and legitimacy are not innocent descriptions of obvious facts, but instead are examples of how identity is asserted and contested making these mundane moments some of the most interesting opportunities scholars can have to study how people the world over manage and justify how they organize their lives.