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Oleo‐Signs and Quali‐Signs: The Qualities of Olive Oil

2008; Routledge; Volume: 73; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00141840802324003

1469-588X

Anne Meneley,

Language, Linguistics, Cultural Analysis

Abstract This article considers the way that a single substance, olive oil, bundles together a set ofqualisigns including luminosity, liquidity, spreadibility, durability, capacity to cleanse, capacity to seal or preserve, capacity to insulate, and notably, a lack of miscibility in water. These qualisigns allow olive oil to operate in several discrete religious contexts in the Mediterranean although the interpretations and the specific qualisigns made salient by particular semiotic metadiscourses are always changing, even though the material substrate remains the same. In contemporary Western discourses of distinction, the positive qualities of olive oil are not those primarily registered by the ordinary senses of taste, touch, and smell, but rather those that are established discursively by expert opinions of various kinds, which attest to olive oil's ‘healthful’ qualities. Keywords: Olive oilsensesqualisignsritualdiscourses of distinction Acknowledgments My first debt is to my colleague Paul Manning for his generous sharing of his knowledge of the classics and semiotics; I have learned a great deal from our ongoing conversations. Although he did not read this paper, Tom Beidelman was inspirational in many respects. Robert Massoud shared his love of olive oil and his hope that olive oil's resonances with peace and healing have the requisite qualisigns for resolving the Palestinian crisis. Thanks also to Deni Poletti and Amal Al‐Ras, Italian and Palestinian olive oil aficionados, who have provided great meals and great company as I have written this paper. Thanks to Maya Baran for alerting me that her grandfather, An‐gelo Pellegrini's, wonderful book, The Unprejudiced Palate, was about to be reprinted. Thanks to my sister‐in‐law, Michelle Meneley, for her gift of Gina Mallet's book, Last Chance to Eat. Thanks to Don Kulick, via his mother, for the Minimag, The Healing Power of Olive Oil. Thanks to my son, Theo Banelis, for his olive oil connoisseurship; he is the best twelve‐year‐old olive oil taster I know. Donna Young, Lindsay DuBois, Bruce Grant and Don Kulick have proven themselves the best readers ever; willing to consult at the eleventh hour, with characteristic insight and generous advice. Thanks to our editors at Ethnos for their patience and editorial advice. Notes 1. www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p2s2c2a5.htm. Accessed 27/6 2006. 2. After five years in the grave, the bodies of the deceased are exhumed and reburied in an ossuary above ground (Danforth 1981 Danforth, Loring. 1981. The Death Rituals of Rural Greece, Princeton University Press. [Google Scholar]). 3. ‘A mythical pattern contradicted by experience does not simply disappear’ (Lévi‐Strauss 1972 Lévi‐Strauss, Claude. 1972. Structuralism and Ecology. Barnard Alumnae, : 6–14. [Google Scholar]:11). Keane (2006 Keane, Webb. 2006. “Introduction: Subjects and Objects”. In Handbook of Material Culture, Edited by: Christopher, Tilley, Webb, Keane, Susanne, Kuchler, Michael, Rowlands and Patricia, Spyer. 197–202. London: Sage Publications. [Google Scholar]:198) notes that Lévi‐Strauss’ bricoleur works with whatever objects happen to be at hand, offering only the most modest recognition of their materiality. Stasch (2006 Stasch, Rupert. 2006. “Structuralism in Anthropology”. In The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2, Vol. 12, 167–170. Oxford: Elsevier. [Google Scholar]:167) notes that ‘Structuralism in anthropology is the view that meaning in human sociocultural life rests in the positional configuration of elements relative to each other in a structure or system, not in properties of those elements considered in their own right, nor in the elements’ ties to forces external to the system.' 4. A new bride in Ancient Rome anointed the door posts of her new husband's house before she was carried over the threshold; uxor, the word for wife, is derived from the word for ‘anointress’ (Bowie 1993 Bowie, Angus. 1993. “Oil in Ancient Greece and Rome”. In The Oil of Gladness: Anointing in the Christian Tradition, Edited by: Martin, Dudley and Geoffrey, Rowell. 26–33. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press. [Google Scholar]:30). 5. Howes and Classen caution against the primacy of the visual and the verbal in discourses of'meaning’ (2006 Howes, David and Constance, Classen. 2006. “Scent, Sound and Synaesthesia”. In Handbook of Material Culture, Edited by: Christopher, Tilley, Webb, Keane, Susanne, Kuchler, Michael, Rowlands and Patricia, Spyer. 161–172. London: Sage Publications. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]:162). 6. See Limbert's paper (this volume) for an argument that a similar transformation has occurred in Islam as practices in Oman. 7. For insightful discussions of synaesthesia, see Sutton 2001 Sutton, David. 2001. Remembrance of Repasts: An Anthropology of Food and Memory, New York: Berg. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar] and Seremetakis 1996 Seremetakis, Nadia C. 1996. “The Memory of the Senses, Part II: Still Acts”. In The Senses Still: Perception and Memory as Material Culture in Modernity, Edited by: Seremetakis, Nadia C. 23–43. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [Google Scholar]. 8. This includes petroleum, although now there is a distinction between the edible and inedible oils, the latter referring primarily to petroleum. 9. Migliore argues that the diviner symbolically takes on the role of the Catholic priest, making the oil/water into a holy oracle, but he does not mention the behaviour of the oil itself (1997 Migliore, Sam. 1997. Mal'uocchiu: Ambiguity, Evil Eye, and the Language of Distress, Toronto: University of Toronto Press. [Google Scholar]:43). 10. For instance, meteorites or oddly shaped stones were thought to be of divine origin. 11. The materiality of these ‘primitive’ images sometimes makes the use of oil with respect to them ambiguous. Donahue, in a discussion of a specific aniconic image (xoanon) of Aphrodite, which is described as liparon ‘shining with oil’ notes that the epithet could have a range of meanings, from being literally one of those many statues that are oiled for ‘symbolic or practical reasons’ (that is, to make them shimmer like the gods, who are sometimes described as being shimmering and anointed) or as a preservative for a wooden image (aniconic images like xoana were often made of wood), but also a figurative sense meaning ‘of rich and splendid worksmanship’ (Donahue 1988 Donahue, A. A. 1988. Xoana and the Origins of Greek Sculpture, Atlanta: Scholars Press. [Google Scholar]:38–39). 12. In the Orthodox tradition gold paint and gold coverings on icons is symbolic of light, illumination, otherworldliness (Kenna 1985 Kenna, Margaret. 1985. Icons in Theory and Practice: An Orthodox Christian Example. History of Religions, 24: 345–368. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). 13. In Jerusalem, a city sacred to all monotheistic traditions, clay reproductions of ancient olive oil lamps are popular tourist souvenirs. Some tourist shops sell the original items, gathered from archaeological sites, for a considerably higher price. 14. This practice also served to eroticize the bodies of the athletes (Scanlon 2005; Ken‐nell 2001). Apparently by the mid‐sixth century bc, statue makers favoured bronze as construction material ‘no doubt because its gleam so readily brought to mind the burnished, oiled bodies of the athletes themselves’ (Steiner 2001 Steiner, Deborah Tarn. 2001. Images in Mind: Statues in Archaic and Classical Literature and Thought, Princeton: Princeton University Press. [Google Scholar]:228). 15. Italian Bartolomeo Sacchi (1421–1481) wrote under the pseudonym ‘il Platina’. This excerpt is from On Right Pleasure and Good Health. 16. A document from 2400 bce refers to immersing fish in oil (Bottero 2004 Bottero, Jean. 2004. The Oldest Cuisine in the World: Cooking in Mesopotamia, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [Google Scholar]:61). 17. This practice was still used in some wine production in rural Italian households in the 1980s; for instance, in Liguria (Hawes 2001 Hawes, Annie. 2001. Extra Virgin, New York: Perennial/Harper Collins. [Google Scholar]:246–247). 18. In Homer's time, this quality was used to deliberately mark robes (Bowie 1993 Bowie, Angus. 1993. “Oil in Ancient Greece and Rome”. In The Oil of Gladness: Anointing in the Christian Tradition, Edited by: Martin, Dudley and Geoffrey, Rowell. 26–33. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press. [Google Scholar]:27). 19. Some have described ancient amphorae as the first form of mass consumer packaging, even being recyclable (Twede 2002 Twede, Diana. 2002. Commercial Amphoras: The Earliest Consumer Packages?. Journal of Macromarketing, 22: 98–108. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]:98–108). 20. Halliburton also notes that some crucifixes contained relics and compartments for holy oil (1993:88). Sometimes water is also thought to absorb the Holiness; when I was growing up, pious maternal relatives sent my ailing mother plastic bottles in the shape of the Virgin Mary with screw‐off heads. These little bottles always ended up in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, along with secular medicines and purifying agents such as polysporin or hydrogen peroxide. 21. In Trinidad, I visited a Catholic shrine, La Divina Pastora, which like The Virgin of Guadalupe, the subject of Eric Wolf’s memorable article (1958 Wolf, Eric R. 1958. The Virgin of Guadalupe. Journal of American Folklore, 71: 34–39. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), featured a black Madonna. This shrine is a popular pilgrimage shrine for those seeking healing, even for Trinidadian Hindus, Muslims, and Protestants. At the shrine, the nuns sold small bottles of olive oil, blessed and used for anointing the sick. The label on the small plastic bottle has an image of the Black Madonna and the following annotation: La Divina Pastora Blessed Oil May this Blessed Oil, be a sign in Faith of God's loving and healing presence in your illness. 22. ‘The close association of the Spirit and the oil (meshha) is further brought out where the relationship between the three Persons of the Trinity is expressed using the terms Anointer (mashoha), Anointed (mshiha ‐ Messiah, Christ), and Anointment (meshha)' (Brock 1993 Brock, Sebastian. 1993. “Anointing in the Syriac Tradition”. In The Oil of Gladness: Anointing in the Christian Tradition, Edited by: Martin, Dudley and Geoffrey, Rowell. 26–33. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press. [Google Scholar]:93). The word for Christian in Arabic (masahi) is from the same trilateral root. 23. Fascinating accounts of the myriad nuances and transformations of practices relating to anointing can be found in The Oil of Gladness: Anointing in the Christian Tradition. eds. Martin Dudley and Geoffrey Rowell. This collection published by The Liturgical Press, arose out of meetings at the Church Union Theological Committee which expressed concerns that the Alternative Service Book, Church of England (1986) was unclear about the role of anointing in contemporary Anglican practice. Although my purposes are quite different, I have found their historical and theological work very useful. 24. Not only is consecrated olive oil central to Catholic ritual, but the Vatican also sponsors a commercial olive oil, Olio Carli, as the official olive oil of the Vatican. Olio Carli is sold quite widely in North American luxury good stores, neither as pricy as the distinct estate oils nor as inexpensive as the large producers like Bertolli. This is perhaps not surprising because even though Catholicism operates with a distinction between the sacred and the secular, in practice, the boundaries between these two domains have often been transgressed. For instance, in the traffic in medieval relics (Geary 1986 Geary, P. 1986. “Sacred Commodities: The Circulation of Medieval Relics”. In The Social Life of Things, New York: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]); the sale of indulgences to buy oneself into heaven; and of late, the Shroud of Turin bath towel and Pope T‐shirts as souvenirs. 25. The authors note other possible interpretations of this upsurge in oils, such as that proposed by Naomi Klein, in her book The Beauty Myth (1991) Klein, Naomi. 1991. The Beauty Myth, New York: Perennial. [Google Scholar], where she argues that the contemporary cosmetic industry co‐opts sacred language of renewal to make women feel perpetually inadequate about themselves. What is achieved is not wholeness, a rejoicing in the body, but rejection of it. 26. Olive oil's healing potential in the Christian rites was largely a matter of warding off evil influences, but olive oil's chief value earlier in the century in Anglo‐America cultures was as a laxative. Angelo Pellegrini, an Italian immigrant to America early in the century, has a funny anecdote describing how, when cooking dinner for an American friend, the only olive oil to be found was in the medicine cabinet (2005 [1948] Pellegrini, Angelo. 2005 [1948]. The Unprejudiced Palate: Classic Thoughts onFoodandthe Good Life, New York: Modern Library Paperback Editions. [Google Scholar]:4). Gina Mallet describes the alluring nature of Elizabeth David's A Book of Mediterranean Food for British readers in the 1950s, who could rarely acquire the delicious items she described, including olive oil which was only available in ‘tiny bottles from Boots, the pharmacy’ (2004 Mallet, Gina. 2004. Last Chance to Eat: The Fate of Taste in a Fast Food World, Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. [Google Scholar]:107). I have recently bought olive oil in a drugstore in Trinidad and in a drugstore run by Lithuanians in Toronto; both placed it on the laxative shelf, right beside the ExLax. This laxative quality, however, is rarely one of the contemporary health reasons cited for olive oil consumption. 27. www.foodconsumer.org/777/8/Olive_oil_benenefits_blood_vessels.shtml. 28. There seems to be a transference of the biblical notion of'my body is a temple’ for God, to a more secular notion of ‘my body is a temple for me’ whereby civic virtue is increasingly associated with taking care of yourself instead of burdening the health care system with heart disease and diabetes, two conditions which are both thought to be prevented by olive oil and two conditions which are associated with being overweight, which has itself become the ‘new smoking’. These afflictions are increasingly considered as morally reprehensible as smoking cigarettes which result in lung cancer. The Christian dieting movement, wonderfully detailed in Griffiths’ 2004 Griffiths, Marie R. 2004. Born Again Bodies: Flesh and Spirit in American Christianity, Berkeley: University of California Press. [Google Scholar] Born Again Bodies, articulates the connection between Protestantism and dieting. One of the offshoots of this movement have been food commodities which harken back to the Bible, such as ‘Bible Bars’ made by Orlando, Florida‐based Logia foods, which ‘contain the seven foods described in a passage from Deuteronomy: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olive oil and honey’.