The Myth of the Turkish Cuisine: National Appropriation of Food Cultures

Im Rahmen des Jahresthemas der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften tragen monatlich Fellows und Mitglieder des Forschungsprogramms Europa im Nahen Osten - Der Nahe Osten in Europa zu Aspekten der politischen, sozialen und kulturellen Verflechtungen zwischen Europa und dem Nahen Osten vor. Die Veranstaltungen finden in englischer oder in deutscher Sprache statt.

Dr. Zafer Yenal

(Bogazici University Istanbul, z.Zt. Fellow des Forschungsprogramms „Europa im Nahen Osten – Der Nahe Osten in Europa“)

The Myth of Turkish Cuisine: National Appropriation of Food Cultures

Does Baklava have a national identity? To what extent is Döner a türkische Spezialität? Who really invented the Currywurst? What are the similarities between the ideas of a Turkish cuisine and a French cuisine? Can we really talk about national culinary heritages? What does violence have to do with food? These are some of the questions that this Lecture engages with in the light of the recent sociological and historical studies on culinary transformations to offer fresh food for thought. Focusing on the history of inter-ethnic relations in republican Turkey with an eye on different food cultures, this lecture questions the idea of a national cuisine. Drawing on examples from different historical periods, the lecture explores how the myth of Turkish cuisine has discursively appropriated and/or suppressed local food cultures in many different ways and how this process has strong implications for inter-communal relations.

Dr. Zafer Yenal is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Bogazici University in Istanbul. He was educated at Middle East Technical University in Ankara and later graduated from Binghamton University, earning a Ph.D. in Sociology with his doctoral thesis on "The Culture and Political Economy of Food Consumption Practices in Turkey." Zafer Yenal has held several positions as adjunct lecturer. He has written a monograph on human rights and civil society in Turkey as well as numerous scholarly articles.