Food Relates: Positionings in Space, Time and Society in the German Language Pockets of Sauris and Timau (Italy)

The author analyses positionings in space, time and society that inhabitants of Sauris and Timau, German language pockets in Friuli, construct in qualitative interviews about food. Positionings of the self are immanent when interviewees speak about, represent and relate to times they, their parents or grandparents have experienced, as well as frequented localities and known persons. Relations, which outreach the places, are established through the preparation and consumption of specific foods because it evokes memories, emotions, feelings, and transmits values. Dishes with dialectal German names that are associated with the place and food, which had been consumed daily in the agrarian past became particular. In order to negotiate meanings and to identify with places and people, common food preparation, consumption and reflections are necessary, and individual interpretations need to be accepted.