Urbanities,
Vol. 4
·
No 2
·
November 2014
© 2014
Urbanities
30
experience. They support the clarification of forms, and thus reduce dissonance (Douglas
1999: 111). Furthermore, a looser relationship to food and its de-materialization makes food
identification more problematic in industrialised societies (Fischler 1988). This tendency is
strongly opposed in the market and both buyers and vendors reject what they describe as ‘fake
food’ (
cibo finto
) wrapped in plastic, preferring the ‘real food’ (
cibo vero
) on offer in the
market. This resonates with Serres, when he writes that ‘[o]dourless frozen food for the
spongy and obese, hidden under the cellophane so that no-one can touch or taste it - watch out
the germs! […]’ (2008: 186).
Voi ces Occupy Space
Orality is the aspect that most closely reflects the changes occurring in urban markets, and
more in general in food commodification contexts. Recently, anthropologists have invited
ethnographers not to be deaf to the sound of reality and to engage with it (Samuels et al 2010).
At La Pescheria, vendors’ voices occupy and dominate space, while buyers are allowed to
answer back in a counterpoint of voices, noises and cries. As they step in the market, visitors
can hear the vendors’ voices shouting, ‘One Euro, only one Euro’. Once they have, thus,
drawn the attention of their potential customers’, the sellers might add something more, to
entice them to stop and engage in social interaction.
The synaesthetic experience of market has been the focus of Bonanzinga’s work on
the ‘soundscapes’
10
of markets in Sicilian towns (2007). This way of celebrating the quality of
the wares is called ‘
abbanniata, bbanniata, vanniata
’ (Bonanzinga 2007: 92).
Abbanniare
(or
vanniare
) means ‘to shout the wares’, ‘to announce what the vendor sells to the public’, or
simply ‘to shout’. The
vanniata
indicates the vendor’s cry to publicise his goods. According
to Bonanzinga (2007:89),
imbonimento
means, literally, to make something good, to extol or
glorify its qualities. The
imbonimento
could be translated as the ‘sales pitch’, which identifies
who is selling what and is also used to catch people’s attention. Sound is information (Serres
2008) and at La Pescheria shouting covers multiple functions: it can signal the presence of
certain types of goods at the beginning of a new season, such as artichokes, figs and melons;
it can praise the provenance of the produce and provide details about its production; and it can
point out the quality of the wares. ‘
Troppu beddi sti caccocciuli’
(These artichokes are too
beautiful), cries the young boy at the corner of the via Gisira; ‘
Boni, boni
’ (Good, good!)
shouts Enrico Caruso as he shows his fragrant Pachino melons;
11
‘
Beddi, beddissimi
’
(Beautiful, very beautiful!), screams Antonio Consoli pointing to his crates of perfectly ripe
tomatoes.
12
The sales pitch involves visual and gustatory description of the products, for
example ‘
Rosse, rosse queste fragole
’ (Red, red these strawberries) or the mentioned
boni
,
10
The word ‘soundscape’ derives from Schafer (1994), indicating the totality of the acoustic
environment.
11
Pachino, a town in South-east Sicily in the Province of Syracuse, is renowned for its melon and
tomato production.
12
Sicily is one of the largest producers of tomatoes in Italy and indeed in Europe, and is famed for the
high quality and variety of its tomatoes. According to the national statistics, 15,636 hectares of land is
designated for tomato crops (ISTAT 2010).
