Pizza effect

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The pizza effect is a term used especially in religious studies and sociology for the phenomenon of elements of a nation or people's culture being transformed or at least more fully embraced elsewhere, then re-imported back to their culture of origin,[1] or the way in which a community's self-understanding is influenced by (or imposed by, or imported from) foreign sources.[2] It is named after the idea that modern pizza was developed among Italian immigrants in the United States (rather than in native Italy, where in its simpler form it was originally looked down upon), and was later exported back to Italy to be interpreted as a delicacy in Italian cuisine.

Related phrases include "hermeneutical feedback loop", "re-enculturation", and "self-orientalization". The term "pizza effect" was coined by the Hindu monk and professor of Anthropology at Syracuse University, Agehananda Bharati[2][3][4] in 1970.[5]

The original examples given by Agehananda Bharati mostly had to do with popularity and status:

  • The Apu trilogy films of Satyajit Ray, which were flops in India before they were given prizes in Western countries and re-evaluated as classics of the Indian cinema[6]
  • The popularity in India of movements like those of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and ISKCON based on their popularity in the west[6]
  • The popularity of yoga, several gurus, and some other Indian systems and teachings following their popularity in the west[7]
  • The exalted status of the Bhagavad Gita in Hinduism, where, although it was always highly regarded, it gained its current prominence only following Western attempts to identify a single canonical "Hindu Bible"[5]

Other examples

Criticism

Scholar David Miller wrote that Westerners were responsible for "…the renewed interest in the four Vedas and the Upanishads, as texts in themselves apart from the endless number of commentaries that have been written by Indians to interpret and to systematize the texts," and that due to this interest, "Indian scholars have also served up that menu, often in a less appetizing way than their Western counterparts. In so doing they have missed the very life force or essence of Indian ethical traditions."[13]

Variants

  • Scholar Jørn Borup wrote about an "inverted pizza-effect", when a society's modification of another culture gets further re-modified by that same society, such as European philosophers including Martin Heidegger "appear to have been significantly inspired by Eastern thought - an Eastern thought itself presented through "Protestant" or "Western" eyes. This transformation is naturally not a unique phenomenon in religious studies, where interpretations, re-interpretations and inventions are seen as common characteristics of religion."[14]
  • Stephen Jenkins noted that the feedback phenomenon could continue; in the case of pizza, he wrote that the return of pizza to Italy again influenced American cuisine: "...pizza-loving American tourists, going to Italy in the millions, sought out authentic Italian pizza. Italians, responding to this demand, developed pizzerias to meet American expectations. Delighted with their discovery of "authentic" Italian pizza, Americans subsequently developed chains of "authentic" Italian brick-oven pizzerias. Hence, Americans met their own reflection in the other and were delighted."[9]:81

See also

References

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  4. Steven J. Rosen (Satyaraja Dasa), "The Pizza Effect" (in the context of Krishna Consciousness)
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  8. Mark Sedgwick (2007), Islamist Terrorism and the “Pizza Effect”, Perspectives on Terrorism, Volume I, Issue 6
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  11. Robin Cook's chicken tikka masala speech: Extracts from a speech by the foreign secretary to the Social Market Foundation in London (April 19, 2001). Guardian.
  12. Anita Mannur, Culinary Fictions: Food in South Asian Diasporic Culture (2009). Temple University Press: p. 3.
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