Lietuvių tautinio tapatumo konstravimas socialiniuose tinkluose: gastronominės kultūros kontekstai

LTDiskusijos apie gastronominę kultūrą ir tapatumą, nacionalinį paveldą, tautinius produktus ir gastronominį nacionalizmą yra vienos aktyviausių ir populiariausių šiuolaikiniame viešajame diskurse. Šių temų populiarėjimą skatina išaugusi įvairių tapatumų svarba šiuolaikinėje tinklaveikos visuomenėje. Kaip nematerialaus paveldo forma, gastronominė kultūra yra evoliucionuojanti sistema, lengvai susiejanti praeities ir dabarties visuomenes. Taip gastronominis paveldas ir gastronomijos istorija lengvai perkeliama į dabartinę kultūrą ir tampa įvairių tapatumų pagrindu. Kadangi nematerialusis paveldas visuomenėje veikia per apčiuopiamas reprezentacijas, o gastronominėje kultūroje viena iš labiausiai matomų reprezentacijų yra patiekalai, šiame tyrime analizuojama vieno patiekalo – šaltibarščių – komunikacija socialiniame feisbuko tinkle. Tyrime siekiama nustatyti, kaip konkretaus nematerialaus paveldo elemento reprezentacija taikoma konstruojant lietuvių tautinį tapatumą? Atliekant tyrimą nustatytos pagrindinės diskusijų temos, susiję diskursai, tautiniam tapatumui konstruoti svarbūs tikrovės elementai ir jų tarpusavio ryšiai. Pagrindiniai žodžiai: tautinis tapatumas, lietuvių tapatumas, gastronominė kultūra, šaltibarščiai. [Iš leidinio]

ENGastronomic culture has a great potential to be the basis for constructing various forms of identity (e.g. national, regional, religious or dietary). Consequently, the debate on gastronomic culture and identities, the national or regional culinary heritage, national products, gastronativism and gastronomic nationalism, is one of the most active and most popular in the contemporary public discourse. The research presented in this paper focuses on the relationship between gastronomic culture and the Lithuanian national identity in discussions on Facebook. The study aims to understand how the representation of a specific element of gastronomic culture (including the gastronomic heritage) in social media is used to construct the contemporary Lithuanian national identity. Considering that the intangible heritage operates in society through material representations, and that one of the most visible representations in gastronomic culture is dishes, this study analyses the communication of one Lithuanian dish, šaltibarščiai, on Facebook, the most popular social network in Lithuania. The theoretical framework for understanding the process and structure of conversations in social networks is related to two conceptual ideas: the semiosphere theory of Jurij Lotman, the founder of the Tartu School of Semiotics, and the theory of Art Nexus developed by the anthropologist of material culture Alfred Gell. Combining the concepts of the semiosphere and Art Nexus, the aim is to cover the semiotic aspects of conversations in social networks, and in this way to analyse the phenomenon in the context of communication studies. Empirical data for this research was collected during the Connective project (Connective Digital Memory in Borderlands: A Mixed-Methods Study of Cultural Identity, Heritage Communication and Digital Curation on Social Networks).A total of 2,982 posts mentioning šaltibarščiai in an identity context were used in the study. The Facebook data was analysed by the qualitative content analysis method using MaxQDA software. The results of the study show that the communication of šaltibarščiai on Facebook is related to the expression and construction of the Lithuanian national identity. The study identified the most important associated themes and discourses: the ‘exclusive’ (proprietary) Lithuanianness of an element of the intangible heritage (in this case, šaltibarščiai); the quest to discover and consolidate the most ‘authentic’ form of an element of the heritage; and the negative attitude towards the evolution of the dish and its adaptation to the ideas of contemporary gastronomic culture (specifically, a healthy lifestyle). Discussions on the social networking site associate šaltibarščiai with other elements of the gastronomic heritage that are important to the Lithuanian national identity (cepelinai, balta mišraine). These elements are closely related to the notion of the Lithuanianness of gastronomic culture as shaped by the standard of the Soviet period. Discussing the functioning of communicative mechanisms in the case of šaltibarščiai, we can observe that the personal interpretation of the commentator plays the role of a semiotic code in this case too. However, these interpretations are only in a minimal way ‘individual’, ‘personal’ and ‘unique’. They are determined by the ideas (concepts) of the underlying identity group (as a semiosphere) to which the person belongs, which are inherent, understood and accepted by the members of that particular identity group.These concepts function as: (i) filters which, during the reading of a message, recognise and reject components of the message (expression) that are not acceptable to members of the specific group (knowledge, objects of reality, such as the modern concept of a healthy lifestyle, or ingredients that are not characteristically ‘authentic’ for šaltibarščiai); (ii) the basis on which a person interprets the filtered elements of the expression to extract meanings that are meaningful to him/her and to other members of the group (e.g. by accepting the interpretation of a healthy lifestyle as a threat to tradition and the identity based on it); and (iii) the basis on which a response (another expression) is constructed in the social network, representing the meanings that are important to the ‘own’ community. Discussions about šaltibarščiai on Facebook identify the same groups of Lithuanian identity (semiospheres) relating to gastronomic culture that were identified in the National Menu Election Study. However, it should be noted that people who are most influenced by the Lithuanian gastronomic identity formed by the standard of ‘Lithuanian dishes’ in catering during the Soviet period are significantly more active in the debate than those who question the existing (post-Soviet) tradition of Lithuanian cuisine and are looking for a new Lithuanian gastronomic identity in the ethnographic historical cuisine of the manor, or the town, or even in the cuisine of reconstruction. [...] Key words: national identity, Lithuanian identity, gastronomic culture, šaltibarščiai, Facebook. [From the publication]

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