California Italian Studies

In this exciting anticipation of his new research project on bread culture in the Mediterranean, Pedrag Matvejević, paints a vivid picture of this primordial “product of nature and culture.” Bread participated in the settlement of nomad populations and the transformation of hunters into pastors, and of both into peasant; later it was used to distinguish civilized people from barbarians. Soon a uniform ritual culture formed around bread and spread across the Mediterranean. In this spreading of bread culture Mediterranean islands came to play a key role, and they continue to preserve some of these most ancient traditions up to the present day.