Start Date
31-5-2022 3:00 PM
End Date
31-5-2022 3:15 PM
Description
This paper addresses several themes in the movement of olive oil. Although it is not often discussed in medico-scientific terms like “peristalsis”, olive oil was and is consumed as a morning shot in many parts of the Mediterranean, to encourage swift and efficient digestive trajectories through the body. It is one of the stars of ancient agriculture, and is still revered as a product capable of capturing a “local” identity, so much so that every olive grower seems to claim their own olive oil is the best. While an icon of “traditional” food, lower grade olive oil was also used to oil the wheels of the Industrial Revolution. Olive oil was one of the first widely circulated commodities, shipped in clay amphorae, able to be sealed and stacked in ships that moved across the Mediterranean. It was and is a valuable commodity when delivered intact, but when it seeps out of its container, it becomes polluting and dangerous “matter out of place”. Yet olive oil is also used to seal, to baptize babies, and to preserve fruits and vegetables. Olive harvests in Palestine are now moments of political mobilization for international solidarity volunteers, helping to pick and press the oil.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21427/fv7a-7h65
Olive Oil and Movement, Moving Olive Oil
This paper addresses several themes in the movement of olive oil. Although it is not often discussed in medico-scientific terms like “peristalsis”, olive oil was and is consumed as a morning shot in many parts of the Mediterranean, to encourage swift and efficient digestive trajectories through the body. It is one of the stars of ancient agriculture, and is still revered as a product capable of capturing a “local” identity, so much so that every olive grower seems to claim their own olive oil is the best. While an icon of “traditional” food, lower grade olive oil was also used to oil the wheels of the Industrial Revolution. Olive oil was one of the first widely circulated commodities, shipped in clay amphorae, able to be sealed and stacked in ships that moved across the Mediterranean. It was and is a valuable commodity when delivered intact, but when it seeps out of its container, it becomes polluting and dangerous “matter out of place”. Yet olive oil is also used to seal, to baptize babies, and to preserve fruits and vegetables. Olive harvests in Palestine are now moments of political mobilization for international solidarity volunteers, helping to pick and press the oil.