Abstract

In this article we ethnographically investigate how diasporic Iranians in Aotearoa/New Zealand deployed a variety of foodways in emphasizing varied identity constructs in different contexts and to different audiences. We argue that Iranian migrants experienced a cleft habitus that prompted hyper-reflexivity and associated strategic identity discourses and performances. Moreover, we analyze their diasporic reflexivity and practices through ‘bottom-up’ national identity constructions and performances and its four modalities of talking, choosing, consuming, and performing the nation. Diasporic Iranians frequently highlighted what they considered to be ideally Iranian-as-Persian in attempts to position themselves as secular Iranians/Muslims and in contradiction to the host society’s prevalent prejudices concerning ‘fundamentalist Arabs’, ‘Middle Easterners’ and ‘Muslims’. In doing this, they strategically consumed foods (most notably pork and red wine) considered to be ‘taboo’ under Islamic religious beliefs and did so especially in contexts dominated by their Pākehā (New Zealand European) hosts; they also invented new food symbolisms and rituals in collective celebrations (such as Yalda) to draw attention to a glorious imagined past – Persian and Iranian – which was often not recognized by their host society and which positioned the diasporic Iranians as secular and cultural. As such we address a marked lacuna in research investigating the food-identity-nationalism nexus among diasporic Iranians in general and in Aotearoa/New Zealand specifically.

摘要

在这篇文章中，我们从人种学角度调查了新西兰/新西兰的海外伊朗人如何部署各种饮食方式来强调不同背景下和不同受众的不同身份结构。我们认为，伊朗移民经历了一种习惯性分裂，导致过度反思和相关的战略身份话语和表演。此外，我们通过“自下而上”的国家身份建构和表现及其四种说话、选择、消费和表现国家的方式来分析他们的侨民反思和实践。散居国外的伊朗人经常强调他们认为理想的伊朗人作为波斯人，试图将自己定位为世俗的伊朗人/穆斯林，并与东道国社会对“原教旨主义阿拉伯人”的普遍偏见相矛盾，“中东人”和“穆斯林”。在这样做时，他们有策略地食用在伊斯兰宗教信仰中被认为是“禁忌”的食物（最显着的是猪肉和红酒），尤其是在他们的 Pākehā（新西兰欧洲）东道主主导的环境中；他们还在集体庆祝活动中发明了新的食物象征和仪式（例如雅尔达 (Yalda ) 以提请人们注意想象中的辉煌过去——波斯和伊朗——这往往不被东道国社会所承认，并将散居的伊朗人定位为世俗和文化。因此，我们解决了一个明显的空白，该研究调查了散居在外的伊朗人，特别是在 Aotearoa/新西兰的食物-身份-民族主义关系。