Pizza effect
Encyclopedia
The pizza effect is a term used especially in religious studies
for a wide-ranging phenomenon, for instance the process by which cultural exports are transformed and reimported to their culture of origin, or the way in which a community's self-understanding is influenced by (or imposed by, or imported from) foreign sources. It is named after a chronology of the history of pizza
that notes, roughly, the development of modern pizza among Italian-American immigrants (rather than in native Italy where in its simpler form it was originally looked down upon), and its export 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 was coined by Agehananda Bharati
in 1970.
The original examples given by Agehananda Bharati mostly had to do with popularity and status:
Later examples of its usage, emphasising different points in the history of pizza to draw different conclusions, include:
Religious studies
Religious studies is the academic field of multi-disciplinary, secular study of religious beliefs, behaviors, and institutions. It describes, compares, interprets, and explains religion, emphasizing systematic, historically based, and cross-cultural perspectives.While theology attempts to...
for a wide-ranging phenomenon, for instance the process by which cultural exports are transformed and reimported to their culture of origin, or the way in which a community's self-understanding is influenced by (or imposed by, or imported from) foreign sources. It is named after a chronology of the history of pizza
History of pizza
Pizza is a type of bread and dish that has existed since time immemorial in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine. The term 'pizza' first appeared "in a Latin text from the southern Italian town of Gaeta in 997 AD, which claims that a tenant of certain property is to give the bishop of Gaeta...
that notes, roughly, the development of modern pizza among Italian-American immigrants (rather than in native Italy where in its simpler form it was originally looked down upon), and its export 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 was coined by Agehananda Bharati
Agehananda Bharati
Agehananda Bharati was the monastic name of Leopold Fischer, professor of Anthropology at Syracuse University for over 30 years...
in 1970.
The original examples given by Agehananda Bharati mostly had to do with popularity and status:
- The Apu trilogyApu trilogyThe Apu Trilogy is a trilogy consisting of three Bengali films directed by Satyajit Ray: Pather Panchali , Aparajito and Apur Sansar . The films — completed 1955-1959 — were based on two Bengali novels written by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay: Pather Panchali and Aparajito...
films of Satyajit RaySatyajit RaySatyajit Ray was an Indian Bengali filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Ray was born in the city of Kolkata into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature...
, which were flops in India before they were given prizes in western countries and re-evaluated as classics in India - The popularity in India of movements like those of Maharishi Mahesh YogiMaharishi Mahesh YogiMaharishi Mahesh Yogi , born Mahesh Prasad Varma , developed the Transcendental Meditation technique and was the leader and guru of the TM movement, characterised as a new religious movement and also as non-religious...
and ISKCON based on their popularity in the west - The popularity of yogaYogaYoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...
, several gurus, and some other Indian systems and teachings following their popularity in the west - The exalted status of the Bhagavad GitaBhagavad GitaThe ' , also more simply known as Gita, is a 700-verse Hindu scripture that is part of the ancient Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, but is frequently treated as a freestanding text, and in particular, as an Upanishad in its own right, one of the several books that constitute general Vedic tradition...
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"
Later examples of its usage, emphasising different points in the history of pizza to draw different conclusions, include:
- "Some students inevitably begin by treating a foreign culture as just an object and think they are doing little more than studying an exotic world view. To get students past this stage, Jenkins emphasizes the "feedback loop" (the "pizza effect") to show students they are involved in constructing, and then misperceiving, the foreign culture they are studying. Just as it was Americans who made the elaborate pizza and then mistook it for an indigenous Italian product and just as Italians have co-opted the American pizza and now make it for American tourists, so also it was Westerners who created the rational protestant Buddhism of modern Sri LankaSri LankaSri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
and then mistook it for an indigenous Sri Lankan product, and so also did a Sri Lankan Buddhist spokesman, DharmapalaDharmapalaIn Vajrayana Buddhism, a dharmapāla is a type of wrathful deity. The name means "Dharma-defender" in Sanskrit, and the dharmapālas are also known as the Defenders of the Law , or the Protectors of the Law, in English....
, sell this protestantized Buddhism back to West when he appeared at the World Parliament of Religions in 1893. There are several other examples…"
- "…hermeneutical feedback loop characterized as the "pizza effect." Although pizza has some old Italian antecedents, American pizza as we know it was largely a product of Italian-American cooking. However, 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."
- "International transfer in a globalized world is often a recursive process, as is recognized by the term “pizza effect.” The original Italian pizza was a simple dish, consisting of bread with a tomato topping. Taken to America by Italian emigrants, the pizza was developed there into its present more complex form, which after the Second World War spread to Europe–including Italy. The contemporary pizza is now taken to be purely Italian, but it is not. The pizza effect can be found everywhere, for example in the homes of cosmopolitan Turks whose reading of Rumi derives from the American reading. […] Islamist terrorism, then, can be seen as a localized form of a global phenomenon. “Suicide bombing,” for example, has been localized by being reinterpreted as “self-martyrdom,” using and developing the established Islamic concept of the shahidShahidShahid is an Arabic word meaning "witness". It is a religious term in Islam, meaning both "witness" and "martyr." While a martyr may die as a consequence of fighting, a shahid is a "witness" because he gives his life out of passion for truth. The shahid exchanges himself for the divine and thereby...
–initially understood as one who dies in the cause of God, not one who blows himself up."
- "The pizza, originally a type of plain bread, went with Italian migrants to America in the nineteenth century. There it developed into what we know today: flat bread topped with tomatoes, cheese, and anything else that might take the eater's fancy. Successful Italians returning to Italy to visit their families took with them the new-look pizza, which was then taken up in the homeland before being exported elsewhere as genuinely Italian. The export of an item, idea, or symbol, its cultural transformation, subsequent re-importation, and impact is referred to by the scholar Agehananda Bharati as 'the pizza effect'." An example is the Theosophical SocietyTheosophical SocietyThe Theosophical Society is an organization formed in 1875 to advance the spiritual principles and search for Truth known as Theosophy. The original organization, after splits and realignments has several successors...
whose founders (Madame BlavatskyMadame BlavatskyHelena Petrovna Blavatsky , was a theosophist, writer and traveler. Between 1848 and 1875 Blavatsky had gone around the world three times. In 1875, Blavatsky together with Colonel H. S. Olcott established the Theosophical Society...
, Henry Steel OlcottHenry Steel OlcottColonel Henry Steel Olcott was an American military officer, journalist, lawyer and the co-founder and first President of the Theosophical Society....
) were influenced by Eastern ideas and spread their own versions in the East. Another example is Gandhi, who was not very interested in religion until he went to London to study law, where he studied the Bhagavad GitaBhagavad GitaThe ' , also more simply known as Gita, is a 700-verse Hindu scripture that is part of the ancient Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, but is frequently treated as a freestanding text, and in particular, as an Upanishad in its own right, one of the several books that constitute general Vedic tradition...
in English in Sir Edwin Arnold's translation, and this deeply influenced his spiritual outlook.
- The influence of translations by the British-based Pali Text SocietyPali Text SocietyThe Pali Text Society was founded in 1881 by T.W. Rhys Davids "to foster and promote the study of Pali texts".Pali is the language in which the texts of the Theravada school of Buddhism is preserved...
on South Asian Buddhism.
- The religious thought of Ibn RushdAverroes' , better known just as Ibn Rushd , and in European literature as Averroes , was a Muslim polymath; a master of Aristotelian philosophy, Islamic philosophy, Islamic theology, Maliki law and jurisprudence, logic, psychology, politics, Arabic music theory, and the sciences of medicine, astronomy,...
, which was taken up by 19th-century Eruopeans such as Ernest RenanErnest RenanErnest Renan was a French expert of Middle East ancient languages and civilizations, philosopher and writer, devoted to his native province of Brittany...
, and thereby regained popularity during the Nahda, the Islamic renaissance.
- "…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. Since Western historians of religion have been primarily interested in the classical texts and less interested in the commentaries on the texts, 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. Texts in and of themselves are, of course, important, but more important is what Wilfred Cantwell Smith has called "the cumulative tradition," of which the texts are only part. The cumulative tradition is centered upon persons, men and women of faith, some of whom composed the texts in the past. Others have provided exhaustive interpretations of and commentaries upon the texts, while still others, on a drastically smaller scale, like the "remote village mother" mentioned by Smith, personalize that tradition as they live out their faith within the cumulative tradition."
- "To extend the metaphor, one might even talk of an "inverted pizza-effect, when "unique European philosophers" (for instance 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. Invented, and inverted, traditions are also real traditions to be studied as such".