The tomato paste tin can: An African journey (Burkina Faso)

In Burkina Faso, where imported goods now constitute the basic ingredients of the daily urban diet, tomato paste seems to epitomize the country’s position at the end of the globalized food chain. With the expansion of this manufactured comestible, the empty tomato paste tin can also has gradually replaced previously used calabashes and plastic bowls to become the sole recipient used by child beggars for receiving food donations. As such, it has become the primary graphic symbol for child begging, in particular, and for African underdevelopment in general. But this iconic status should not eclipse the fact that most Burkinabe households use this same can for a large array of daily tasks. This article patiently follows ‘the can’ through the variety of its uses, from tomato paste container to water recipient, measuring instrument, begging device, seat or cooking pot, thus offering a contribution to the social study of objects. It reveals that street children and Koranic students are both marginalized by using it, and also included in the various informal networks it ties together. Usually framed as an emblem of ‘underdevelopment’ and ‘poverty’, the can becomes a symbol of the transformations of the Burkinabe economy and of the rapid changes of consumption patterns the country is experiencing.

The use of wild plants as food in pre-industrial Sweden

<p>This paper is a review of the actual gathering and use of wild edible plants in the 18th and 19th centuries, with a brief concluding discussion on the present day use of wild plants as food within Sweden. The peasants and the nomads in pre-industrial Sweden utilised very few wild plant taxa as food. Many even despised the wild fruits and green plants. Some plants and fruits were earlier mostly eaten fresh on the spot, or gathered for consumption in bread, gruel or soup. Other fruits were dried or preserved in other ways. In times of food shortages the amount of wild plants increased in the diet, but still the peasantry and nomads were often able to use fish and game to provide enough nutrients.</p> <p>With access to cheap sugar in the early 20th century wild fruits (<em>Vaccinium myrtillus </em>L., <em>V. vitis-idaea </em>L., and <em>Rubus chamaemorus </em>L.) increased in importance, especially among urban-dwellers and within food industry. In the last few decades fungi have also become part of the urban diet. Fifty years ago working class people gathered only <em>Cantharellus cibarius </em>(Fr.) and occasionally <em>Boletus edulis </em>Bull. Nowadays more taxa are utilised within the Swedish households, and especially the easy to pick <em>Cantharellus tubaeformis </em>(Pers.) has become very popular recently. Harvesting fruits and mushrooms in the forests is a popular pastime for many urban people, but also a source of income for immigrants and especially foreign seasonal labour. The only traditional green wild food plant that is regularly eaten in contemporary Sweden is <em>Urtica dioica </em>L.</p>