Sappho's Legacy

Marina Karides

Description

Imaginatively interweaving literatures across a variety of subjects, Sappho's Legacy identifies the crucial role that islands and Greek economic culture play in teaching about capitalism's failures and alternatives. Marina Karides delivers a historical and ethnographic account of food cooperatives and microenterprises on the Greek island of Lesvos following the 2008 financial crisis to reveal the success stories of grassroots, traditional, and community-centered economics organized by people marginalized on the basis of gender, sexuality, and ethnicity. Karides offers hope to others who are working against the tide of neoliberalism and heteropatriarchy to develop alternative or convivial economic practices that serve communities by providing a trail of rhythms from ancient times to the present that showcase Greece's historical resistance.
List of Illustrations
Preface

Part I: ΚΑΛΩΣΟΡΙΣΕΣ

1. Prolegomenon

2.The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House

3. Of Greek Islands and Microentrepreneurs: Neoliberal Battles and the Marginalization of a Nation

Part II: The Rhythm Section

4. For the Love of Strangers and Enterprise

5. The Seasonal Agora: A Gender-Placing Rhythm and a Sexualized Sense of Space

6. Island Food Systems: Lessons for the Continent

Part III: Hospitable Shores

7. Skala Eresos: From Ancient City-State to Bohemian Seaside Tourist Village

8. Lesbian Place-Making and the Imperial Gaze

9. The Women's Cooperatives of Lesvos

Coda

Works Cited
Index

Sujets

• Hospitality

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438483061
• Langue: English

Extrait

S APPHO’S L EGACY
SUNY series, Praxis: Theory in Action

Nancy A. Naples, editor
S APPHO’S L EGACY
Convivial Economics on a Greek Isle
Marina Karides
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2021 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Name: Karides, Marina, author.
Title: Sappho’s legacy : convivial economics on a Greek isle / Marina Karides.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2021] | Series: SUNY series, praxis: theory in action | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020048647 (print) | LCCN 2020048648 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438483054 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438483061 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Women in cooperative societies—Greece—Lesbos (Municipality) | Food cooperatives—Greece—Lesbos (Municipality) | Lesbos (Greece : Municipality)—Social conditions.
Classification: LCC HD3424.G82 L4753 2021 (print) | LCC HD3424.G82 (ebook) | DDC 334/.68479500820949582—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020048647
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020048648
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Pano and Ambrose, of course
And in loving memory of my grandparents, Πάνος καί Γιωργία Ρούβαλη, their return to Greece left us a trail to follow
About the rhythms now: the kalamatiano, as you mention, is played at music nightclubs and it is used to colour particular points, but one cannot dancing like this [ sic ], because each rhythm is written for the dancer’s step especially in row dances. Moreover, the description you give of the Zeymbekiko is rather “touristic” and it reminds us of the Zorba the Greek. The Zeymbekiko existed before the period between the wars and the rembetika songs. It is a traditional male dance performed since the 17th century on the east islands of the Aegean Sea (Samos, Chios, Mytilini etc.) and on the coasts of Minor Asia. The rhythm and especially the variation you mention, is played somehow slowly and “widely” (9/4). There is a great difference in the style, which is not the same with the maqsum. In rembetika songs it is played faster. I remind you that, since the Zeymbekiko is strictly a male dance, its execution must be as plain as possible, although nowadays it is danced by little girls, too.
—Manthos Garlofis http://www.khafif.com/rhy/garlofis/garlofis.htm
It will also become apparent that anarchist principles are active in the aspirations and political action of people who have never heard of anarchism or anarchist philosophy. One thing that heaves into view … is mutuality, or cooperation without hierarchy or state rule . Another is the anarchist tolerance for confusion and improvisation that accompanies social learning, and confidence in spontaneous cooperation and reciprocity.
—James C. Scott Two Cheers for Anarchism (2012, xii)
Contents
L IST OF I LLUSTRATIONS
P REFACE
PART I: ΚΑΛΩΣΟΡΙΣΕΣ
C HAPTER O NE Prolegomenon
C HAPTER T WO The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House
C HAPTER T HREE Of Greek Islands and Microentrepreneurs: Neoliberal Battles and the Marginalization of a Nation
PART II: THE RHYTHM SECTION
C HAPTER F OUR For the Love of Strangers and Enterprise
C HAPTER F IVE The Seasonal Agora: A Gender-Placing Rhythm and a Sexualized Sense of Space
C HAPTER S IX Island Food Systems: Lessons for the Continent
PART III: HOSPITABLE SHORES
C HAPTER S EVEN Skala Eresos: From Ancient City-State to Bohemian Seaside Tourist Village
C HAPTER E IGHT Lesbian Place-Making and the Imperial Gaze
C HAPTER N INE The Women’s Cooperatives of Lesvos
C ODA
W ORKS C ITED
I NDEX
Illustrations
Figures 1.1 Taverna paper tablecloth with map of Lesvos 1.2 Contemporary Sappho statue by Skala Eresos port 4.1 The greengrocer’s 5.1 Woman in the window 5.2 Parea 7.1 The good life 7.2 A mountain view of Skala 8.1 The summer beach scene 8.2 The Tenth Muse 9.1 Cooperative members at work 9.2 Greek pastries, cooperative style C.1. The Eresos valley
Table 1.1 Women’s Cooperatives on Lesvos in 2012
Preface tάδε νûν έταίραις these things now for my companions ταίς εμαίς τέρπνα κάλως άεìσω I shall sing beautifully
—Sappho, fragment 160, Carson’s (2003) translation
T his volume was composed amid numerous travels and many hurricanes, multiple earthquakes, and two magnificent eruptions of the Kīlauea Volcano, all forcing regular evacuations. It concludes, ironically, during a pandemic and under a stay-at-home order in Hawai’i. Greece is gaining a bit of recognition for limiting the spread of the coronavirus. Yet, so often with public commentary on Greece, any triumph is framed with disbelief and puzzlement, often in condescending language (e.g., Giugliano 2020). This book stands against such evaluations, positing Greece’s “spontaneous alternative culture” (Leontinidou 1990) as an explanation for its societal success. The hosting and endurance required of independent dining and drinking venues—no matter how tiny, how rural, or how small a menu—are the heart of this book and where a good chunk of it was written. With the increased cognizance of the extent to which they provision public conviviality and cope economically, Sappho’s Legacy is an opportunity to cherish them.
An incredible amount of appreciation goes to Mary Kazazi, resident intellectual of Skala Eresos. To advance my Greek language skills, I was directed to Mary’s traditional stone home and entered into a patio so lush with trees and native plants, it is conceals the house from view. I left seven years later, with a dear friend, one who I have been able to share in many drinks and meals along Skala Eresos’s balconies. Mary has been influential in my understanding of Greek politics, economics, and social life. She encouraged me to challenge the demarcation between ancient and modern Greece as an act of cultural appropriation. Her expressed love for her nation, its intellectual and artistic histories and acute memory for historical detail, whether it involves happenings in Athens or Eresos a few days, years, decades, centuries, or millennia ago, made her my ideal tutor.
There are many others throughout Lesvos whom I am indebted to for all forms of assistance with this research, access to government offices and officials, tipping me off on high-stake political forums to attend, and the good times and good food, as was shared with Delia Curro, that comes with a study of convivial economics. Debby from Heliotopos deserves special appreciation for indulging my children, providing transport, and feeding us. She and her partner, Patrick, permitted us to extend our stay at Heliotopos and introduced me to a wide range of travelers to Eresos. The willingness of people to share their stories is what my work depends upon. Each of the women’s cooperatives hosted me for visits, and I am eternally grateful to members for sharing their time, memories and critical thoughts, as well as their recipes. I am especially appreciative of the members of the Agra, Molyvos, Mesotopos, and Parakila cooperatives to which I lived nearest while in Lesvos and visited most. The unpacking of the lesbian enclave of Eresos was informed by the research of University of Aegean anthropologist Venetia Kantsa, and I thank her for a brief but important meeting in Mytilini. Without the time granted to me by lesbian entrepreneurs and their employees, and by visitors to Skala Eresos, my work could not expand upon the social history of the lesbian enclave, including interviews with many women who have been returning to Skala Eresos since the mid-‘70s. Their stories create a deep imagining and a nostalgia for gathering in a place where gender and sexual freedom for women has some scope. The ethnic Greek proprietors of enterprises in Skala Eresos also were extremely hospitable in meeting with me time after time and providing instruction in how they conduct business that were essential for building an understanding of alternative economics as practiced on Greek islands.
My mother, Lina Karides, is the person who I thank most for the tremendous amount of good I am fortunate enough to have in my life and for safeguarding my Greek identity. Learning how to drive to take me and my brother to Greek school, to Greek Orthodox Church, to learn Greek dances, poems, and march in Greek parades, she secured for me the Greek language skills and cultural orientation that enabled the completion of this research. Her emphasis on academics and love of politics and economics have served me and my sibling incredibly well.
Denise Bauman, my treasured German American friend, who together from toddlers we navigated our child of immigrant experiences, aided me in recent years through the sometimes challenging environment women in academia face, urging me to complete this volume. Kerri Gayatri Fulford also has been there every step of the way, grounding me from when my journey to become an academic began in Athens, Georgia. My darling brother, Constantine Karides, also applied his remarkable capacities to keep me moving forward in my career as did Joya Misra, with her friendship and advice. Like Sappho, I have been lucky enough to be sur