Eestlaste toidukultuurist võõrsil
Authors: Jürgenson Aivar 
Published: January 2019

Alimentary Culture among the Estonian Diaspora

Food culture is an important and relatively stable part of an ethnic, national or regional culture. The article examines what happens to food-related customs when an individual or group of people leaves their accustomed environment. It studies how the change of environment affects food shopping and alimentation among Estonian emigrants and what kinds of culinary transformations can be discussed in this connection. It looks at what sorts of Estonian crops were grown abroad, and what had to be abandoned; what was adopted locally and what it meant from the standpoint of food culture. What do emigrants and their descendants consider Estonian food, and what is non-Estonian food for them? Does food culture define ethnic boundaries, and if so, how? What types of integration or segregation mechanisms can be identified in the food-related behaviours of migrants? I have gathered material for analysis from Estonian diaspora groups over 20 years: in Siberia, the Russian Far East, the Caucasus and South America. Written sources are also used.
The 19th century agrarian migrations were largely driven by the possibilities of better subsistence abroad. The areas to which people emigrated were assessed by the emigrants in terms of the possibilities they afforded for crop farming or fishing. Often people entertained utopian visions of lands of milk and honey. When they emigrated, Estonians also brought their dietary habits with them. Influenced by local natural conditions, they soon found themselves having to make adjustments in their lifestyle. A number of crops they had grown accustomed to growing in Estonia yielded more poorly in the new conditions. In all of the regions surveyed, rye and barley cultivation had to be abandoned. Many familiar crop farming methods proved impossible. Innovation was inevitable: there was a relatively rapid partial transition to new field crops. In Siberia, wheat became the main grain; in the Caucasus and South America, maize. The methods for working the land were picked up from their new non-Estonian-speaking neighbours. In part, the transition was also due to the local business models (such as the buying-up of maize in the Caucasus). This also meant changes in alimentary culture – the article indicated what sorts of traditional Estonian foods were consumed over the decades in the diaspora communities, but also how many innovations were introduced in Estonians’ alimentary culture due to the influence of the new physical and socio-cultural environment, along with borrowings of the vernacular names of foods and foodstuffs.
Food also has an identifying function. People categorize themselves and the world through decisions made on what to eat and what not to eat. Food can express social relationships and mark the boundaries between one’s “own” people and “others”. The article demonstrates how the Estonian settlers and refugees considered certain foods to be clearly Estonian, and how ethnic lines of demarcation are sensed in certain ways of preparing foods, and so on.
In the early days of settlement, Estonian foods helped settlers maintain an important link to the motherland. In the decades that followed, many changes took place in the functions and the assortment of Estonian foods. At first, Estonian food remained important, allowing people to feel as if they were at home; later on, their new country became home in their consciousness and food began to be associated with the new homeland and its social pattern. Hybridizing cuisine along with its identifying feature attests to shifts in ethnic boundary lines. What is “Estonian cuisine” to Siberian Estonians is something different to what it is for Estonians in Estonia– its Estonian-ness depends on specific historical and social environments. Cultural elements perceived as one’s own – such as language, traditions, habits, values and foods – play an important role in the process of (re-)constructing identity.