Available at: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/2876
Date of Award
12-2022
Degree Name
MA in History
Department/Program
History
College
College of Liberal Arts
Advisor
Matthew Hopper
Advisor Department
History
Advisor College
College of Liberal Arts
Abstract
This thesis explores the migration of the chile pepper, or capsicum anuum, from Mesoamerica into the Old World after 1500, focusing on two case studies of the Aleppo pepper in Syria and paprika in what was once Hungarian Nagyvarad, and which is now Romanian Oradea. Using foodways as a historical lens, and considering the movement of food as historical, it can be seen that the chile pepper, despite its low profit value, illustrates a globalization that existed well before modern times, and it came to cement itself within many different cultures as a symbol of identity. Despite its far-away origins, the chile pepper took over the Old World, particularly those societies that were once controlled by the Ottoman Empire, and came to represent the common man in newly formed post-Colonial nations.