Wild vegetables do not lie: Comparative gastronomic ethnobotany and ethnolinguistics on the Greek traces of the Mediterranean Diet of southeastern Italy

ABSTRACT Bio-cultural and historical aspects of the “wild plant” portion of the Mediterranean Diet are still very much understudied despite the large number of bio-medical studies on the topic. The current gastronomic ethnobotanical and ethnolinguistic field study focused on the wild leafy vegetables used among Greek populations in SE Italy and NE Greece. A total of 52 folk taxa, corresponding to 58 wild botanical species, were recorded. The frequency of consumption of these wild ingredients was higher in NE Greece than in SE Italy, although approximately one-third of the recorded wild taxa overlapped in the two study sites. Most of these common species were designated by cognates, having in most cases a clear Greek origin, while one-third of the recorded wild vegetables in SE Italy were also used by another Greek diaspora living in SW Italy. The majority of the original Greek wild vegetables are synanthropic weeds. It is likely that the culinary uses of these species originated in the Near East during the post-Neolithic period before they migrated west to Italy and the Mediterranean Basin via Greece and Greek diasporas.

摘要：尽管已有大量相关生物医学研究，但地中海饮食（Mediterranean Diet）中「野生植物」部分的生物文化（bio-cultural）与历史维度仍未得到充分探讨。本项烹饪民族植物学（gastronomic ethnobotanical）与民族语言学（ethnolinguistic）实地调查研究，聚焦意大利东南部与希腊东北部希腊族群所食用的野生叶菜类蔬菜。本次调查共记录到52个民间分类单元（folk taxa），对应58种野生植物物种。尽管本次记录的野生分类单元中约三分之一在两个调查区域均有出现，但希腊东北部的这类野生食材食用频率高于意大利东南部。这些共有物种大多以同源词（cognates）命名，且多数明确源自希腊语；而意大利东南部记录的野生蔬菜中，约三分之一也被居住在意大利西南部的另一支希腊侨民群体（Greek diaspora）所食用。多数原生希腊野生蔬菜属于伴生杂草（synanthropic weeds）。这类物种的烹饪食用传统很可能起源于新石器时代后期（post-Neolithic period）的近东地区（Near East），随后经由希腊本土与希腊侨民群体向西传播至意大利及地中海盆地（Mediterranean Basin）。