Page 107 - Mocarelli, Luca, and Aleksander Panjek. Eds. 2020. Maize to the People! Cultivation, Consumption and Trade in the North-Eastern Mediterranean (Sixteenth-Nineteenth Century). Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 107
innovations in agr icultur e and population growth in fr iuli ...
both understand the naming of maize in the people’s local tongue as an
indicator of its provenience, where sirek would signal an “Italian” direc-
tion of diffusion (sorgo turco), while turščica, kukuruz, türkische Koch and
Türkensterz would mean a “Turkish” (Balkan) origin.7
Nevertheless, Slovenian historians agree on the location of the first re-
gion where maize was cultivated and consumed in the south-western area,
but without giving a precise time frame. At present, based on the viewed ev-
idence, it seems that in western Slovenia in the first half of the seventeenth
century maize was known but not yet a relevant presence in the fields and
on the tables, with the possible (still hypothetical) exception of Trieste and
Gorizia with their close surroundings. Somehow contrary to the so far ac-
cepted, although loose periodization, we have more evidence of the pres-
ence of maize in the first half of the seventeenth century from the eastern
part of the Slovenian lands, in Styria, especially in and around Graz. The
still small detected amounts do not really allow the conclusion that maize
had already become an important crop or a relevant foodstuff, nor that it
was present in the Slovenian-speaking area of the time or the present-day
Slovenia. All in all, we may conclude that there were two areas, the east and
the west, where maize diffusion ran independently from each other and
perhaps even earlier in the eastern than in the western Slovenian lands. In
the second half of the seventeenth century, maize is detected in a third re-
gion, i.e. southern Slovenia, but in restricted areas and with a very uneven,
interspersed diffusion; however, where there was more, maize started en-
tering the peasant diet. The same is true of the western and eastern regions:
where maize is present as a cultivar, it starts having a greater role in the
peasant diet, in the form of porridge and bread.
In the first half of the eighteenth century, we may observe three phe-
nomena. On the one hand, maize is affirmed as an important crop and
a popular foodstuff in the areas where it was present already before that
time, with a possible geographical extension of the original narrow and in-
terspersed diffusion areas. This is valid for the two main areas, east and
west, while in southern Slovenia maize is lagging behind and remains an
outsider crop and foodstuff. Thirdly, it is in this period that we have ex-
plicit and converging evidence of a relevant import of maize as a foodstuff
through the Adriatic ports, especially in the years of scarcity – meaning
7 The way maize was named has been considered a sign of its origin and direction of
diffusion for a long time. On the many names it had in the Balkan region and their
possible meanings see Stoianovich 1966.
105
both understand the naming of maize in the people’s local tongue as an
indicator of its provenience, where sirek would signal an “Italian” direc-
tion of diffusion (sorgo turco), while turščica, kukuruz, türkische Koch and
Türkensterz would mean a “Turkish” (Balkan) origin.7
Nevertheless, Slovenian historians agree on the location of the first re-
gion where maize was cultivated and consumed in the south-western area,
but without giving a precise time frame. At present, based on the viewed ev-
idence, it seems that in western Slovenia in the first half of the seventeenth
century maize was known but not yet a relevant presence in the fields and
on the tables, with the possible (still hypothetical) exception of Trieste and
Gorizia with their close surroundings. Somehow contrary to the so far ac-
cepted, although loose periodization, we have more evidence of the pres-
ence of maize in the first half of the seventeenth century from the eastern
part of the Slovenian lands, in Styria, especially in and around Graz. The
still small detected amounts do not really allow the conclusion that maize
had already become an important crop or a relevant foodstuff, nor that it
was present in the Slovenian-speaking area of the time or the present-day
Slovenia. All in all, we may conclude that there were two areas, the east and
the west, where maize diffusion ran independently from each other and
perhaps even earlier in the eastern than in the western Slovenian lands. In
the second half of the seventeenth century, maize is detected in a third re-
gion, i.e. southern Slovenia, but in restricted areas and with a very uneven,
interspersed diffusion; however, where there was more, maize started en-
tering the peasant diet. The same is true of the western and eastern regions:
where maize is present as a cultivar, it starts having a greater role in the
peasant diet, in the form of porridge and bread.
In the first half of the eighteenth century, we may observe three phe-
nomena. On the one hand, maize is affirmed as an important crop and
a popular foodstuff in the areas where it was present already before that
time, with a possible geographical extension of the original narrow and in-
terspersed diffusion areas. This is valid for the two main areas, east and
west, while in southern Slovenia maize is lagging behind and remains an
outsider crop and foodstuff. Thirdly, it is in this period that we have ex-
plicit and converging evidence of a relevant import of maize as a foodstuff
through the Adriatic ports, especially in the years of scarcity – meaning
7 The way maize was named has been considered a sign of its origin and direction of
diffusion for a long time. On the many names it had in the Balkan region and their
possible meanings see Stoianovich 1966.
105
