Threads of Memory

Reproducing the Cypress Tree through Sensual Consumption

Bibliographic Data

ID3665619
AuthorsM Warin (0000-0001-8766-1087), Simone Denni, Simone Dennis, Simon Dennis (0000-0002-1890-1187, The University of Adelaide, corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume26
Issue1-2
Pages159-170
Publication date2005-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Intercultural Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0725-6868 • E-ISSN: 1469-9540
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/07256860500074367
OpenAlexW2075226534
LanguageEN
Citations received17
References cited19

This paper is concerned with the ways in which a group of Persian women, who have all fled Iran in the last two decades, give meaning to place and memory through the everyday practices of cooking and embroidery. While there are many different localised arts of patterning and flavour, we focus here on the recurring pattern of bota (the Cypress tree). In particular, we examine how the bota motif links both the making of domestic sweets and cloths, and is central in recalling and remaking a sense of place. The Cypress tree symbolises life: the continuation of life in place, and the continuation of place in life. In creating and consuming the bota motif, through eating, laying tablecloths, wrapping towels, sitting on cushions and drawing curtains, embodied experiences of landscape and relationships are reproduced. The embroidery items entail and occasion sensual engagement in and of themselves, and also serve as backgrounds for specific sensual engagements, including, for example, as tablecloths upon which food will be served. Engagement with the bota pattern cannot be characterised along strictly divided sensual dimensions. Rather, we argue that the senses are intertwined in a synaesthetic knot in which memory is embodied and reproduced

Aesthetics · Art · Botany · Cypress · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Sociology · The arts · Visual arts · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Culinary Culture and Tourism · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Philosophy

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