So What? Why Does This Exhibit Matter?

In the 1930s, Paraguay and Argentina, two historical rivals, fought a commercial cold war for control of the yerba mate market of Argentina. Paraguayan yerba mate advertisers did not overemphasize the Paraguayan heritage of their products as doing so would probably have tied the products both to Paraguay, a prominent historical antagonist of Argentina, as well as to the Guaraní people, the indigenous initial producers and consumers of yerba mate. Instead, Paraguayan brands associated themselves with high quality and high class, appealing to Argentines through language and symbols of Argentine culture and status. On the other hand, Argentine yerba mate companies appealed to Argentine consumers through images and language that reflected Argentine national identity, often associating the beverage with only Argentina and the Argentine people, ignoring or erasing the presence of the beverage within other cultures.

This study could be expanded beyond this project, whether it be looking at this same advertising in other time periods or comparing Paraguayan advertisements aimed at their own national audience with those aimed at Argentina. However, for this project, the focus on images within the specific time period and geographic location allows for deeper, more streamlined analysis and prevents it from being spread too thin. Yet, one should be aware that, although this study focuses on a specific time and place, it is part of a broader historical picture.

On a more universal scale, this study is part of a greater discussion on the presence of food within and between cultures. Generally, food and drink can often be major points of conflict between competing or traditionally-adversarial cultures. Food and drinks are directly tied to many cultures and serve as physical markers and sensory boundaries between cultures. People interact with food and drink on a daily basis, often in very intimate ways. What they eat or drink is often defined by their surrounding environment and their cultural or familial traditions. It is easy for a person to interact, connect, and identify with those who eat the same foods and drink the same drinks: they have important shared experiences. However, cultures come into conflict and, oftentimes, food is drawn into conflict as well. This is trend of using food to distinguish groups and craft an idea of an "other" is not particularly new, dating back at least to early distinctions between Christians and Jews (Freidenreich, 127). Even when people eat or drink the same things, the perception of the products can be colored by nationalism, as with yerba mate between Paraguay and Argentina.

Moving beyond just yerba mate, I can think of many examples from my own experiences and knowledge base, as maybe you, my dear reader, can as well. Here's a quick quiz: what is the name of the Wikipedia page this image on the left was taken from? 

A. Greek Coffee

B. Turkish Coffee

If you picked B, congratulations! This is Turkish Coffee. If you picked A., you are also correct. This is also called Greek coffee and, in fact, searching "Greek Coffee" on Wikipedia re-directs you to the Turkish Coffee. They are the same drink. But, because of the historical conflicts between the Greek and Turkish peoples, they each claim it and call it their own. Why do the Greeks not just call it Turkish Coffee like the rest of the world? There was a concerted Greek political effort to change the name to reclaim this nationally-unifying drink that was enjoyed and experienced by Greeks all over. It sounds a bit ridiculous but, as food is an element of culture often caught between competing nations, this was important and symbolic for them, even as it further isolated and alienated their neighbors in Turkey.  Moreover, processes of politically renaming foods and drinks are more common than one might think. If you, dear reader, are an American, you might remember that in the early 2000s there was a movement to rebrand french fries, an immensely popular and ubiquitous food, as "freedom fries" to promote national unity in the United States and support for the war in Iraq. Regardless, the point is that the situation surrounding yerba mate is not entirely unique and, in fact, this scenario is part of a trend of foods and drinks being caught between cultures and engulfed by and within national identity and culture. When food and drinks are widely consumed by groups of people, they seemingly become part of the culture of the people, whether on a local, national, or even international scale.

Furthermore, it is important to note that, although this exhibit examines advertisements from the 1930s, the presence and heightened significance of food and drink within national imaginaries has continued to the present day. In fact, many of these same advertising techniques are still used in the modern day, whether it is Brett Favre, a popular American football player, promoting mass-produced jeans as tough and durable enough for the common, hard-working American, or Greek-American actor John Stamos lending an air of ethnic legitimacy to Oikos Greek yogurt, despite Oikos being owned by multinational conglomerate Dannon and erasing much of the history and culture surrounding the yogurt. Whether it is American football players or Argentine soccer players, advertisers still use similar strategies to appeal to a person's national identity in order to sell their products. Therefore, this project is important not only for examining advertising in this specific case, but advertising in general.

Ultimately, yerba mate is an incredibly interesting commodity: caught between nations, cultures, and peoples. Its incorporation into these cultures and national identities has led to various meanings and its history has been erased and rewritten based on the audience. There is no answer as to what yerba mate is or what it should be, there is no one truth to this commodity. But, through analyzing the meanings and histories of yerba mate, one can find how people have viewed and thought about yerba mate, allowing for the exploration of the social, economic, and historical processes that have shaped and created those perspectives.