Description
Book Synopsis Based on ethnographic work in a Moldovan winemaking village, Wine Is Our Bread shows how workers in a prestigious winery have experienced the country’s recent entry into the globalized wine market and how their productive activities at home and in the winery contribute to the value of commercial terroir wines. Drawing on theories of globalization, economic anthropology and political economy, the book contributes to understanding how crises and inequalities in capitalism lead to the ‘creative destruction’ of local products, their accelerated standardization and the increased exploitation of labour.
Trade Review “This is an excellent book, ‘a little gem’, which provides a highly original contribution to both the fields of anthropology of wine and of postsocialist economies by focusing on an under-researched area.” • Marion Demossier, University of Southampton
“This is an excellent ethnographic study focused on wine production in the context of a postsocialist nation. Studies that combine the analytical perspectives of political economy with the much-fetishized global commodity of wine are rare and so this is a welcome contribution.” • Winnie Lem, Trent University
Table of Contents List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Making of an Export Industry: Moldovan Winemaking during Different Socio-Political Systems
Chapter 2. The Value of Homemade Wine: Debates on Heritage
Chapter 3. Labour Force Reproduction: Economic Strategies in a Post-Soviet Winemaking Village
Chapter 4. Sending Wine Around the World: Globalization and Work Rhythms in the Bottling Section
Chapter 5. Nature, Value and Globalized Markets: Articulating the Purcari Terroir
Conclusion: Wine on the Periphery as an Illustration of the Transnational Dynamics of Value Creation
Glossary of Terms
References
Index
