Erbe e percezione del sapore tra gli Arbereshe del Vulture

The article analyses the tradition of gathering wild plants in three Albanian villages in the Vulture area (Lucania, southern Italy) and investigates the relation between food acceptance and taste perception of traditionally gathered food herbs. Classification of local taste perceptions, where bitter and sour tastes are referred to by the same folk name, and recorded herbal prototypicals for each taste are discussed along the lines of the ethno-biological analysis of the cognitive anthropology. Important factors for the food appreciation of edible herbs seem to be represented by the bitter taste and by perceiving the species as having a "health effect". The study also suggests that the dynamics between the perception of the bitter taste, and the classification of a species as alimentary rather than medicinal, follow very complex musters, where both evolutionary biological and cultural dependent factors contribute.