Mediterranean Theory

When I came home from Peace Corps, my parents threw a big "Welcome Home" party. My friend Matt, who had been with me in the R.I.M., attended. He and I had finished our first round of food and were looking longingly at the buffet, but noticing that no one else was getting up for more, when my mother came and said, "Matt, you must be hungry. You should have some more. Go ahead. Look, there's carne asada."

Matt: "Are you, by any chance, Jewish?"

Mother: "Italian. It's the same thing."

Long before this, I had developed what I call my Mediterranean Theory of Identity. It goes like this:

Nationalities inhabiting the rim of the Mediterranean (Spain, southern France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, etc.) share a base culture. This is expressed in idioms, in food, in genetics (yes, I said it, and it's pretty well-founded, too), in history, in the way men and women act and relate to each other, and in a million other small ways. In short, I believe that a Greek or Italian person is more like a Moroccan or Turk than like a Swede or German, whatever people may wish to say.

Anyone know the origin of baklava? Mediterranean people can fight over this one for hours. "It's Turkish!" "No, Armenian!" "You fools, it's Greek!"

I am proud to share so much with my fellow Mediterraneans. Next in Exploring debboamerik's Heritage: A treatise on the life and slow death of Celtic culture and its impact on the world. :)