Alexandria Digital Research Library

Wine, Meaning, and Place: Terroir-Tourism, Concealed Workers, and Contested Space in the Napa Valley

Author:
Mclean, Rani Salas
Degree Grantor:
University of California, Santa Barbara. Anthropology
Degree Supervisor:
Juan Vicente Palerm
Place of Publication:
[Santa Barbara, Calif.]
Publisher:
University of California, Santa Barbara
Creation Date:
2013
Issued Date:
2013
Topics:
Anthropology, Cultural and Recreation
Keywords:
Terroir
Space
Agriculture
Wine
Tourism
Napa Valley
Genres:
Online resources and Dissertations, Academic
Dissertation:
Ph.D.--University of California, Santa Barbara, 2013
Description:

California provides a unique opportunity to investigate how capitalist agriculture shapes the development of different societies. The types of agricultural workers and communities that can or are found in association with agricultural crops in California vary according to historical specificity, location and commodity produced. Production and consumption are closely linked. This linkage between consumption and production is evident in the rapid increase in the production of wine grapes across California as the consumption of wine increases globally. In the Napa Valley, the capital investment in the wine industry is changing the organization of wine grape agriculture and its relationship to labor. I investigate the role of terroir-tourism by examining the interconnection of various sectors of labor: vineyard labor, wine production, and tasting rooms. I argue that wine grape cultivation is a significant factor in shaping both physical and social spaces, society, people and landscapes in the Napa Valley. This dissertation argues that the intensified production (more labor intensive) in premium wine grapes is facilitating the permanent settlement of Mexican farm laborers in the Napa Valley. Through the use of ethnographic accounts this dissertation interrogates the meaning of social interaction in specific spaces between Mexican farm laborers and white actors. This dissertation is theoretically driven by space and examines how power, language, class, race, and knowledge interact in a social setting where the parameters are tightly scripted. An analysis of how space is controlled, relinquished, and contested reveals tangible social and cultural impacts of the wine industry on immigrant farmworkers and local communities.

Physical Description:
1 online resource (239 pages)
Format:
Text
Collection(s):
UCSB electronic theses and dissertations
ARK:
ark:/48907/f3b56gq3
ISBN:
9781303052538
Catalog System Number:
990039788150203776
Rights:
Inc.icon only.dark In Copyright
Copyright Holder:
Rani Mclean
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