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Pizza effect
Phenomenon in religious studies and sociology / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In religious studies and sociology, the pizza effect is the phenomenon of elements of a nation's or people's culture being transformed or at least more fully embraced elsewhere, then re-exported to their culture of origin,[1] or the way in which a community's self-understanding is influenced by (or imposed by, or imported from) foreign sources.[2] Related phrases include "hermeneutical feedback loop", "re-enculturation", and "self-orientalization".
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The term "pizza effect" was coined by the Austrian-born Hindu monk and professor of Anthropology at Syracuse University, Agehananda Bharati,[2][3] who wrote the following in 1970,[4] based on his analysis of this phenomenon.
The original pizza was a simple, hot-baked bread without any trimmings, the staple of the Calabrian and Sicilian contadini from whom well over 90% of all Italo-Americans descend. After World War I, a highly elaborated dish, the U.S. pizza of many sizes, flavors, and hues, made its way back to Italy with visiting kinsfolk from America. The term and the object have acquired a new meaning and a new status, as well as many new tastes in the land of its origin, not only in the south, but throughout the length and width of Italy.[4]: 273
— Agehananda Bharati
Although Bharati's knowledge of pizza history and Italian American demographics was incorrect,[5] the term pizza effect nonetheless stuck.