Some people are horrified by a pineapple pizza, while others, rarely, tend to regard it with curiosity. Beyond personal taste, this much-discussed dish becomes a metaphor reflecting contemporary social dynamics: the relationship of every human being with diversity. In every society, there are elements tied to tradition; in Naples, pizza represents identity, roots, the city's connection to its culinary tradition. Pineapple is the foreign element, the new, the different, arriving from afar and disrupting the balance. From a sociological perspective, we could say that pineapple pizza represents a metaphor for globalization : a world in which identities mix, contaminate, and reinvent themselves.
Foreigners and Tradition: Pizza That Teaches Otherness
In his essay "Sociology" (1908), sociologist Georg Simmel analyzed the figure of the stranger through an excursus that describes him as a paradoxical identity: near and far, internal and marginal, familiar and unknown. In this sense, his presence breaks the tautology of the " We ," beginning to reveal the limits of the community and preventing it from fully identifying with itself, thus being forced to redefine itself (Simmel, 1908).
The pineapple on pizza perfectly embodies Simmelian imagery of the stranger ; pizza, a symbol of tradition, represents the united "We ," the community that recognizes its own traditions and flavors. The pineapple, on the other hand, represents the new, tropical element, coming from elsewhere and bringing a flavor that disrupts the already familiar harmony. Like Simmel's stranger, the pineapple doesn't belong from the start, and even though it enters the pizza and becomes part of it, it never ceases to be perceived as different.
Pineapple as a symbol of social liquidity
Sociologist Zygmunt Bauman describes the transformation of contemporary society through the metaphor of solidity and liquidity (Bauman, 2000). He defines a solid society as one characterized by stability, belonging, and rules that constitute the fixed points around which life is organized. In a solid society, everything has a measure, an order, and a sense of continuity. A liquid society, on the other hand, is fluid and unpredictable: relationships dissolve, the future appears labyrinthine, and desire replaces need as the driving force of choices. Within this scenario, the individual is forced to navigate without stable points of reference.
If we look at this transformation through the metaphor of pineapple pizza, the pizza represents a solid society with a clear structure, predictable ingredients and flavors. The pineapple, on the other hand, is the liquid element, the unexpected, capable of disrupting established harmony. The presence of pineapple on the pizza doesn't destroy the pizza but transforms it, just as Bauman's liquidity doesn't eliminate society but rather alters its dynamics. The pineapple, in this case, teaches us that innovation and otherness, though initially rejected and feared, can become tools for adaptation in a liquid world where we must learn to live with flexibility and the ability to embrace uncertainty.
Habit and taste: why pineapple on pizza causes discomfort
Pierre Bourdieu would argue that taste is not just a matter of palate but of habitus ; a set of cultural patterns that define human beings, guiding their perceptions, actions, judgments, and the way they interact with the world (Bourdieu, 1967). Habitus allows individuals to recognize what is right, beautiful, or acceptable within the community. Traditional Neapolitan pizza represents, in this sense, the shared symbolic order, the social construction of pizza: tomato and mozzarella are ingredients codified by Italian culinary culture as good and natural.
The disgust or, in some cases, surprise that many people may feel when faced with pineapple isn't simply a matter of personal taste but embodies the practical manifestation of habitus. Rejecting the fruit also unconsciously means defending symbolic norms and internalized cultural values. In other words, personal choice reflects social position, cultural capital, and the rules written by the reference community.
Pineapple Pizza, or "The Bite of Uncertainty"
If someone were to try for just a moment to put themselves in the pineapple's shoes, they would realize that the fruit doesn't want to destroy pizza, but simply reshape it, find it a new place in the world, not as an invasion but as a meeting, a point of coexistence between cultures, tradition, and innovation. So, perhaps, the question isn't whether you eat pineapple pizza or not, but how willing you are to take a bite of something you don't understand. From the pineapple's perspective, a fruit emerges, seeking a place in the world even in a context that seems to reject it; the same condition experienced by many individuals from other cultures who seek recognition in a society that struggles to include.
American scholar Gloria Anzaldúa, in her work “Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza” (1987), argues that identity is born precisely in border zones where cultures and flavors mix, generating unexpected but fruitful hybridizations (Anzaldúa, 1987). The patterns and the solid society are perhaps merely illusions of control, a form of fear masked by loyalty to tradition and social constructs imposed from childhood. The pineapple on the pizza, therefore, represents an attempt to accept innovation and the evolution of events in a world characterized by constant uncertainty and pre-established patterns. Perhaps the beauty of the world lies precisely in the mixtures, in the imperfect balances and in unlikely encounters.
Sabrina Valenti
References
- Anzaldúa G., (2012), Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, Aunt Lute Books
- Bauman Z., (2014), The society of uncertainty, the Mill, Bologna.
- Bourdieu P., (1995), Practical reasons, Il Mulino, Bologna.
- Cerulo M., ed., in Bourdieu P., (2010), On the concept of field in sociology, Armando, Rome.
- Simmel G., (2018), Sociology, Meltemi, Milan.
