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of taste as created through a network of entities – social, biological, technological. It turns

attention to the mundane activities and objects of tuna production and consumption, the

components of a taste network, and the everyday spaces where tradition and transformation

are negotiated. In the example of the tonnara, taste has developed alongside the practices of

fishing and processing tuna. Taste networks and their elements form cultures of taste and

identity: they are the very meaning, matter and moments of culture. They also produce new

personhoods: that is, subjects and objects are coproduced through these taste encounters and

attachments.

As we have seen, elements that have assembled around the tonnara in different

periods have created new ways of being, knowing and tasting tuna. In the period when

Japanese technicians came to the island to teach the crew how to kill and break down the

tuna, such activities were connected to diverse tastes for tuna. When the Greco family

reopened the tonnara in the late 1990s, the majority of the tuna began to go to Japan. The

way mattanza was practiced underwent profound changes and particular notions of quality

emerged. This was also the beginning of new relationships and a widening of the taste

network to include international stakeholders. Japanese buyers and markets became part of

the network. Giuliano and others refer to the period as the Japanese Age when new markets

opened and new practices and tastes came to the island. New notions of quality and taste for

raw or lightly cooked tuna entered San Pietro. In addition to the influence of Japanese tastes,

the international Giro Tonno tuna festival had its inauguration in 2003. Along with growing

tourism the festival brought cosmopolitan and international tastes to San Pietro.

For taste to change it requires a transformation of the network (or components of that

network) that bring such tastes into existence. As Hennion (2007, p. 100) reminds us through

his idea of ‘reservoir(s) of difference’, there are a range of diverse tastes that can materialise

from the interactions of humans with objects, in this case tuna. Yet, as I have demonstrated,

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