Sociology is the study of society and people. Food and food ways are often elements associated with particular societies and therefore, studying such a topic can offer valuable insight into the ways of that society and the people who live in it. Although eating is a vital part of survival, with whom, how and where we eat are not. Studying such ways can illustrate and represent the identity of a person or group. The nature of people and their beliefs can be indicated when analysing their food habits. Who individuals eat with is a particularly revealing factor into gaining an understanding of their identity, culture and society (Scholliers P 2001). For this reason commensality is a term frequently used in sociological research concerning food and food ways. Commensality can be defined as the notion of eating with others. It is the act of two or more people consuming a meal together (Pearsall J 1999). The purpose of commensality is much more than that of allowing survival. It pushes beyond this and becomes a practice of socialisation. Anthropologist Martin Sahlins suggested that not only does it provide opportunities for people to integrate socially, but that it can be the starting factor and maintaining factor in which enables relationships to form and develop. For example, he found that at the beginning of relationship formation commensality tends to involve the sharing of drinks and snacks. As relationships develop the meals become more complex. He claimed that the traditional cooked dinner of meats and vegetables is one mainly shared among families and rarely with friends (Lupton 1996). This suggests that commensality is often used as an expression of closeness and the extent of such closeness can be discovered by looking at ... ... middle of paper ... ...ldhood in Food, the Body and the Self by SAGE publications in London, England Mail Online NEWS (2010) Eating dinner at the table is 'dying out', says survey [online] available assessed 13/02/2012 Pearsall J (1999) The Concise Oxford Dictionary Tenth Edition page 286 by Oxford University Press in Oxford New York, America Scholliers P (2001) Meals, Food Narratives and Sentiments of Belonging in Past and Present and Chapter Two Commensality and Social Morphology: An Essay of Typology Claude Grignon in Food, Drink and Identity Cooking, Eating and Drinking in Europe since the middle Ages by Berg in New York, America Tapper T and Palfreyman D (2010) The Collegial Tradition in Higher Education in The Collegial Tradition in the Age of Mass Higher Education by Springer in United Kingdom
In Lavanya Ramanathan’s Washington Post article published in 2015 titled “Why everyone should stop calling immigrant food ‘ethnic’”, she discusses about people’s preconceptions on the type of food that should be labelled ethnic. Ashlie Stevens also touched on a similar topic in her Guardian article published in 2015 titled “Stop thinking and just eat: when ‘food adventuring’ trivializes culture”. She talks about how people assume that just by eating food from a certain culture, they are able relate to the culture as a whole. Both authors acknowledge the importance of appreciating authentic cuisines, but takes different approaches to convince the audience. Both authors establish credibility by using a wide range of substantiated evidences. While,
Rhinehart seems almost obsessed with the idea of utility, and finding ways to optimize the way he lives. Alternating between two pairs of jeans and freezing his clothes to clean them, he has a very frank and scientific view on life- regarding it as a “walking chemical reaction”. It’s understandable, therefore, that he would be compelled to create a product like Soylent, cheap, fast, but bland. If Soylent does become the mainstream way of eating one day, one can’t help but wonder about how striving to maximize utility will effect the customs of mealtimes. To many cultures, meals are also a vital time to socialize with friends and family, talk about their day and gain some human interaction. But if the goal is utility, these customs may be rendered
It could be argued that every nation and every ethnic group has its own soul food. But the contemporary connotation of the term "soul food" refers to the gradual blending and developing o...
Food has been used as a tool by many cultures as movements to help with their culture become recognized, to identify their way of being, and to show their class and status. By exploring different author’s articles, and movie clips this will be visible. Food has created many cultures to explore these outlets and in return has had a positive impact on their culture.
In Michael Pollan’s “The End of Cooking” shares the message of what we are losing something important in this day and age because of all our pre-made and processed foods. This can be compared with Kothari’s “If You Are What You Eat, What Am I?” and her argument that food is part of one’s own identity. By using the examples from these two texts you can analyze the state of food and culture in the United States today. All of the processed and pre-made foods are causing people all across America to lose their sense of Culture. We no longer know what it’s like to make one of our cultures specialty dishes from scratch which can help people identify with their culture. This process helped newer generations see what it was like for those before them to cook on a daily basis and could help them identify your sense of culture.
In The Hungry Soul we find an interesting blend of subjects, methods, and traditions. This book is a fascinating exploration of the cultural and natural act of eating. Kass intensely reveals how the various aspects of this phenomenon, restrictions, customs, and rituals surrounding it, relate to collective and philosophical truths about the human being and its deepest pleasures. Kass argues throughout the book that eating (dining) is something that can either cultivate us or moralize us. My question is, does Kass succeed in arguing for the fact that eating is something that can moralize us as human beings? Although I agree with some of the things that Kass discussed in the book, in this paper I will argue mainly against some of his claims.
The phrase, “We are what we eat” holds some essential validity and truth to it. Food is a constituent feature of our environmental ties to where we subside. It is a part of our daily lives. It can act as a form of communication with other individuals. Food can be an indicator of the nutrition idiosyncratic cultural groups are practicing. Notably, which ingredients hold higher placement of emphasis in consumption from a day to day basis. The way food is assembled or arranged has specific meanings in certain locations. From humble beginnings to global acknowledgment, the diffusion of Hispanic cuisine and some of it’s signature dishes will be analyzed under domestic and foreign context.
“Food is the material object we have the most intimate contact with on a daily basis.” Stated in research paper called Survivor Woman: colonial edition, this statement magnifies that role that food plays in people’s lives. Most people are almost constantly preoccupied physically and mentally with food. Not only that it is vital part of human life where without it, it would be impossible to continue on with one’s life. Also a great deal of time we spend with food tells us that people are inseparably connected to each our food that we eat. (Gabaccia, 7) We spend time with food preparing meals everyday, thinking about what to eat for lunch or dinner, and we also taking time eat. Beyond simply necessary human obligation, eating has important implications on how we think of ourselves, mainly how we relate to a specific culture of which we are a part. Food study and cultural identity is bound to be connected.
Pollan states that food is not just a necessity to survive, it has a greater meaning to life. Pollan explains how food can cause us happiness and health by connecting us to our family and culture. Warren Belasco, in “Why Study Food”, supports Pollan’s idea that food is something social and cultural. In Belasco’s description of a positive social encounter food is included, whether it involves a coffee date with a colleague or a dinner date with a loved one. Belasco states that food forms our identity and brings our society together.
Cuisine is a big factor in the identity of a culture and many people will list food as a factor that makes a country what it is, even using Damper for an example, many people see it is an Australian classic and part of Australia's history. Analysing these two iconic recipes, we can begin to view what kinds of communication is used and by looking at this, the history and the shaping of culture we gain a deeper understanding of the impact and importance of food in both Australia, Japan and around the world. Through this analysis it is hoped that a better understanding of these topics is acquired and an in depth reflection is produced.
In her book Semiotics and Communication: Signs, Codes, Cultures, Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz describes the wide use of food as signs, and also as social codes. The reason foods are so useful as signs and social codes is because they are separable, easily adaptive to new environments, and it is not difficult to cook, or eat for that matter. Food is a major part of our daily lives, Not only for survival, but it plays a substantial social role in our lives. We will look deeper into the semiotics of food, how food is used as identity markers, and also the role that foods play in social change in our lives. First let us start with the semiotics of food.
Why should our family eat together? - Family Health. (n.d.). Retrieved December 3, 2014, from
Every day we are always encouraged to eat with family or friends as it gives us a wide-range of benefits and that is true. It is proven that it improves a lot in you when you are eating with a good company. However, at some point in our lives, we just realize that there are inevitable, countless times that we could be eating alone like dinner or breakfast.
For instance, public dining, social status and hierarchies are all interconnected. The paper has established the social significance of food with regard to its relationship with status and power by focussing on the different layers of the society. It has established how royalty and nobility wined and dined in the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth century. The paper also has questioned the role of foods at courts. Food is very important to every person, yet it is even more crucial to the rich and famous as they act as identification of prestige and display of authority and power. The social nutrition and its connection to social class can be divided into stages. Dietary prejudices increases significantly from 16th century owing to the demographic pressure, social development and economic specialization. By 18th century, culture became more divided and they became aware of their social differences which they expressed especially through
Gastronomy, as described by Santich (1996), is not only the food and drinking practices involved, it extends towards the philosophies and values attached. The how, where, when and why of consumption is therefore not only symbolic, as in the context of a marker of social distinction (Kim, Eves, & Scarles, 2009), but could also be emotional and provocative, providing us a ‘sense of self’ within this apparent banality (Lupton, 2005). In recent times, the modern world has experienced major societal changes in attitude towards the significance of food, as is the vitality it holds in tourism development (Mitchell & Hall, 2003). Gastronomy in this case does not only offer the basic supplement of life, it is also seen as an indispensable part of the