Humans have an appetite for food, and anthropology as the study of human culture can discover a lot through the eating ideas and behaviours of various cultures. Throughout the world many different countries and different cultures have different dining etiquette and rules. This is something often taken for granted. From personal experience working on cruise ships, where many different cultures mix in a small environment, what seemed to stand out to me were the differences in dining etiquette. Unfortunately, to the point where some colleges preferred to eat in a separate dining area with members of similar cultures, as what was taken for granted by those with European dining etiquette was completely foreign to others, notably those with an Indian background, this was on occasion to the point of ridicule and scorn. The importance of food in understanding human culture rests in its vast changeability, a changeability that is not central for species survival. For survival needs, people everywhere could eat the same food, yet people of different cultural backgrounds eat differently.
An anthropological approach to the analysis of food in culture would be to isolate and identify the food variables, arrange these variables systematically, and explain why some of these variables go together or do not go together. Generally people who have the same culture share the same food habits, that is, they share the same assemblage of food variables. Most of the major cities in the world contain varied societies, encompassing of a wide range of individuals from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Ethnicity refers to a social group, which shares particular distinctive features, for instance; language, culture, physical appearance, religion, va...
... middle of paper ...
...ure. Retrieved from The electronic journal of CIPA: http://www.cipa.ulg.ac.be/intervalles2/rampaul.pdf
Saarc. (2009). Food of India. Retrieved from Saarc Tourism India: http://india.saarctourism.org/food-of-india.html
Siegel, B. (2010). Learning to Eat in a Capital City. Food, Culture & Society, 71-90.
Swarbrick, N. (2013, July 8). Manners and social behaviour - A guide to modern New Zealand manners. Retrieved from Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand: http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/manners-and-social-behaviour/page-7
Trollope-Kumar, K., & Last, J. M. (2002). Cultural Factors. Retrieved from Gale Encyclopedia of Public Health: http://www.answers.com/topic/cultural-factors
Zhang, X. (2013). Talking about Cultural Influence on Table Manners from Intercultural Adaptation - A Case Study of my Canadian Friend's Story. International Journal of Arts and Commerce, 156-162.
Most people wouldn’t deny that food is vital to everyday life, but perhaps it has more importance than just simply nourishing our bodies. According to Carole M. Counihan, a doctor of anthropology, food is so important that society has constructed rules regarding its consumption. Counihan emphasizes in her 1992 Anthropology Quarterly article, “Food Rules in the United States: Individualism, Control and Hierarchy,” that these rules serve as the “means through which human beings construct reality” (Counihan, 1992, p. 55). Counihan advocates for the importance of studying food rules by explaining that knowledge about how food is viewed in our culture can do three things: improve understanding of other culture’s food rules, allow nutrition education programs to mesh with these rules, and reveal an aspect of society that helps maintain our current stratification system, which has not been thoroughly examined yet (Counihan, 1992). Through her study of food journals kept by American college students, Counihan argues that their adherence to food rules suggests that students strongly believe in self-control and individualism. Consequently, these beliefs reinforce our current social hierarchies, specifically classism, racism, and sexism. Counihan’s argument that our rules about food allow for the perpetuation of sexism is a compelling one that I very much agree with. I have personally seen my best friend plan her entire diet and exercise regimen based on what her boyfriend thinks. Although this article was written in 1992, I believe the message it conveys will still be applicable in years to come.
William, W. D. (2004). Culture and the risk of disease. British Medical Bulletin, 69, 21-31. doi: 10.1093/bmb/ldh020
Jean Giddens (2013) defines culture as “a pattern of shared attitudes, beliefs, self-definitions, norms, roles, and values that can occur among those who speak a particular language, or live in a defined geographical region.” (Giddens, 2013). A person’s culture influences every aspect that person’s life. Beliefs affected by culture include how someone interacts within the family, how to raise children, the types of foods eaten, the style of clothes chosen, which religion is practiced, and the style of communication (including verbal, and body language, slang used etc.) (Giddens, 2013). In addition to these beliefs, health care practices are also affected by culture. The cause
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.
In Japan, the culture in authenticity is very polite. For business communications, Japanese utilize good manners, whereas informal manners are used for socialization. Manners and being polite is a key facet of Japanese business culture so as to stay clients, or potential clients, ecstatic. Japanese conferences start with a religious procedure, meishi kokna, which engage in making an exchange of business cards. This is usually a method of showing the consequentiality of the even...
How does culture influence health? Give some examples of ethnic and cultural influences on the health of individuals or populations.
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 ...
People in Western societies may refer to food-related etiquette as table manners, a phrase that illustrates the cultural expectation of eating food or meals at a table. Some people eat with forks and spoons; more people use fingers or chopsticks. However, utensil choice is much more complicated than choosing chopsticks, fingers, or flatware. Among some groups who primarily eat food with their fingers, diners use only the right hand to eat. Some people use only three fingers of the right hand. Among other groups, use of both hands is acceptable. In some countries, licking the fingers is polite; in others, licking the fingers is considered impolite (and done only when a person thinks no one else is watching). Rules regarding polite eating may increase in formal settings. At some formal dinners, a person might be expected to choose the "right" fork from among two or three choices to match the food being eaten at a certain point in the
Everyone has varying opinions and behaviour towards the food, due to this it suggests that people’s attitude and behaviours to food must be affected by social factors. Otherwise they everyone would have similar attitudes to food if it was biologically determined.
As defined by Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, food is “material consisting essentially of protein, carbohydrate, and fat used in the body of an organism to sustain growth, repair, and vital processes and to furnish energy.” However, can food not provide something more than simply nourishment? For ages, scientists all over have been noticing patterns in the ways various cultures think of food and make it parts of their everyday lives. These patterns teach us more about these cultures, as well as the many ways that food affects them. Food influences many parts of these cultures, such as religion, relationships, gender, and finally communication. Communication is a vital part of one’s everyday life and Anthropologist E.N. Anderson describes food as “second only to language as a social communication system” (Anderson 124). Thai director Ang Lee’s Eat Drink Man Woman and Latin American director María Ripoll’s Tortilla Soup, a Latino re-make of Lee’s film, reveal the similarities of two seemingly different cultures and their use of food as a means of communication.
Kittler, Sucher, and Nelms (2012) coined the term food habits (also known as food culture or foodways) to describe the manner in which humans use food, including everything from how it is chosen, acquired, and distributed to who prepares, serves, and eats it. They stated that the significance of the food habits process is that it is unique to human beings. They pondered why people spend so much time, energy, money, and creativity on eating. A familiar saying that epitomizes the idea of food and identity is, “You are what you eat.” This expression addresses two of the questions considered in the research: What does the food on my plate signify? and How do food practices contribute to personal identity? These questions address the concept of
There are families that have home cooked meals when times premise it. In some cultures, home cooked meals are a must no matter what is going on they all meet at the table at a certain time. With the foods that are put on the table tradition takes font and certain it is the Identity of our culture. Soul food is the tradition in African American families, Mexican foods are the tradition in a Latino family, and Chinese foods are the tradition in a Chinese families etc. Because there are so many fast foods place, food trucks, and restaurants are available to get something fast and quite. Now, there are more healthy places to eat like the salad bar, vegan eateries, and juice bars. More and more families are choosing to become vegetarians or vegans to fix their life style, but public health institutions often find themselves at odds with vegan parents over the lack of milk and dairy products in their young child’s
The world is full with different ethnic groups. Each ethnic group has its own traditions, beliefs and food habits. These have been passed on from generation to generation. Food choices are mainly influenced by your ethnicity. People develop eating habits that are similar to those of their parents because they have been raised around them. The food choices that people make daily are usually ones that they are familiar with. A person’s social and cultural beliefs are also influenced by their ethnicity. Everyone has different food choices because they have been raised in a certain manner with different habits and traditions, therefore your food choice will always depend on the society or ethnic group that you grew up on.
Each country in the world has its own nationality and styles which represent for the people live in that region. There are various ways to distinguish people among countries, for examples, the customs in each country such as language, behaviors, etiquette, food and manner which are easy to recognize in daily life. Vietnam and New Zealand have some differences in culture and are the best example to choose as my comparison because of the foundation and the influences of western countries and America in the past to these countries. In this essay, I will compare the customs between Vietnam and New Zealand with regards to the language; greeting; the dining etiquette.
INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT A CLOSER LOOK During the Middle Ages, dining etiquette was less subtle, making it much more digestible. Etiquette books from those times offered some rather direct guidelines, such as: “Refrain from falling upon the dish like a swine while eating, snorting disgustingly and smacking the lips,” or, “a number of people gnaw a bone and then put it back in the dish — this is a serious offense.” Those rules seem clear enough to follow. However, professional dining in today’s world is much more intricate. Dining is not just about enjoyment of eating delicious food. It is also about conversation, pleasant