Eating the Landscape "Eating is not only a political act but also a cultural act that reaffirms one's identity and worldview." (Salmón, 2012, p. 8). It is the statement from the book Eating the Landscape: American Indian Stories of Food, Identity, and Resilience that reflects the author’s main idea. The book is a cultural and geographical travel through the southwest part of the United States of America and northern Mexico. In his book, the author is focused on demonstrating the world of indigenous food and accentuates some direct connections between this food, the culture of people and understanding of the environment that surrounds them. About the author Enrique Salmón is a Rarámuri (Native American people of northwestern Mexico). He has …show more content…
There is a key difference between knowledge and experience. Knowledge is not useful until there is no experience. It is easy to obtain knowledge without having experience but it is impossible to gain experience without having knowledge. Experience becomes high-quality knowledge in the end. The author makes a convincing argument comparing the experience with enchilada, a Mexican dish. Salmón (2012) determines “the future of our foods, our lands, our economies and everything that we come into contact with depends on our ability to reconfigure this notion of a whole enchilada” (p. 162). It means that foods, languages and understanding are tightly linked to the places where people live and the experiences which people gain in those …show more content…
He accentuates the idea of respect that indigenous people have for their environment. Salmón is interested in this topic because it is related to him; he is a Rarámuri. In his book, he gathers stories of American Indian farmers, including the Rarámuri people and describes their land management practices. What is more, the author outlines the advantages of such methods and claims that it is necessary to use traditional food practices to avoid future agricultural and environmental problems. Although Salmón exemplifies some future issues in the agricultural industry, he does not dive deeper into this topic. The author does not pay much attention to the impact of industrialization and modern agricultural technologies on indigenous farmers and the environment in general. Nevertheless, the book is an excellent collection of American Indian stories. Salmón fulfills the above mentioned task and reveals how culture remains relevant to food
“Food as thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating,” is an article written by Mary Maxfield in response or reaction to Michael Pollan’s “Escape from the Western Diet”. Michael Pollan tried to enlighten the readers about what they should eat or not in order to stay healthy by offering and proposing a simple theory: “the elimination of processed foods” (443).
Kingsolver desired to embrace “a genuine food culture” which is “an affinity between people and the land that feeds them” (Kingsolver 20). Having a true food culture can limit calorie intake and represent a cultural connection to the land that you live on. Kingsolver seeks to establish that a food culture is not just for the privileged, but rather is a result of cultural regulation of impulses (Kingsolver 16). A real food culture “arises out of a place, a soil, a climate, a history, a temperament, a collective sense of belonging,” all of which mitigate the impulse to eat fats and sugar (Kingsolver 17, 15). Kingsolver then states that to live without these natural regulations of diet “would seem dangerous”, and that the United States has no food culture.
Indian Givers How the Indians of the Americas transformed the world. This paper tries to explain Jack Weatherford's Indian Givers by examining the history of the Native American connection to many agricultural products that would not have been produced without the knowledge that Indians gave. Weatherford further stipulates that it is through these advances in agriculture that the United States has remained a strong contender in the global market, that without the influences of the Native Americans on the early settlers those early immigrants to America would not have survived. Through his work, "Indian Givers: How Indians of the Americas Transformed the World", Weatherford brings an insight to a people that most individuals have neglected to consider. The paper concludes that it is Weatherford's purpose to demonstrate that Native Americans have been a misrepresented and forgotten people when the history of North America is discussed.
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 the book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan challenges his readers to examine their food and question themselves about the things they consume. Have we ever considered where our food comes from or stopped to think about the process that goes into the food that we purchase to eat every day? Do we know whether our meat and vegetables picked out were raised in our local farms or transported from another country? Michael pollen addresses the reality of what really goes beyond the food we intake and how our lives are affected. He does not just compel us to question the food we consume, but also the food our “food” consumes.
“It is my absolute belief that Indians have unlimited talent. I have no doubt about our capabilities.” --Narendra Modi. Native Americans love life and nature, they often celebrate it. In the stories “The Coyote”, “The Buffalo and the Corn”, and “The First False Face” each of these stories has many similarities, all include nature, and have many differences.
Thus, food is not only a means to satisfy Naoe’s hunger, but there are further connotations associated with it. In scholar Heather Latimer’s view, eating signifies a form of psychological transformation for Naoe, which goes beyond “the consumption of just food.” Basically, Naoe’s connection with traditional food traces her back to her roots in Japan, where she spent her childhood. Food represents a sense of familiarity for Naoe, who’s immigration to Canada and eating “western” food has caused her to break ties with her background and to forget what she knows.
Throughout this semester, our cultural anthropology class has discussed numerous ideas, norms and beliefs from various cultures to help us, as students, better understand the world around us. As part of our final project, we were assigned to read an ethnography book and relate the culture we learn about to the topics we have discussed in class. For this assignment, I chose to read an ethnography book written by Bruce C. Trigger and titled, The Huron: Farmers of the North.
Throughout the essay, Berry logically progresses from stating the problem of the consumer’s ignorance and the manipulative food industry that plays into that ignorance, to stating his solution where consumers can take part in the agricultural process and alter how they think about eating in order to take pleasure in it. He effectively uses appeals to emotion and common values to convince the reader that this is an important issue and make her realize that she needs to wake up and change what she is doing. By using appeals to pathos, logos, and ethos, Berry creates a strong argument to make his point and get people to change how they attain and eat food.
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,
In American Indian Stories, University of Nebraska Press Lincoln and London edition, the author, Zitkala-Sa, tries to tell stories that depicted life growing up on a reservation. Her stories showed how Native Americans reacted to the white man’s ways of running the land and changing the life of Indians. “Zitkala-Sa was one of the early Indian writers to record tribal legends and tales from oral tradition” (back cover) is a great way to show that the author’s stories were based upon actual events in her life as a Dakota Sioux Indian. This essay will describe and analyze Native American life as described by Zitkala-Sa’s American Indian Stories, it will relate to Native Americans and their interactions with American societies, it will discuss the major themes of the book and why the author wrote it, it will describe Native American society, its values and its beliefs and how they changed and it will show how Native Americans views other non-Natives.
When we think of our national health we wonder why Americans end up obese, heart disease filled, and diabetic. Michael Pollan’s “ Escape from the Western Diet” suggest that everything we eat has been processed some food to the point where most of could not tell what went into what we ate. Pollan thinks that if America thought more about our “Western diets” of constantly modified foods and begin to shift away from it to a more home grown of mostly plant based diet it could create a more pleasing eating culture. He calls for us to “Eat food, Not too much, Mostly plants.” However, Mary Maxfield’s “Food as Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating”, argues differently she has the point of view that people simply eat in the wrong amounts. She recommends for others to “Trust yourself. Trust your body. Meet your needs.” The skewed perception of eating will cause you all kinds of health issues, while not eating at all and going skinny will mean that you will remain healthy rather than be anorexic. Then, as Maxfield points out, “We hear go out and Cram your face with Twinkies!”(Maxfield 446) when all that was said was eating as much as you need.
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 Pleasures of Eating” (1990), Berry argues that people have become detached and unknowledgeable by taking food for granted, and should eat responsibly by preparing their own food, learning its origins, and shopping locally. Berry first claims that people in today’s society have become disconnected with what they consume. He says that people have a lack of knowledge that stems from wanting food to be effortless and efficient. He also states that the industrial food industry is somewhat behind this change, and wants to continue to streamline eating until it’s zero effort. He also talks about politics existing in food, with regard to the fact that people cannot
Tradition has been said to mirror a way of life. Observation has concluded that participants in tradition “actively construct as well as reflect culture and community” (Sacks 275). For most people in the 21st century, tradition only reveals itself during special times or certain seasons. For others it is simply a way of life. The foodways of Mexicans and Native Americans are of particular interest in this study because of the food that grew from necessity and is maintained as sacred or reserved for only special occasions. The tamale is one such food. Significantly changed and altered throughout history it has remained a food of commonality and prestige at the same time. The tamale represents a nation that thrived as a people and has continued to live on through the traditions created hundreds of years ago by women who strive to better their community, their men, and the general way of life and welfare of their people. Native American people are the backdrop of southwestern history and as such we often look to them for answers regarding the past. The ‘past’ provides acts as vault filled with a wealth of information concerning a great number of cultural artifacts.