Anthropology of Food Test 1

Four subfields within Anthropology: Biological, Archaelogy, Linguistics, and Sociocultural

1. Biological: Anthropology looking at genes and changes over time EX: Alcohol article (Hanna) 2. Archaeology: Study of how things were done in the past EX: Durian Fruit Article 3. Linguistics: The names and words we use to describe the world, words and phrases that mean different things EX: Rats are seen as dirty when in other cultures they are not 4. Socio-cultural anthropology: Provides sociological and cultural explinations for things

Cultural Norms and Society

A culture's conception of an appropriate behaviors that we learn overtime Society: People who share a common culture that interact with each other and live close to one another

Feast: What is it, what are the four types of feasting (Celebratory, Entrepreneurial,Patron and exclusive)

A feast is a special meal that is shared by two or more people marking an occasion of cultural significance; food size, participants, time, display and drama are evidence of the different types of feasts being held 1.Celebratory: Used to celebrate any event at any scale (individual, family or national) that reinforces existing social bonds between people because they are able to reflect on past events EX: Gastronomic meal in France where people come together once a year to have an elaborate meal with cheese, fish, meat and desert course 2. Entrepreneurial: Associated with a society where there is a chief or leader that hosts a large meal to acknowledge their superiority, when you attended it suggests that you agree with the leader EX: Potlatch of Northwest coast emphasized healing and closing ceremony where a sick person would live 3. Patron: Used to reiterate and legitimize existing unequal relations of status and power EX: Donor part, Gibnut feast with the anthropologists 4. Exclusive: Social order differences of exclusivity of the membership of feast group where you want everyone to know that you are around EX: State dinner

Animal as food vs animal as companion: Why, horses, cats (Spain (Medina), China, Austalia, and Vietnam), dogs (Lakota Dog Feast)

Americans do not eat foods that we keep as pets and this disconnects us from the food chain and we see them as companions (for example horses help with work outside, dogs are companions and cats help kill the mice) 1. Horses: We are able to take care of horses although 12,000 years ago the French hunted horses for meat, Japan currently eats horse although the United STates banned its consumption in 2007 2. Cat: In Australia people eat cat after it become feral and has caused the extinction of 28 animal species, it is eaten in Vietnam to help cure sexual inadequacy and is sold on the blackmarket by Chinese and this has led to a huge outbreak of mice on the streets, Cat supposedly was eaten during the medieval times in Spain which was evident in the cat stew recipe but they denied that this happened and said that the author parodied this 3. Dog: Dogs roles were to collect firewood, transport goods, be hunting partners and playmate, Carolina dog were the most common to do these things, Lakota killed the Sunjka (even though it was a huge loss to helping out in the field and hunting) because a sick girl kept having a dream that the puppy kept telling her he would give up his life for her and that she needed to teach the people that eating the body of the dog would be a healing ritual, she healed after this and they did the ceremony once a year for a while 4.

Entomophagy: What is it and where can it be seen (DuFour's article), Witchetty Grubs and Honey Ants

Entomophagy is eating bugs, while Americans find it strange to eat bugs many people outside of the United States consume it as a source of protein, in the Amazons DuFour discovered that when there were shortages of food people would eat several breeds of ants and termites all year round while other bugs, such as wasps and caterpillars, were only consumed during certain times of the year so they were seen as a delicacy Witchetty Grubs and honey ants are both native to Austraia and these foods were used and consumed by aboriginals, people would dig holes to get the Witchetty grubs to eat the larvae live and ants were eaten as a source of sugar when they had honey coming out of them

Cultural Bias: What is it and where can we see it with Road construction and Haine's Jungle rat/Gibnut article

Cultural bias is the assumption that one brings when viewing another person's culture EX: In America people drive on the right side of the road whereas people drive on the left side of the road in Great Britain, people in America see this as being abnormal EX2: Haines refused to try the Gibnut while she was in Belize because it was seen as abnormal in Great Britain; she was taught to see rats as being dirty and the influence of language deterred her from trying the food

Cultural Relativism: What is it and where can we see it with Haines article on the Gibnut

Cultural relativism is where a person places themselves in an outsider position (edic position) where they evaluate practices based on the context of that culture EX: Haines realized that serving the Gibnut was a highly sought after dish since meat was not readily available, the meat served as a way for the Belizians to come together with the anthropologists in the form of feasting

Cultural Universals, generality and particularity

Cultural universals: Cultural trait/feature shared by all humanity EX: Preparing food Cultural Generality: Cultural trait feature shared by some but not all cultures EX: Consuming cow meat Cultural Particularity: Cultural trait that is unique or only a couple cultures do it EX: Eating Grasshoppers in Mexico

Ethnocentrism: What is it and where can we see it Aimer's eating whale article

Ethnocentrism is the tendency to judge another person's cultural practice from the perspective of one's own culture EX2: When Aimer visited Japan, he was startled by the fact that the Japanese consumed whale, one of the reasons why he was scared by this is that whale consumption in America is not acceptable and we view whales as being cute animals, Americans see the Japanese as being abnormal for this

Biocultural Anthropology: what is it, Alcohol use and abuse (Hanna's article), Marijuana edibles (Maccoun and Michelle)

How biology and culture affect each other 1. Alcohol use and abuse: Biological influences, such as weight, gender, age and race may effect how our bodies ingest alcohol (certain people have higher tolerances than others), found that Naïve Americans tend to abuse alcohol more since they have a very high tolerance from having a longer small intestine and the way their stomachs process the alcohol, At the same time in their culture alcohol is advertised as a way to cope with the hardships they face on the reservations so they feel the urge to do it, China and Japan do not have this problem due to the way their bodies are shaped

Food as transportation: Reflection on Thomas' article

Out of rebellion, many prisoners have begun to make cooking utensils out of unconventional items in the prisons and have begun to make foods that reminds them of their ethnic traditions, people share this food out of respect and to create social bonds EX: Italian men use cooking as a way to express who they are since men are usually forbidden to enter the kitchens

Reflexivity: What is it and where can we see it with Haines article on the Gibnut

When a person is able to name the challenges of objectivity, acknowledge their own subjectivity/preconceived notions EX: Haines realized that she was not being reflexive when she refused to eat the Gibnut because she saw it as road kill and dirty. She was able to be reflexive when she realized that serving the Gibnut was an aspect of feasting to bring the anthropologists and Belizians together

The Other: What is it and where do we see it with Haine's chalupines article

When one group makes another group of people feel ostracized based on their different cultural practices EX: Haines refused to eat chalupines because she had an ethnocentric perspective with trying the bugs (In America they were seen as gross), when she refused to eat the grasshoppers in Mexico she othered the people within this culture by not have cultural reletavism

Johnston: Feasting as a social phonemenon when looking at the Blackfeet and the bidirectional gaze

While feasts appear to be about social order and mediating change, these events bring people together EX: Blackfeet ate with the anthropologists so that they could get to know them and not make fun of them later, told their story where The Blackfeet ate buffalo until the white man began to kill off the buffalo, since the land is dry they are forced to eat canned foods, beef, potatoes, coffee, sugar and other processed foods, the poor diets are causing chronic illnesses with diabetes

Food Adventuring: Life Threatening foods (Ackee, fugu, Sannakji, African Bull frog, Stilton cheese, The Widower, Salamander Brandy, Absinthe, Marijuana Edibles), Stinky Foods (Durian),

Certain foods have a reputation for being tried because of the bodily sensations that they can cause. Some of these foods can be extremely poisonous while others have extreme folklore associated with them. Many Americans like to feel an adrenaline rush when eating these foods and often times they have privilege to do this Life threatening foods: 1. Ackee is the national fruit of Jamaicaa that has an egg flavor taste and bright red color but when the food is not ripe (three seeds exposed) the hypoglycia A and B from it can cause Jamaican vomiting where a person constantly vomits, becomes dehydrated and eventually dies 2. Fugu: Japanese delicacy that dats back 2,300 years ago and has delicate meat, it is forbidden to be served to the emporer due to the amount of poison (tetradotoxin) located in the liver that can cause a person slowly stop breathing and become paralyzed, just a little bit is left to give lips a tingly feeling 3. Sannakji: Korean delicacy and is live octopus that is cut up prior to being eaten or is eaten whole, it is important to wrap it a certain way when eating it because the octopus still has its suckers and it can get stuck in throat, animal activists have huge problems with people consuming this food because it is still alive 4. African Bullfrog: A delicacy in Namibia and only eaten during the rainy season, when cooked it must be lined with wood from the Omuhongo tree to neutralize poison that causes painful urination and kidney failure 5. Stilton Cheese: Cheese that is made in England that is made by pressing cooked cream cheese in a container for a long time, it is said that the cheese can give people weird dreams due to the tryptamine 6. The Widower: World's hottest curry and supposedly one eater was hallucinating while he took a walk from eating the substance 7. Salamander Brandy: Ties to the counterculture movement in Slovenia where young people enjoyed it for the supposed hallucinations and it was a way to separate themselves from Yugoslavia, The product is not advertised very well in positions of power, due to heritagization, but it got legitimized by an article in Medina, it gets delegitimized by an article written by a supposed chemist who stated the chemical compositon was bad, at the same time its not commonly found 8. Absinthe: Originated in Switzerland and it is distilled 45-74 % alcohol that has grand worm wood and has properties of the green fairies, became popular when Bohemian French and deadbeat Americans when it was said it caused people to hallucinate 9. Marijuana Edibles: The legalization of marijuana has caused people to get upset that children may eat it too young due to the alluring packaging, they are concerned about the feelings that children can get when they eat it since it is intense and the feelings last for a long time, At the same time, we do not have these same reactions towards alcohol ads that use sexual enticement for customers or cigarette ads that do the same thing Durian: A popular Malayian fruit that is consumed for its sugar, vitamin C, carbs and proteins, supposedly people will die if they consume the fruit after eating alcohol or caffeine but that is not possible, Haines tried it when her friends got it but it was very stinky and she had a hard time eating it due to the smell but she realized that once she got past the smell she was able to enjoy the fruit (cultural reletavism because she was not able to move past stinky smell of fruit to eat it, was reflexive and ate it though)

Hurn's article about veganism and vegetarianism Biopolitics: What is it in comparison to Trans-biopolitics, Experience in Wales with Sheep, foxes, speciesm and carnism

Bio politics is how humans assert themselves into the natural process of eating and Hurn noticed that humans sometimes try to control this through trans-biopolitics. When she was in Wales, she noticed that the farmers controlled the biological eating circle when she noticed that the farmers killed foxes to protect the sheep (she argued that this was a form of speciesism where humans thought they were on the top of the food chain). When she refused to eat meat, she was seen as having an eating disorder since their culture was influenced by carnism. When she had reflexivity when looking at the process she realized that the transbiopolitics perspective was having culture bias and that they honored both the fox and sheep when it was killed.

Pica Behavior: What is it, Geophagy (Why it is done, who does it,

Eating of non-nutritious substances such as nails, feces and charcoal One example is Geophagy where people consume a form of mineral content for sensory pleasure, pregnancy cravings and mask bad taste of other foods, six populations do it (indigenous, mentally ill, slaves and pregnant women) and it became stigmatized since it was a form of consumption by the other, it caused some serious health concerns since it was getting stuck in people's intestinal tracts

Emic vs Etic Perspectives: What is it and how can it be seen through fugu

Emic perspective: The point of view of the person within a culture describing the purpose of the practice EX: Eating fugu has been known as a delicacy in Japan for about 2,300 years in the Jomon Period Etic Perspective: An outsider goes into a culture and judges a practice based on their perspective EX: Americans judge eating fugu as being a near death experience because the liver of the fish contains extreme high levels of tetradotoxin that can lead to anaphylaxis followed by death

Food as Punishment: Reflection on Thomas' article

Food is used as a punishment to take away any pleasure so that inmates can truly serve their time in prison (this is evident from the low sanitary standards), At the same time this practice is taking away the basic human right for these men since they are forced to eat the food or they will die, Some of the foods they have been forced to eat include grue (meat and potatoes) and nutraloaf (costs 12 cents to make and supposedly has a lot of nutrients), it is considered a bizarre food practice since these men are fed at specific times, are forced to eat at certain benches and denied to choose what they eat (fear that feces may be in their food)

The Meatrix

Meat trio in the UNited states of land animals that make up the primary source in the United States, it consists of cows, pigs and checkens, they are known as this because they are easy to raise, fatten and slaughter, they also help with our salt craving since they have a high salt content

Molecular Gastronomy vs Molecular cuisine: Relfection on Nicholas Kurti and Herve This' article and Adria, Blumenthal, Keller and McGee's article

Molecular Gastronomy is the application of scientific principles to understanding and improving gastronomy, to do this it is important to look at the chemical and physical components of the artistic creation, collecting data about testing the precision of certain recipes that are used to cook the item and investigating the social phonemena of the food but originally they posited that people should invent new dishes and understand the culinary processes and recipes Molecular Cuisine: When cooking to embrace innovation of the recipes bit also to build on the tradition with scientific findings

Language and Food: Cuy (Guinea Pig) and Gibnut (rat)

People assume that something is edible vs inedible based on the language people use to describe the cuisine 1. Cuy: Americans are taught to see the cuy as a pet when it is a popular cuisine in South America since the 5000 BC, they keep it in hutches and each year they dress up the cuy in cute outfits during the festival and consume every other one except for the cutest best dressed one, fat is used as a medicine and entrails are used to divine the future 2. Gibnut/jungle rat: Americans and British are taught to see rats as being dirty, feminine food and carriers of disease, such as the black plague, rats in India have a similar reference where people in the Intouchable group have been forced to eat them, At the same time rats in Togo have been associated with commensality (hunters get and eat them together and since they are hard to catch they are a celebrated experience), When Haines was in Belize she refused to eat the Gibnut believing it was dirty type of rat but when she tried it at a patron feast she realized it did taste good, she was scared of trying it since the media portrayed it as strange when the queen decided to eat it

Etiquette and Table Manners: Are they forms of Embodied or enculturated commensality?, China, Iran

People learn table manners through parents or other adults that they live alongside or if they have education about it so it is enculturated, manners are a way of creating social distinction and showing respect throughout every culture (cultural universality) In America having table manners is a sign of high social class, some examples of proper table manners in the US include keeping your elbows off the table, setting the table a certain way, talking about certain matters, etc. China: Certain table manners, such as knowing how to eat with chopsticks and belching after a good meal, is beneficial to know since bad luck occurs to people that do not have proper table manners Iran: When dining with a family it is important to make sure that you are on the guest list when attending a dinner, not to leave excess food on your plate, arrive o'n time and use your right hand when eating

The Judgment of Taste by Bourdieu: How do people pick foods, what assumptions does he make from the data he collected in Paris, and how does he "other" groups of people

People pick foods due to age, time, social class and gender; for example wealthier people are going to eat foods more out of pleasure than nutritional value He assumes that the quantitative data that he collected from the Parisians and applies it to other cultures, he does not explain that certain people pick certain foods (less meat heavy vs heavier meat meals) based on gender, and he lumps people together saying they value certain foods He "others" groups of people by stating that food practices and consumption as people belonging to a certain economic group; Only the bourgeouis eat extravagant foods and have cultural capital for this

Food as social capital: Reflection on Thomas' article

Police men gave prisoners food or would allow the prisoners to make food which gave them some advantages in prison because it allowed them to escape the prison and find homey comfort with the food they were eating, one of the reasons why the guards allowed this to occur was that when the prisoners made alcohol they would give it to the guards as a way to let loose

How food is made: Manioc

Shrub in South America that can be sweet (easily baked, etc.) or bitter (preferred type although it takes a lot of preparation since it is considered toxic, has a huge starch content), it is prepared by being planted in areas that have been slashed and burned (cut down the trees during the dry season to create moist layer) and women plant it and keep dirt moist, women harvest the plant and cut the stalk, communal work with peeling, washing, and squeezing it for juices, women feel comforted going into he manioc field when having their first period and giving birth since it is a comforting place

Tradition and Heritage: Tarantulas in Spiderville in Cambodia and Cochineal beetle

Some foods are still consumed in certain socities due to the cultural heritage they have associated with them. When Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge ruled over Cambodia, people were starved to death and slaughted. The people in Skoun began to eat tarantulas for their heart, throat and lungs.. plus the bug had a great deal of protein, although ROuge is not in power people took a liking to the spider and began to eat it more regularly. Cochineal beetles have been used traditionally by the Mixtec as a red dye and Americans started using it to create red dye in textiles but people became outraged when it was integrated into the foods specifically the Starbucks Frappucino

Van Estrik Commensal Circles: Think of the article about the common pot that discusses embodied and enculturated commensality

What, where and how we share food begins, possibly, in the utero when children get food from their mothers (form of embodied commensality) or breast feeding where the mom and baby bond from the feeding experience (commensality as a bonding activity not just a time to acquire nutrients) Enculturated commensality comes later when people share food with others besides nuclear family, sometimes this can be a fun experience depending on who you are with (religious group, social class, gender) but it can also be miserable if its for a job interview It is weird to be seen eating alone in America

The Culinary Triangle: Structuralism, four assumptions within structuralism, How does Levi Strauss create a model to compare methods for food preparation across cultures (look at cultural universals and differences), is the model useful

Structuralism: Unconsciously constructs human thoughts and perceptions by determining which things within society are interconnected to one another It is assumed that every society has a structure, the structure determines the relationships within the culture, the structure looks at how oppositions are interconnected, and unconsciously influences how things are connected He creates a model that is used to compare and contrast the methods used to prepare foods, everyone cooks their food (boiling) and eats food, Different cultures eat different foods and use different cooking techniques (canning, steaming, etc.) The Model is useful because it classifies cooking over a broad cultural perspective but the model is not useful because it oversimplifies the complex cooking process used in specific cultures, such as steaming, and it does not include every cooking process used

Culture

Systems of knowledge about nature that are shared by a group of people that are passed from generation to generation; unwritten and known by almost all people

Commensality: What is it and how does it vary between cultures

The act of sharing food and it varies based on: 1) the types of meals being served (US: usually there is meat on the plate while in China they have a carb, piece of fish and vegetables), 2) Time of day that the food is consumed (in most countries it is lunch when people come together midday to talk about what has been happening)

Reciprocity: What is it and what are the three types (Balanced, Negative and Generalized)

The mutual or cooperative exchange of goods, favors, rights and privileges between two or more individuals in a group 1. Balanced: Something is given with the expectation they will do something later 2. Negative: Atemtping to get as little as possible (stealing) 3. Generalized: An exchange where something is given with the expectation of an immediate return (familial relationships, breast feeding)

Food as memory: Reflection on Thomas' article

The prisoners would use food as a way to escape the horrible prison conditions that they were forced to endure, they would make foods that reminded them of home and other important cultural celebrations, such as thanksgiving, it was a way to reflect on past memories, have reciprocity amongst other prisoners to form communities

Desirable Cuts of Meat

There are certain cuts within the Meatrix that are desirable (pork chop, chicken breast and filet mignon) At the same time, these cuts of meat are very small and most of the animal is wasted when we do not enjoy eating the organs, fat or other cuts of meat, we tend to avoid finding out how our food is created because the idea of eating a land mammal can scare people and we view them as being cute, This is one of the reasons why Americans buy their food prepackaged whereas other cultures that eat the whole animal have strong beliefs against food waste

The Horrors of Food: What is it and Food Shock as a form of othering, how to address the food shock properly

We have traumatizing memories with certain foods (EX: having a taste aversion to vodka after getting violently sick from puking from it) When a familiar food is presented in an unusual way (goat head), we begin to other people for eating different types of food, this form of othering that comes out of cultural shock is a way to segregate themselves from the people of another culture by saying their food practice is strange The way to handle this is to maintain cultural relativism and be reflexive. Keeping cultural relativism means being able to take a step back from the situation and see why another group is doing a certain behavior. When being reflexive, a person is observant of the cultural bias they bring into the place (food shock) and finds a way to focus on why a particular culture is engaging in a behavior

Animal Conservation vs Cultural Conservation: Geoduck, Inuit Seal Hunting, Sannakaji and Makah Gray Whale HUnting, cultural imperialism, indigenous rights vs national rights

There have been debates about whether to conserve animal populations or to allow for their consumption to maintain cultural practices, animal conservation laws can use ethnocentric thoughts and cultural imperialism (where one culture enters another culture and forces individuals to convert their ways to their type of thinking) when looking at other groups and this can be detrimental to the cultural practice Geoduck: Species of large salt water clam that is native to America's west coast and is considered a delicacy in China, many people make penis jokes about the animal due to its appearance animal rights activitist groups and do not know their true meaning 1. Inuit Seal Hunting: When the Inuits regained access to Nunavut they restarted their tradition of killing the seals, they used every part of the seal with these killings, in 2006 Canada created an Inuit day where they were able to kill seals and use ever part of them and when Canada's Govenor General ate a piece of the heart people were mad at her since there was ban from the EU on seal products and the animal rights movement had problems 2. Makah Gray Whale Hunting: Indigenous people in AMerican northwest coast have been killing gray whales for 2000 years but when populations declined in 1920s they decided to stop doing the practice, In 1999 they were allowed to catch their first whale and eat it but since it is considered an endangered species they are only allowed to kill 5 of them a year but now they aren't even allowed to kill the whale

What constitutes as a meal?

This is culturally based but in the United States a meal is considered a starch, carb and vegetable serving that is high in cholesterol for people who are coming home after a long day at work; In china, a meal is considered a dish with pinyin (rice or noodles of some kind) accompanied by fish and vegetables

Categorization of Food: Familarity and recognition, inedible vs edible, The head, Canararo's article

We determine that a food is okay to eat if we are socialized to eat it in a certain cultural context, we feel more comfortable eating foods that look familiar and that we recognize because we know what to expect when we eat them (we acquire a taste for them), inedible foods are the ones that we are socialized not to eat, such as cute animals (cats, dogs, guinea pigs, rabbits, etc.), animals that are cooked and consumed fully and those with a distinct smell (durian), or poisonous EX: Andrew Zimmerman in Morocco considers the eyeball on a lamb's head and ear fat to be bizarre since when many people consume lamb it is on the bone and we don't ususally consume fat Canararo stated based on Freud's view that foods that were not considered edible had no nutritive qualities and were unclean, he said that anyone who ate those foods was anxious of them from families lack of love, at the same time Freud's views were very ethnocentric because what is considered a clean food here is not necessarily considered a clean food elsewhere