One of the things that unites every human being, maybe every living being on this planet, is that fact that every single living thing on this planet needs to eat. Food is a central part of every culture, from its selection, to its gathering, to preparation, to how we consume it. Every culture has their own special way of preparing food. I myself am from a northern Appalachian family in which food is a thing that brings people together. We cook massive amounts of food, demand that newcomers get seconds, and send people home with heaping plates so that no one walks away hungry.
To get to the bottom of how a culture handles eating I feel like its best to start at the stage of how that food gets prepared (food preparation (251)) I want to explore how each culture mixes various foodstuffs, decides what parts they want to eat, who does the cooking, whats of each dish go to who. I feel that how we prepare our food is an interesting reflection on who we are as people.
Its also important to examine how a culture plans for future food instability. I want to look into how each culture stores foods for future use, what they keep and what they don't, how does their food source change how they store food. (food storage (252)) I feel there's a big link between a culture's dedication to food storage and how long its view is.
In the interest of diversifying my sources, I've chosen to focus on three different cultures from three different methods of food acquisition. I'm interested to see how big of a role the acquisition of food plays in how important preparation and storage are to that culture.
The Cultures I have chosen to explore are:
The San: The San are are a Hunter-Gatherer culture living largely in Southern Africa.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gathering_food.jpg
The Kurds: A middle eastern people who are widely spread throughout the region. They they will be our Pastoralists.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kurdistan4all/5216245408
The Azande: A central African people who will be serving as our Horticulturists.
I hope you will all find this subject as exciting and enlightening as I do!
Hey Christopher, I really like your topic and subtopics. The idea that every human being relies on food for survival and is, therefore, connected in at least one way to everyone else, is a very interesting observation. Learning about how food preparation and storage is completed in other cultures sounds intriguing and will likely vary significantly. Each way of preparation and storage can help to describe the unique characteristics of each culture. Additionally, I can relate fully to your personal experiences in that food brings my family together as well. Coming from an Italian and Swedish origin, food has brought distant relatives and other close family close together for as long as I can remember.
ReplyDeleteIt's an exciting topic that I'm ecstatic to be able to bring to you all. Maybe you could provide me some insights as to the Swedish culture of food. Most people know about the Italian end of food culture, due in part to its wide reach, but I don't know much about Swedish food culture.
DeleteI enjoy the way you use food frame insights on the culture while also focusing on narrow areas such as food storage. It was a good choice to look at three different subsistence patterns. I've learned that cultures that live in hotter regions often use more spices in their food, partially to keep them from spoiling. I've also learned of many ways to pickle and ferment foods to store them. Will you explore ways of storing, preparing, and preserving meat?
ReplyDeleteActually, yes! From my short research into the topic, the Serbs seem to be very big on preserves and pickled foods, especially cabbage and fruit preserves.
DeleteI love the concept of using spices, that also added different flavors to the food, to primarily create better storage opportunities.
And as far as preserving meat, I have high hopes for that concept coming from the Kurds, since a lot of their food production surrounds the usage of animal products. Fingers crossed right?
Hey Chris, I really like your topic and subtopics. Food is obviously an important topic to every culture due to humans needing food. How we prepare our food definitely does reflect culture and I look forward to learning more about this and will keep a close eye on your blog post through the semester.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I have always believed in the importance of food in bringing people together, and I am excited to work on this subject!
ReplyDelete