America 's Traditions And Customs

In order to not only identify but solve our problems regarding food we must acknowledge the origin of those problems. In this paper I will be examine the S.A.D. (standard American diet) Within the context of history and culture and perhaps determine the causes of our relatively sudden and unhealthy turn in terms of production and consumption. The main reason behind examining the western diet in a historical context is the fact that diet is proven to be a key determinant of chronic disease risk and if we understand the origin of our eating habits, we have the opportunity to correct some of or past mistakes. I will be covering a period of about two centuries, acknowledging anything I

While the Native Americans introduced the Europeans to many new foods, the Europeans also introduced the American Indians to foods they had never come across. Grains

This paper looks to define and explore three books which are a crux to various food histories which in the last decade has become a scholarly journey as food history is becoming increasingly studied as a scholarly endeavor by historians where previously it was not seen in such a scholarly light. The three texts which are going to be examined are: Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food by Jeffery M. Pilcher, The Invention of the Restaurant: Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture by Rebecca L. Spang, and lastly To Live and Dine in Dixie: The Evolution of Urban Food Culture in the Jim Crow South by Angela Jill Cooley. Each of these books seek to redefine how people see their perspective topics whether it be Mexican identity rooted in cuisine, the evolution of southern food in a racially divided south, or even the concept of the restaurant emerging from a revolutionary culture. These texts bring awareness to various topics which have both social, cultural, and economic stigmas associated with them.

Corn, beans, and squash, feed Native American tribes. Buffalo however, feed those who lived on the plains of Central United states. Meals would differ depending on where they lived. Each Native family had their own resources and would cook different foods. For example, The Powhatan Indians were primarily farmers planting fields that averaged one hundred acres in size. “The Native Americans used natural resources in every aspect of their lives.” (Wells 2). Natives lived near areas that had easy access to food source. Forests were gold mines for resources. Deer, bears, and other animals that were hunted for their meat and furs lived there, while the trees themselves helped produce chestnuts, walnuts, and acorns. “In a way, the environment acted as a huge supermarket, providing local tribes with everything they needed for survival,” exclaimed John Smith

Thinking about the importance and significance of food respective to our health, ethnic culture and society can cause cavernous, profound, and even questionable thoughts such as: “Is food taken for granted?”, “Is specialty foods just a fad or a change in lifestyle?”, and even “Is food becoming the enemy.” Mark Bittman, an established food journalist, wrote an article called “Why take food seriously?” In this article, Bittman enlightens the reader with a brief history lesson of America’s appreciation of food over the past decades. This history lesson leads to where the social standing of food is today and how it is affecting not only the people of America, but also the rest of the world.

Grains such as wheat, rye, barley, oats and rice were shared. Citrus fruits, grapes, onions, cabbage, turnips, cotton, coffee, sugarcane, as well as spices and herbs, were among the many other foods and plants introduced to Native American culture. Also introduced were European religion and culture, new tools for agriculture, and new weaponry such as knives and firearms.

In the text, An Edible History of Humanity, Tom Standage provides his take on how the past was so deeply affected by food throughout the generations. The book approaches history in a different way altogether: as a sequence of changes caused, influenced or enabled by food. Standage explains that throughout history, food has not only provided sustenance but has also acted as the catalyst of societal organization, social change, economic expansion, military conflict, geopolitical competition and industrial development. As Tom Standage explains, since the time of prehistory to present,

First of all, the Thirteen Original Colonies were disparate because they had different economies. For example, the Southern Colonies, which included Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Caroline, and Georgia, were particularly known as the plantation colonies, as they had many large farms and plantations. Theses colonies mainly produced and exported “cash crops” such as rice and

In general, they were the first people to cultivate chocolate, corn, cotton, peanuts, pineapples, potatoes, rubber, quinine, tobacco, and vanilla. But, in the frozen tundra of Western Alaska, Native Americans dealt with arctic conditions. They relied on hunting and fishing. They hunted seals, whales, and other marine mammals. These animals were not only useful as food, but as skinned layers of clothing that kept them warm in such climate. However, in milder regions along the northwest Pacific Coast, the people there could produce food with very little effort. The physical environment impacted them by providing marine life for fishing. In the Southwest, some of the earliest farming societies developed. Since the environment was desert, Native Americans developed complex irrigation systems for farming. They even dug wells, built ponds, and built dams to collect rainwater to water their crops in the desert weather. All across the different regions and climates where the First American lived, they all adapted to thrive in whatever environment they were dealing

Farming was the way of life for the Indians. Indians had farmed almost all of their food products, with the exception of meats. The farming of corn, wheat, and barley were most intriguing to the Europeans. The Europeans took these new crops back to the Old World where they introduced them to the Kings. Once, the value of these crops was discovered Kings from all over the Old World funded more and more trips back to the New World. According to A. Brinkley (pg. 15), such foods as squash, pumpkins, beans, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes all found their way into European diets. With all their intriguing gadgets, the white men brought deadly diseases to the Native Americans.

Food was no exception. Wherever a tribe was located, they learned what plants would grow there and how to hunt the animals in the area. Many tribes survived mostly hunting and fishing. In the Arctic and extreme northern parts of North America, most tribes relied entirely on hunting and fishing. The reason for this was simple---nothing would grow there! Other tribes hunted mostly big game, like buffalo or carabao. Those tribes moved frequently in order to follow the herds. Almost all tribes hunted at least part of their food. Most tribes hunted deer and rabbits, and caught fish in rivers and lakes. Native Americans felt very strongly that they should not waste food, so they were careful to eat all of an animal that they killed. Agriculture, or farming, was very common among native tribes. Farming was most common among settled tribes who did not move around very often. It was most advanced in the Southern United States, where the warm climate created a long growing season. The tribes of the Southeast developed special methods for growing their food. They used irrigation, crop rotation and planted windbreaks to ensure their crops. The main crops that were grown by Native Americans were corn, beans, and squash. Corn, in particular, was a very important part of the diet of Native Americans. It was referred to as maize by many Native Americans. Most Americans of today are used to corn in shades of

October 31st is known in every American household as Halloween. Each year houses are decorated, pumpkins are carved, costumes prepared, and kids hit the streets to collect as much candy as they can. In America, this tradition is recognized as a time for everything frightening and dead. Ghosts, witches, vampires, zombies, haunted houses, jack o’ lanterns; all things associated with Halloween. Most people think of Halloween and picture faces covered in fake blood, throwing toilet paper on trees, chucking eggs at houses, grave yards, scary movies, and most of all trick-or-treating. Most people love Halloween, children and adults, but they never stop to think about how it came to be such a popular tradition in American culture, or where it even came from. Also, those who grew up

This paper will discuss the multifaceted relationships among food, and culture. I will be looking at the relationships people have with food, and explore how this relationship reveals information about them. Their food choices of individuals and groups, can reveal their ideals, likes and dislikes. Food choices tell the stories of where people have travelled and who they have met along the way.

Food writing is an industry unto itself. The book shelves bulge with myriad recipe and preparation instruction titles in addition to food essays, food memoirs, food confessionals, food mysteries, food histories and food investigations. (Let 's not even get started on the diet books.) Put the challenging new release titled Food Is Culture into the category of food scholarship. Author Massimo Montanari is a professor of food history at the University of Bologna in Italy. His deceptively small but surprisingly filling book is the latest entry in the "Arts and Traditions of the Table" series by Columbia University Press. It is no less than a history of food from the initial application of fire to the spread of McDonald 's. It is a speedy journey, like sprinting through a smorgasbord. Without lingering, emphasis is placed upon the Middle Ages, which is Montanari 's era of intellectual expertise, and particular attention is paid to the Mediterranean beltway, which is Montanari 's geographic and emotional core. While this book is scholarly in content, it is decidedly casual in its academic approach. At the risk of stating a generalization, it might be said that it is quite Italian in style. It is sleek, with no footnotes, no citations and no bibliography. Montanari is nonchalant about exact references, as in this borrowed quotation: " 'One must beware of thin people, ' Shakespeare writes somewhere." This is a research attitude worthy of slackers everywhere. And from a professor,

Globalization has played a pivotal role in determining the food that we consume on a daily basis. The typical American meal has drastically changed over the years as a result of new foods being introduced through globalization. Changes over time often go unnoticed, considering we usually do not take the time to analyze the changes that have taken place. After conducting an interview with my parents, however, I was able to see how much the eating habits in our daily lives have changed over the years. With a whole new array of foods becoming available to us through globalization, the food we eat is different than what it was years ago. At the same time, however, some foods have remained part of my family’s eating habits for many years. The prevalence of certain foods is linked to the different aspects of my life that were the same in my grandparents’ and parents’ lives too, like religion and socio-economic class.