Confront Culture: Guess Who's Coming To Dinner

Neither life nor culture can be sustained without food. On a very basic level, food is fundamentally essential for life, not simply to exist, but also to thrive. A means by which carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, nutrients, and calories are introduced into the body, food is a mechanism of survival. However, on a more abstract level, food is also fundamentally essential for culture by establishing its perimeters and dimensions and in shaping its authenticity and character. Food becomes the

Cultural anthropology is the study of human beliefs and values. It is a way of learning and understanding how humans act in different countries and cultures. Ethnography is one of the main key method used to conduct research in cultural anthropology. Ethnography is designed to observe other people’s lifestyles and understands from the people natives’ point of view. The researchers went into the area to study and learn on their own about the culture of the people instead of just reading about

The food is never just a food in the sociological perspective. The language of Food and the eating habits of an individual reflects his/her culture and background identity. Indeed, some cultures like Chinese, Mexican, Thai are well known for their food and the status of their religion. Through the lens of the first reading by Fischler (1988, p. 275) “Food is central to our sense of identity”. The following journal shapes the significance of phenomenological basis to understand the food and ideas of an individual. In contemporary world, we can relate food and the background where it comes from. The relationship of cuisines and human beings involves complex cognitive processes. According to my understanding to identify a cuisine, we need to recognize

In Jessica Harris’s “The Culinary Season of my Childhood” she peels away at the layers of how food and a food based atmosphere affected her life in a positive way. Food to her represented an extension of culture along with gatherings of family which built the basis for her cultural identity throughout her life. Harris shares various anecdotes that exemplify how certain memories regarding food as well as the varied characteristics of her cultures’ cuisine left a lasting imprint on how she began to view food and continued to proceeding forward. she stats “My family, like many others long separated from the south, raised me in ways that continued their eating traditions, so now I can head south and sop biscuits in gravy, suck chewy bits of fat from a pigs foot spattered with hot sauce, and yes’m and no’m with the best of ‘em,.” (Pg. 109 Para). Similarly, since I am Jamaican, food remains something that holds high importance in my life due to how my family prepared, flavored, and built a food-based atmosphere. They extended the same traditions from their country of origin within the new society they were thrusted into. The impact of food and how it has factors to comfort, heal, and bring people together holds high relevance in how my self-identity was shaped regarding food.

The study of cultural variation among humans and collecting data regarding the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities is the cultural anthropology branch of anthropology. (Wikipedia, 2013).

Different societies exist throughout the world and within these societies each society develops culture that works best for them. Within these cultures they pass all their acquired knowledge and traditions down from generation to generation. Nevertheless, each culture has their own way of life, own marriage beliefs, their own values and feelings on life and religious beliefs. Cultures tend to have their own way to run their government, and ways to keep their economy up to their standards. Most importantly in cultural anthropology it is imperative to value culture relativism. This is the view in which no culture is superior to other

Through the years, Native Americans adapted to the ingredients gifted to them by the government and created frybread. At the college campus Vantrease attended, frybread was used an identification method at the campus. One of the comments the author reported was, “Are you working on that commod bod?” In addition, frybread was also seen as an acceptance method on the college campus for other Natives who grew up on reservations. The most important meaning that frybread and commodity food is heritage. Through the adaption of ingredients, we can see how the culture and heritage the Natives have created.

While it is difficult to pinpoint the exact time human beings began to consume foods, for millions of years a diverse range of culinary patterns and convivial customs were cultivated. As the human dining habits evolve, food can be seen as a continuous reflection of the different cultures around the world. In fact, “food is perhaps the most distinctive expression of an ethnic group, a culture, or, in modern terms, a nation” (Flandrin, Montanari and Sonnenfeld 1999, p. xvi). The huge wave of globalisation in the past few decades made cultural exchange commonplace, however, indigenous dishes from an alien country may come as cultural shocks to people who are foreign to the certain culture. This essay intends to explain how Asian identity is expressed

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.

Humans are flexible. People tend to transform their way of life and personalities as their surrounding changes from time to time. Automatically, these changes had caused them to create new cultures that occurs in their society. Anthropologist defined culture as the way of life of people which had been learned, shared and transmitted from one generation to another by means of languages and symbols. It has been recognised as the way of life for entire society.

According to Delaney (2004) suggests that food is not biological, it is cultural. The food that is consumed shapes culture and culture shapes food and intern shapes our identity (Delaney, 2004). Counihan (1999) agrees and suggests that food is a “product and mirror of the organisation of society…it is connected to behaviours and meanings” (p. 6). The way in which food is produced, distributed and consumed illustrates power relations, gender and sex within societies (Counihan, 1999). She explains that each society has a distinct food way which structures the community, personalities and families within the society (Counihan, 1999).

Politically we are confronted with a host of issues ranging from matters pertaining to local taxation, planning, and zoning to regional (if not global) terrorism and other manifestations of conflict. The study of geography allows us to participate and enjoy our planet. Geography gives us a sense of reference to where we live and where we may be going in relationship to where we have been. Its appreciation of the world we live in. Anthropology is the study of human kind and culture, everybody wants to know where and how humans came to be. Some examples we can apply anthropology in our daily lives would be in relating to our families, friends, co-workers, in understanding work dynamics, in understanding and communicating with teens,, and in proposing new ideas, and plans. Its unique contribution to studying the bonds of human social relations been the distinctive concept of culture.

“The consumption of food, which literally becomes a part of our body, is saturated with meanings and symbolisms.”1 It is therefore important for us to find out the special meanings behind the food that we so take for granted, in order to understand the reasons for eating it, and pass these rituals onto our future generations.

What is anthropology? Anthropology is the scientific and humanistic study of human beings. So what is cultural anthropology? Cultural anthropology is the study of human thoughts and behaviors. As soon as we are born we are taught what our cultural knowledge is; what our norms and values are, as well as cultural construction and world view. Everyday we experience and encounter phenomenons that are part of our culture; without realizing it.

Anthropology is the study of what makes us distinctively human, including culture. Culture is the system of human behaviors that is shared, patterned, learned, symbolic, and adaptive. Culture is a unique human capacity, which every society has but varies considerably across them. Culture comprises the myriad possible ways that human societies allow individuals address (and allow them to fulfill) their biological needs. As such, culture demonstrates how nothing human is ever 100% biological and hence is affected by context. The job of an anthropologist is to understand how different elements of a culture complement each other and create a cohesive worldview. Because of anthropologists’ capacity to examine the cultural lens of a society, their presence can ensure that the development project has the highest likelihood of success within the unique cultural context of its implementation.