Food and Culture

What's the beef with pork?

Distinction:  a Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste an article originally published in 1979 by Pierre Bourdieu What is "taste"? "Pierre Bourdieu famously wrote that “taste classifies the classifier (1984, 6),” and this insight has become essential to understanding contemporary American food cultures." Taste and flavor, are not the same.  A chip can taste salty, but the flavor could be barbecue, ranch, or cheese.  But there's another level of understanding when it comes to taste, and that is socio-economic, gender specific and value rich. We can look at chocolate for example.  A Caramello bar is a $1 item, most anyone can afford it, so it is not considered a luxury item.  But then we look at a chocolate bar made by Vosges in Chicago: "Our new generation of caramel filled bars will have you swooning at first bite. 72% cacao dark chocolate surrounds the molten, salt-spiked, soft caramel center. If you are a newcomer to the addictive combi

Toward A Psychosociology of Contemporary Food Consumption an article originally published by Roland Barthes in 196. What is "psychosociology"? Psychosociology  or  psycho-sociology  is the study of problems common to psychology and sociology, particularly the way individual behavior is influenced by the groups the person belongs to. "Economic factors played less important role in changes that have taken place in middle class food habits in the last 100 years than changing tastes." - M. Perrot, 1953 Sure, food is fuel for our body.  But is that all?  With the development of advertising, food can be catergorized not just for it's namesake (beef/steak), but it's gender (masculine), it's nutritional value (protein), and it's socio-economic status (rich).  Meaning, who eats steak? Images and language evoke meaning.  We use concepts to make sense of our values, needs and worldview.  For example: is this food? For many cultures, insects ver

Why Do We Overeat? an article originally published in 1971 by Margaret Mead. Who was Margaret Mead?  Margaret Mead  was an American cultural anthropologist who featured frequently as an author and speaker in the mass media during the 1960s and 1970s.    Mead was a communicator of anthropology in modern American and Western culture  and was often controversial as an academic.  She  primarily studied gender within Western cultures versus Samoan and New Guinean cultures, but also Jewish American cultures as well.  She was highly regarded as a biased source of researched anthropological materials. "Most Americans find themselves in the ambiguous situation of having to fight for what they enjoy - of feasting and then guiltily fasting in order to be good." Food is everywhere in America - we are not a nation that lacks the abundance of food.  But we aren't taught how to "eat"?  Is three square meals a  day a working model today in our society?  How do we eat wi