Social Meanings of Food and Eating

Gastro-politics
- relates to preparation, cooking and serving of food
- operates everyday in households all over the world
- also seen in community/religious rituals and as a form of political protest

Gastro-politics of brahman Hindu households
- elaborate unwritten (social) rules; maintains rank
- women cook for men, children and themselves in that order of priority
- they would also serve and through this role show preference, make statements, e.g. by keeping the best cuts of meat for their own children
- households may be extended beyond nuclear family

Typically women cook for the household/family. Although there are cases where the man of the household would do the cooking if the woman is menstruating for it is believed that she may contaminate the others if she handles food.

Argoba, Ethiopia
- it is so important for the man in the relationship to eat at home and for the wife to cook their meals that if she didn't she would be publicly ridiculed. Also, if the man doesn't come home for dinner he too would be publicly humiliated
- this means that their domestic problems are publicly shared
- people mostly follow vegetarian, grain-based diet out of economic choice
- serving guests meat (usually chicken) indicates a wish for a better relationship within the party

According to Anna Waldstein's research in a rural area of Mexico
- women would do all the food preparation
- when everyone was called into the kitchen for mealtime the men and guests sit at the table while the women of the household sat around the cooking fire

Consider the politics of seating arrangements at feasts
- a separate table for the more important/honoured guests at a position for all to see
- a children's table
- the table at which the married couple and their parents sit
- sitting to the left or right of someone at the head of the table

Food can be eaten or acquired in ways that protest against global capitalism and oppression
- movement of punks in Seattle that prefer to erat raw, locally produced food (esp. grown by themselves or associates) rather than that which is industrially mass produced. Food that has been thrown out (or stolen) is acceptable because it reduces waste and does not fuel the industrial machines
- ital food (derived from the phrase 'vital food') is natural, pure and clean food: for a Rastafarian it means no salt, no chemicals, no flesh, no blood, no alcohol, no cigarettes and no drugs (herbs are not considered drugs)
- Rastafarian dietary laws are similar to the laws followed by Jews in Leviticus 11: Fish must be less than a foot long, no shell fish or fish without scales, pork is especially condemned
- it is so important to not put the wrong thing in your body that some Rastafarians never cook in aluminum pots as it is said to leave traces of metal in the food that can get in your body, and so cooking in a clay pot is popular among Rastafarians

Food and Identity
- people are often identified by what they eat
- many native Americans identify themselves as people of corn (their original staple)
- eating with others creates a sense of solidarity and shared identity
- sharing of limited resources amongst relations deemed to have personal importance
- sharing food also means that a group of people are fuelled and nutritioned by the same substances
- the way a food is prepared may also be a marker of identity; for example, the people neighbouring the Argoba society also grow the same staple grains and to differentiate their food the Argoba specialise in stews
- the tortilla is Mexican

Seder meals: Jewish ceremonial dinner held on the first night of Passover
- begins with ceremonial read of the tale of Passover
- ritual/symbolic foods on display, not for eating
- bitter herb symbolises the hardship of slavery
- lamb/chicken bone symbolises the destruction of temples
- egg symbolises mourning
- unleavened bread shows how they had to flee so suddenly they could not wait for their bread to rise