Download Cultural Perspectives

Cultural Perspectives
Concepts and Discussion of Culture and Food Habits
WHAT DO AMERICANS EAT?
•America is a changing demographic—and has always been so
• Defining “American food” and resolving "Who is an American?": no simple answer
•Each American ethnic, religious, or regional group has its own culturally based food habits
WHAT IS FOOD?
• Food: any substance that provides the nutrients necessary to maintain life and growth when ingested
•The Omnivores Paradox
•Self-Identity and Self-Expression
•Symbolic Use of Food
•Cultural Identity
Food
•We raise crops and livestock leading to consistent supply of similar foods
•We use these foods in cooking and other culturally specific ways
•Examples: rules on utensils, manners, sharing of food
• Food habits = food culture = food ways: the multiplicity of ways in which humans use food. Range from the biological to the
psychological
The Omnivores Paradox
•We are a flexible but cautious species. Attraction to new but preference for familiar
•The ability to use a wide range of edible foods over all of the climates of the world puts humans at an advantage
•Conserve safe food choices within a culture through ritual and repletion
•Avoid poisoning ourselves on new, toxic foods through a general caution
Self-Identity and Self-Expression
•Consumption of food means a personal incorporationpersonal reflection of who we are
•We learn food preferences from trusted or valued others (elders, valued social groups)
•These meanings are culturally dependant
Symbolic Use of Food
•Meanings from relationship, association or convention—not nutrient content
•Example: associations with bread: staff of life, breaking bread with friends, white bread as upper class status, whole wheat as valuing
health
Cultural Identity
•Collective identity with food habits associated with religious beliefs or ethnic behaviors such as ---•Religious affiliation, exclusion from group, affiliation with special worth: comfort foods & culturally specific preferences, Food
Etiquette, Commensalism
WHAT IS CULTURE?
It can be defined as the values, beliefs, attitudes, and practices accepted by members of a group or community
Culture:
•Is learned not inherited
•Changes over time
•Is passed from one generation to another (Enculturation)
•Is reinforced by isolation
Ethnicity: the term for cultural membership, a social identity
Shared behaviors, food habits, dress, language, family structure, often religious affiliation
•Common history or location
•Intra-ethnic variations
Acculturation Process
• Acculturation is process by which an ethnic group moves into another new majority society and begins to adopt the new society’s
cultural values and habits
Biculturation: A new culture seen as a complement to the original culture of origin
Assimilation:
•people from one cultural group shed their ethnic identity and fully merge into the majority culture
Ethnocentric
•person uses his or her own values to evaluate the behavior of others while regarding own culture as superior to others
Acculturation of Food Habits
•Food habits are one of the last traditions to change during the process of acculturation
•Adopting new foods or dropping traditional fools affected by available ingredients, cost, convenience, desirability
•Foods most closely associated with ethnic identity are the last to change
CULTURAL FOOD HABITS
•By looking at how different cultural groups categorize foods, we can perceive what is valued
•How to study or determine meaning of foods
•Meal Patterns and Meal Cycles Influenced by Culture
•Developmental Perspective of Food Culture
How to study or determine meaning of foods
•Cultural "superfoods,“
•Models: Core and Complementary Foods, Flavor Principles, Meal Patterns & Meal Cycles, Developmental perspective of food
culture
Core & Complementary Foods Model
Flavor Principles
•Palatability
•Pleasurable endorphins
•Disguise unpleasant tastes
•Preservation
•Cultural identity: flavor principles or seasoning combinations (complementary foods)
Meal Patterns and Meal Cycles Influenced by Culture
•Analysis of daily, weekly, yearly use of food
•All cultures dine on at least one meal a day
•Patterns within the culture define "meal" versus "snack"
•Cultural practices influence
•Feasting or fasting as eating cycle components
Developmental Perspective of Food Culture
•Social dynamics
•Globalization leads to food consumerization
•Modernization and technological advances
•Urbanization of the populations
•Migration of populations
INDIVIDUAL FOOD HABITS
•Personal preferences
•Food Availability
•Edible or Inedible?
•Consumer Food Choice Model
Consumer Food Choice Model
Many interrelated factors
•Food selection primarily determined by taste
•Also cost, local food environment, convenience, self-expression, advertising, physical and spiritual well-being, life stage, gender,
state of health, variety
Consumer Food Choice Model
Study of Cultural Applications of Food
•Cultural competence affects all aspects of data collection, interviewing, and expectations.
THE AMERICAN PARADOX
• New cultural metaphor for America: "Melting pot""Tossed Salad": separate components each still present but in a delicious,
complementary blend
A.
New cultural metaphor for America: "Melting pot""Tossed Salad": separate components each still present but in a delicious,
complementary blend
1.
Settled by immigrants, therefore a propensity towards variety and trying new cuisines
2.
Yet also a drive towards conservation and consistency of food traditions
3.
Ethnic foods adapted to mean of American varied tastes—less spice, less seasoning, more protein to the ratios of starch
and vegetables
4.
American cooking an adaptive process
A.
1.
2.
The research's cultural competence affects all aspects of data collection, interviewing, and expectations.
Problems in understanding terminology, unconscious or conscious stereotypes
Evaluating the nutritional impact of a person's food choices
3.
Diet modifications should be approached as a partnership in determining choices because food reflects value systems
1.
2.
a.
b.
c.
3.
4.
5.
6.
1.
2.
3.
a.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Many interrelated factors influence an individual making a food selection at a given time
Food selection primarily determined by taste:
Smell, texture, sweet, sour, salt and bitterness. Sugar and fats preferred
Combining core and peripheral foods, flavor principles, meal elements
What is expected is preferred
Cost often the second most important influence
Local food environment which also affects cost and availability
Convenience—how much time for food preparation and eating
Self-expression
Advertising
Physical and spiritual well-being
Life stage: teen years, elderly, growth, maturity
Developmental issues and perception of appropriate life "role"
Gender
State of health—from physical ability to eat certain foods to choosing certain foods based on perceived medicinal values
Well being and spirituality
Variety: the omnivores paradox comes in to play—humans are motivated to try new foods
A.
B.
1.
a.
b.
c.
d.
C.
1.
2.
a.
Personal preferences are influenced by a variety of influences
Food Availability
What foods are regionally available depend on a network of national and international issues:
political, economic, and social factors
food production, storage and distribution systems
commodity markets
international trade
Edible or Inedible?
One of the earliest ways to describe diet—determined by cultural understanding of what can and can/should not be eaten
Categorized into levels:
Inedible
b.
c.
d.
e.
Edible by animals but not by me
Edible by humans, but not by my kind
Edible by humans, but not by me
Edible by me
1.
2.
3.
4.
Social dynamics are paralleled by trends in food, eating, and nutrition
Globalization leads to food consumerization—we buy processed food rather than produce for ourselves what we eat
Modernization and technological advances lead to food commoditization
Urbanization of the populations leads to disconnecting what food is produced locally from what is eaten in that region
Migration of populations leads to the flux of food habits seen in acculturation
1.
Cultural practices influence:
a.
Which foods are eaten when
b.
Who prepares the meal and who serves it
c.
What is eaten from the hand
d.
What eating utensils are used
What is an appropriate portion size
1.
Feasting or fasting as eating cycle components
a.
Why is the feast being held? Religious or secular occasions
b.
Fasting as partial or total abstention from food
Another model identifies some foods as "core foods": staples eaten on a daily basis. Secondary foods are widely eaten but not daily.
Peripheral foods are eaten only now and then.
A.
By looking at how different cultural groups categorize foods, we can perceive what is valued
1.
Example: the American food guide pyramid may demonstrate our culture's valuing science and nutritional content
Food choices are not necessary made by nutritional values
1) Not usual for first generation
(2) But later generations assimilate
a.
Fluid continuum, dynamic between traditional practices and behaviors
b.
Adopt some values while maintaining old ties of friendship and family
c.
To measure acculturation, observe language adoption, social networks, information sources
Biculturation: new culture seen as a complement
Enculturation: the process by which culturally specific language and socialization uses are passed from generation to generation
When a group is isolated by geography or other factors cultural behavior patterns are reinforced
Example: not eating pork as part of religious affiliation with the group in Muslim or Jewish faith
2.
Exclusion from group: cultural slurs often are the name of food identified with a group
3.
Affiliation special worth of foods of affiliations built up from childhood associations
a.
Comfort foods because of psychological need for food familiarity
b.
Culturally specific preferences build up between 3-6 years of age
1.
Food Etiquette: appropriate use of food
a.
Defined by our cultural affiliation
b.
Manners at home versus those used in public or in a business situation
2.
Commensalism (who can dine together) regulated with cultures
a.
Relates to status issues and establishing class relationships
b.
Example: men eating separate from women, servants from employers, castes in India
Different from the physical incorporation of proteins into muscles, the sympathetic incorporation of food qualities to personal
qualities
b.
We assign characteristics to people who eat in certain ways
c.
Foods rated as being "good" or "bad" contain a moral implication
a.
Dining out is a good demonstration of how food may reflect belongingness, status, and self-realization
b.
Example: Japanese restaurants provide a venue for the host to entertain in a personal manner; trendiest restaurant can
convey high status; the ethnic restaurant conveys authenticity
a.
b.
c.
(1)
(2)
d.
(1)
(2)
a.
b.
1 out of 4 Americans is of non-European origin
1 in 10 is foreign born
Largest non-European groups are:
In US: Latinos, then African Americans
In Canada: Native Americans, then Chinese and Asian Americans
Asians are one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in US
19802000 increased by 200%
Middle Easterners are included under Asian for immigration purposes
Interaction between new immigrants and overlying American culture
Each changes the other
Core & Complementary Foods Model
CORE
FOODS
Complementary
Foods
Secondary
Foods
Peripheral Foods
Consumer Food Choice Model
Cost
Convenience
Taste
Food Choices
Self
Expression
Phys/Metab.
Variety
Well-Being
Health