Food and Cultural Interactions

Nostalgia, Tradition, Identity, Ownership, and Authenticity

all themes about food in this class and how people interact with it and feel about it.

Ethnocentrism

Judging other cultures based on one's own cultural standards. the evaluation of other cultures according to the preconceptions and standards of one's own culture (basically looking at a culture and comparing it to your own with your own as the baseline for normal)

Synesthesia

(see Dan Jurafsky & DAVID SUTTON)- food as memory → food is a sensual act
Stimulation of one's senses and intertwined with higher level thinking

Gastropolitics

Conflict arising from food as a cultural, social, historical product, as proposed by Arjun Appaduri.

Malcolm Gladwell

Podcast on McDonald's fries and their switch from beef tallow due to a campaign led by Phil Sokolof. Aligns with david suttons approach

Amanda Logan

article on Ghana and how there is high food insecurity in Africa due to colonial rule destroying the strong diversified local economy that used to exist and their policies caused chronic hunger

Sidney Mintz

Historical study on sugar, power, and food as an economic resource.

Status clues

menus: selection, "you" vs "chef", status anxiety, filler words
Differentiates between low, middle, high class restaurants
Low has higher selection and more "you" focus
Middle experiences status anxiety
High has "chef" focus

Neophilia

Preference for trying or experiencing new things.

Neophobia

Fear or aversion to new things or experiences.

Expensive tissue hypothesis

Trade-off between brain and gut metabolism, crucial for brain evolution. complementary trade-off between the brain and the gut. The brain has a high metabolic demand which is offset by reduction of the gut. Meat was essential to ancestors evolving larger brains but there is evidence for neanderthal groups that were entirely vegetarian.

Predigestion

artificial or natural partial digestion of food, especially in cases of illness or impaired digestion. Like liquid diets for those in hospice, or people without or with few teeth, etc.

Humoral system

Concept that the balance of bodily humors governs health and bodily functions.

Creolization

Blending of different cultures to form a new cultural identity.

Hominy

Food made from dried nixtamalized maize or corn.

Arrack

Alcoholic drink made from red rice wine, originating from China and popularized by British sailors in Indonesia.

Punch

Beverage likely first made by British sailors mixing arrack with lemons to prevent scurvy.