Food and Nutrition Customs and Culture
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Food and Nutrition Customs and culture Second edition Paul Fieldhouse Health Promotion Specialist Manitoba Ministry of Health Canada ~ I Text © Paul Fieldhouse 1996 The.right of Paul Fieldhouse to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act Contents 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher or under licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency Limited, of 90 Tottenham Court Road, London wir 4LP. Preface ix Acknowledgements xiii Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. 1 Biocultural perspectives on nutrition 1 First published in 1985 by Chapman & Hall Food and culture 1 (ISBN 0 412 58110 8) Reprinted in 1998 by Stanley Thomes (Publishers) Ltd Food habit research 17 A food selection paradigm 25 Reprinted in 2002 by: Summary 27 Nelson Thomes Ltd Delta Place Further reading 28 27 Bath Road Discussion questions 28 CHELTENHAM GL537TH United Kingdom 2 Food ideology 30 Ethnocentrism 31 03 04 05 06 / 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 Cultural relativism 32 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Food categorization 32 Summary 48 ISBN 0 7487 3723 5 Further reading 49 Discussion questions 49 Page make-up by Saxon Graphics Ltd 3 Cuisine 51 Printed and Bound by Antony Rowe Ltd The food exchange 51 Cuisine 52 Foods chosen for use 53 Meal patterns 63 Methods of preparation 66 Recipe repertoires 69 Summary 75 Further reading 76 Discussion questions 77 4 Social functions of food 78 Prestige and status 79 Food, friendship and communication 83 Food gifts and sharing 88 Feasts and festivals 93 vi Contents Contents vii Rituals and sacrifice 100 Food and psychological security 191 Summary 104 Food preferences 194 Further reading 104 Biology and culture in taste development 198 Discussion questions 105 Food aversions and cravings 199 Summary 203 5 Food and gender 106 Further reading 204 Sexual division of labour 106 Discussion questions 205 Food -getting 109 Food preparation 111 10 Food for the masses 206 Cooking 113 Fast food - the burger culture 206 Food serving 115 Ekiben: Japanese railway food 215 Food consumption 116 Fly me - I'm hungry 223 Summary 117 Summary 232 Further reading 118 Further reading 233 Discussion questions 118 Discussion questions 233 6 Religion 120 References 234 The function of religious food practices 120 The nature of religious food practices 123 Index 249 Origins of religious food practices 125 The changing nature of religious food practices 128 Food beliefs and practices in world religions 129 Summary 147 Further reading 148 Discussion questions 148 7 Morals, ethics, cultism and quackery 150 Morals and ethics 150 Food reform, cults and quackery 155 Summary 163 Further reading 163 Discussion questions 164 8 Myths, taboos and superstitions 165 Food and magic 165 Prohibitions and taboos 167 Food, sex and symbolism 174 Taboos -.two examples 175 Summary 182 Further reading 182 Discussion questions 183 9 Psychological aspects of food choice 184 Food and emotions 185 Weight disturbances 188 Preface As someone who was trained in the clinical scientific tradition it took me several years to start to appreciate that food was more than a collection of nutrients, and that most people did not make their choices of what to eat on the biologically rational basis of nutritional composition. This realiza tion helped to bring me to an understanding of why people didn't always eat what (I believed) was good for them, and why the patients 1had seen in hospital as often as not had failed to follow the dietary advice 1had so confidently given. When 1 entered the field of health education 1 quickly discovered the famous World Health Organization definition of health as being a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease. Health was a triangle - and 1had been guilty of virtu ally ignoring two sides of that triangle. As I became involved in practical nutrition education initiatives the deficiencies of an approach based on giving information about nutrition and physical health became more and more apparent. The children whom 1saw in schools knew exactly what to say when asked to describe a nutritious diet: they could recite the food guide and list rich sources of vitamins and minerals; but none of this intellectual knowledge was reflected in their own actual eating habits. Yet nutrition education continued to focus on rote learning of nutrition infor mation and food values. The situation in higher education did not seem to be much different. The curriculum focused on physiological and biochemical aspects of nutrition, while acknowledging only peripherally if at all- the non-biological meanings of food. This, 1think, was a result of a pervading medical model of nutrition which was disease prevention rather than health promotion-oriented. Within this context it should not perhaps have been surprising that courses in sociology and psychology were seen by many students as being largely irrelevant. When 1 went to teach in Canada, a country where multiculturalism flourishes, the importance of comprehending social meanings of food and food-related behaviours was driven home even more forceably. In Britain there had been some recent interest in developing nutrition education materials suitable for use with Asian groups - a recognition of the obvious cultural differences which existed in food patterns and preferences. In x Preface Preface xi Canada I had, in one class, students whose parents came from Germany, Australasia relish insects. Fluids too come in a variety of forms: water, the Ukraine, Iceland, Malaya, Nigeria, Scotland, Norway, the USA ... the fruit juices, milk and blood; tea, coffee, cocoa, beer and wine. Non-food list seemed endless. Although the majority of these students were substances are regularly consumed; clay-eating practices among 'Canadians' they had grown up with quite different ideas of what consti Mississippi Blacks: rotted wood consumption by the Vedda of Sri Lanka: tuted normal eating habits, what foods were acceptable on what occa pebble eating by the Guiana of South America - are examples. Sometimes sions, what foods represented security, love, hospitality ... and so on. I humans learn to consume and to prefer substances which are intrinsically was fortunate to be able to teach a course which dealt solely with the unpalatable. Coffee and chilli are flavours which have become widely diversity of ethnic food habits and the cultural basis of food choice. It was desired despite the bitter and burning sensations they evoke. Rotted food from that experience that the idea for this book emerged, in which I have is appreciated by the Dusan of Northern Borneo, who allow meat to spoil tried to cover a broad range of topics in sufficient detail to provide a basic to liquefaction before consuming it with rice. The Vietnamese create appreciation of the non-biological reasons for food choice. If, as nutrition sauces from putrified materials; sophisticated Europeans hang game birds ists, we gain only a small understanding of the role of food in society, we until they are 'ripe'. may be better able to put into perspective our own concerns for the meta While the task of delineating 'what is eaten' is a far from Simple one it bolic adequacy of diets. is as nothing compared with addressing the question of 'why is it eaten?'. Human beings the world over share a common need to meet certain Food has always been much more than a source of body nourishment; it fundamental conditions for survival. One of these needs is the securing of has played a major part in the social life, both religious and secular, of an adequate diet which will provide energy and the various nutrients human groups. This book is intended to be a modest window into the necessary for metabolic functioning. While the fact of this commonality world of food and culture. In gathering material and ideas, I was faced may be so obvious as to hardly merit comment, it gives rise to an equally with an enormous range of potential topics and a bewilderingly array of true but less readily appreciated observation. The range of human nutri sources from a wide cross-section of academic disciplines and popular tional requirements is fairly narrow, but the ways in which these similar publications. The selections I have made are therefore necessarily requirements are met are hugely diverse. Vastly differing dietary personal and somewhat arbitrary, though I have tried to illustrate what I patterns, utilising thousands of different foodstuffs and combinations of see as major themes. foodstuffs are capable of achieving the same end - that of survival. It is The second edition attempts to do three things: also apparent that the body is able to call upon certain compensatory mechanisms to ensure short-term survival when nutritional needs are not • Elaborate and refine some of the material in the first edition, as a result being met. Biological adaptations have been described which act to of further reflections and in the light of more recent research and new conserve precious energy and body nutrient stores during periods of fast information. ing or starvation; similarly, metabolic adjustments help to ensure success • Add new material and expand or re-organize existing material. ful outcome to pregnancy even where the mother is not optimally Religion has been accorded a chapter of its own. There is a new nourished. These are biological mechanisms; there are also culturally chapter on 'Mass feeding' which examines aspects of food and popular learnt adaptations designed to enhance survival prospects under adverse culture, with special features on Japanese railway food, and the sub circumstances.