Anthropology › Section N · Anthropology of food › Topic N.3
Food and cultural identity
Few things say who we are as quickly as what we eat, refuse to eat and eat with whom. Anthropologists read food rules, feasts and lunchboxes as statements about nation, faith, class and gender, and they compare competing explanations for why those rules exist.
In this topic
- You are what you eat, socially
- Rice as self
- Commensality: eating makes kin
- Prescriptions, proscriptions and feasts
- Faith and food
- Explaining a taboo
- Worked example: weighing the explanations
- Taste and class
- Food and gender
- Worked example: reading a lunchbox
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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