Ethnography of a Meal-- Food, Identity and Time
Anthropology
Ethnography of a Meal-- Food, Identity and Time
Is there a correlation between food categories and social categories?
This essay seeks to critically evaluate Delaney's (2010: 259) assertion that "food categories also correlate with social categories." In order to evaluate this claim, it is therefore necessary to explain what it means. In addition, the evaluation of this claim, in an anthropological context, needs be conducted through the research method of an ethnography of a meal. My argument will use the ethnographic experience of a Shabbat meal with David Horowitz's family to assess this assertion and whether it could be applied and verified through the interactions which occurred around food at this meal.
Furthermore, I will demonstrate through this ethnography that I found this claim to be true in this context. Thus my essay will explore how a Shabbat meal and the food elements within it are all food categories which correlate to the social category of identity. Identity, in this ethnography, will relate to both a religious and familial identity. These aspects of food and a religious and familial identity will also demonstrate a close tie to the anthropological concept of time. Time, in relation to these aspects is thus religious and family time. As a result, this argument seeks to portray how Jewish religious observance of the Holy Sabbath meal presents a solution to the problem that modern Western society is increasingly faced to wit: the disappearance of family time, with a specific reference to the family meal.
With reference to the statement that "food categories also correlate with social categories" (Delaney 2010: 259); categories are classifications and ways of organising things into sets. For example in South Africa we put the two events of a Braai and a dinner into two different categories. We know that the way we behave at a braai is much more informal than the way we behave at a dinner. Also, the foods we eat at
Ethnography of a Meal-- Food, Identity and Time
Is there a correlation between food categories and social categories?
This essay seeks to critically evaluate Delaney's (2010: 259) assertion that "food categories also correlate with social categories." In order to evaluate this claim, it is therefore necessary to explain what it means. In addition, the evaluation of this claim, in an anthropological context, needs be conducted through the research method of an ethnography of a meal. My argument will use the ethnographic experience of a Shabbat meal with David Horowitz's family to assess this assertion and whether it could be applied and verified through the interactions which occurred around food at this meal.
Furthermore, I will demonstrate through this ethnography that I found this claim to be true in this context. Thus my essay will explore how a Shabbat meal and the food elements within it are all food categories which correlate to the social category of identity. Identity, in this ethnography, will relate to both a religious and familial identity. These aspects of food and a religious and familial identity will also demonstrate a close tie to the anthropological concept of time. Time, in relation to these aspects is thus religious and family time. As a result, this argument seeks to portray how Jewish religious observance of the Holy Sabbath meal presents a solution to the problem that modern Western society is increasingly faced to wit: the disappearance of family time, with a specific reference to the family meal.
With reference to the statement that "food categories also correlate with social categories" (Delaney 2010: 259); categories are classifications and ways of organising things into sets. For example in South Africa we put the two events of a Braai and a dinner into two different categories. We know that the way we behave at a braai is much more informal than the way we behave at a dinner. Also, the foods we eat at
References: Delaney, C., with Kaspin, D. 2011. Investigating Culture: An Experiential Introduction to Anthropology. Wiley Blackwell. USA. pp 4-78