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Food History

Since the late fifteenth century, European colonial expansion and the development of capitalism sought to reshape world diets and the relationship of humans to the land. The fundamental changes of the nature of foods between Europe and its colonials was through the slave trade because when European carried out vast population movements, they created elaborate commodity chains to feed themselves. Moreover, Europeans began to appropriate and export many food items from the Americas at the same time they introduced foods to the Americas for their own comfort and commerce. Then foods such as maize and potatoes became staple food for enslaved countries like Africans. The exchange of plants and animals had variable effects on existing social relations. New crops allowed colonial landlords to monopolize the best fields while peasants could use subsistence production to break free from oppressive demands. The movement of peoples, as well as plants and animals, were essential for the development of colonial and capitalist food systems. Over time, global commodity chains institutionalized the inequalities of a capitalist, colonial food system, in the process transforming what constitutes food. The resulting transformation of traditional agrarian regimes often violently disturbed local communities and ecologies. The boom in world markets also required the transformation of consumer tastes in the global north. Then the rise of industrial food processing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries sparked battles between reformers, workers, capitalists, and government modernizers, particular in the case of meatpacking.

Food Culture

Food culture refers to the practices, attitudes, and beliefs as well as the networks and institutions surrounding the production, distribution, and consumption of food. It encompasses the concepts of foodways, cuisine, and food system and includes the fundamental understandings a group has about food, historical and current conditions shaping that group’s relationship to food, and the ways in which the group uses food to express identity, community, values, status, power, artistry and creativity. It also includes a groups’ definitions of what items can be food, what is tasty, healthy, and socially appropriate for specific subgroups or individuals and when, how, why, and with whom those items can or should be consumed. People also connect to their cultural or ethnic group through similar food patterns. Immigrants often use food as a means of retaining their cultural identity. People from different cultural backgrounds eat different foods. The ingredients, methods of preparation, preservation techniques, and types of food eaten at different meals vary among cultures. The areas in which families live— and where their ancestors originated—influence food likes and dislikes. These food preferences result in patterns of food choices within a cultural or regional group. Nations or countries are frequently associated with certain foods. For example, the U.S uses a greater amount of canned than fresh foods while Ecuador has mainly grains and vegetables. Regional food habits do exist, but they also change over time. As people immigrate, food practices and preferences are imported and exported. Moreover, food can be imported from other countries as well. In addition to impacting food choices, culture also plays a role in food-related etiquette. People in Western societies may refer to food-related etiquette as table manners, a phrase that illustrates the cultural expectation of eating food or meals at a table. Some people eat with forks and spoons; more people use fingers or chopsticks.

Food and Symbolism

Food has symbolic meanings based on association with other meaningful experiences. An example of the symbolic meanings including food references can be found in many of our common expressions. For instance, white bread has traditionally been eaten by the upper class (also known as the upper crust – a bread reference) while dark bread is consumed by the poor. In some cultures, bread is shared by couples as part of their wedding ceremony. In the Christian religion it represents the body of Christ in the sacrament of communion. Superstitions about bread have also been documented. Greek soldiers take a piece of bread from home into battle to ensure their safe and triumphant return home. Sailors traditionally bring a bun on their journeys to prevent shipwrecks. English midwives would place a loaf of bread at the foot of a new mother’s bed to prevent the woman and her child from being kidnapped by evil spirits. Moreover, through the study of various cultural subsystems, in food it is possible to gather the information on the social system in its entirety. Eating together, for example, assigns a collective value to the extent of the meal, a symbolic representation which reinforces bonds, allows for comparison and creates relationality. The symbolic values of food are put before the circulation of messages which are anchored in society and encode ideas, habits and behavior: food makes up/constitutes the nexus between different ethnic components, cultures, environments and socio-economic structures. Each nation has certain food that represent for its country. For example, pasta is the food symbol for Italy, and burgers make people think of the U.S.