Identity Are We What We Eat Analysis

During the fifth week of class Food: The Key Concepts, a book by Warren Belasco, was assigned. As the title suggests, this text is an overview of conflicting and seldom thought of elements of food. Chapter two, “Identity: Are We What We Eat?” discusses the conflicting ideas of identity. The chapter concludes that food is memory and identity, which other people use to create bonds. However, sometimes people do not eat what they are, when they are trying to make a statement. This reminds me of class, when Professor White mentioned the Japanese mothers in the internment camps. A large part of a mother’s identity in Japanese culture is to make meals for the family. This keeps the family together, making meal times mandatory, and giving the mother a role in familial bonds. In the internment camps, they were not allowed to make meals, so children began to eat with their friends, instead of their family, since no familial obligation was tied to their food. With this role taken away from them, many mothers fell into a deep depression, feeling that they had no purpose. This just shows the important role …show more content…
For example, Chinese and Indian cuisines are highly stratified. What one eats depends on their class, whether it is public or private cooking, and what region one resides in. Most of Asia is also split up into places that utilize milk, and areas that deny it. They mention the taboos found within the caste system, but I think this reading relates in other ways as well. Certain foods being forbidden due to social situations is one definition of a taboo that was spoken of in class. This also relates to the chapter 2 of the Belasco reading, which discusses cuisine and how it is formed. Apparently, cuisines are formed on taboos, and factors of what is available to those making the food. If something is difficult to procure, or not necessary, then it might become a