Food, Gender and Cultural Hegemony - Kennesaw State University

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Cualli 139 wheat for bread, the staff of life. Grapes (for wine) were also essential for religious and cultural reasons. Finally, olives for olive oil to develop the savory taste of Mediterranean foods were of passionate interest. In these three foods we see major elements of the Spanish diet. First, a major noun, the bread, that was the center of every meal for all classes of Spaniards. Second, another major noun, wine, the most desired beverage, which also carried major symbolic value and distinguished the elite classes. Thirdly, olive oil can be viewed as a kind of seasoning and blending element for a dish, or following the linguistic analogy, as a syntax that serves to blend the elements of their diet together. In the case of these elements the Spanish went to extraordinary lengths to obtain these foods in the New World. On the other hand the Nahua peoples were adamantly attached to maize (their bread), beans, and chiles for both religious and cultural reasons. Chocolate and maguey (for pulque) fit into a special category since they were highly prized foods, but reserved for particular groups. The early period (Stage I: 1519-1550) was one in which acceptance of foreign food occurred primarily when there were no options (i.e. the preferred Spanish food could not be had), and the foods accepted were usually main ingredients. In these cases the Spanish would most easily assimilate a food similar to the one they were used to. For example there are many varieties of beans and onions, some native to the New World, others to Europe. Thus beans and onions were somewhat familiar and easily incorporated into the colonial diet (Crosby 172). There was no wine and the Spanish were generally forced to make do with pulque, made from the maguey cactus for dining and for communion. For example, what has been called the first Spanish banquet in Mexico took place about 1524. Pigs were brought in from Cuba and wine as a gift to the triumphant conquerors. Pork with chile was served in tacos, with hot tortillas. Wheat bread was not yet available. Still, the banquet (apart from the corn tortillas and some chiles) was essentially Spanish (Novo 29). At the same time the Nahua did quite easily adapt poultry and pork to their diet, incorporating them into tacos and tamales. [Type text]
Cualli 140 In the next phase (1550-1640) a pattern emerges in which a variety of foods similar to those common to the other culture were accepted. For example, peppers, squash, beans, a New World onion, and chiles were incorporated into a Spanish stew (to substitute cabbage, turnips, and European spices.) By 1600 the Spaniards had been able to produce wheat and other European vegetables in the New World so there was a broader range of culinary choices. The Spanish form of cooking, types of dishes, and seasoning were maintained as much as possible. Poor Spaniards (of which there were many) tended to consume indigenous foods for reasons of economy. In the third period (1640-1770) dishes appear that exhibit more characteristics of hybridity between the two cultures. The indigenous seasonings (especially various kinds of chile) became prominent in Spanish Creole cooking. Tomatoes (originally feared to be poison) began to be accepted. Chocolate was modified with sugar and vanilla, and served hot, to become a prized dessert drink. After extraordinary efforts by the Spanish, and repeated failures, grapes and olives had been successfully introduced to the New World, making a "civilized life" (by Spanish standards) finally possible (Crosby 71-73). Another important element of the analysis relates to the question of "high and low cuisine." Pierre Bourdieu refers to the differences in consumption of the high and the low as the opposition between "the tastes of luxury (or freedom) and the tastes of necessity….Thus it is possible to deduce popular tastes for the foods that are simultaneously most 'filling' and most economical…The idea of taste, typically bourgeois, since it presupposes absolute freedom of choice, is so closely associated with the idea of freedom that many people find it hard to grasp the paradoxes of the taste of necessity….[they fail] to realize that necessity can only be fulfilled, most of the time, because the agents are inclined to fulfil it, because they have a taste for what they are anyway condemned to," (Bourdieu 177-78). In part this reasoning relates to an argument Bourdieu makes earlier that "foods probably constitute the strongest and most indelible mark of infant learning," leading to sustained nostalgia and thus an innate yearning for the food of early [Type text]
Page 1 and 2: CUALLI 2013 Food, Gender and Cultur
Page 3 and 4: Cualli 128 The Spanish conquest of
Page 5 and 6: Cualli 130 examination of food ways
Page 7 and 8: Cualli 132 thousands of sacks of wh
Page 9 and 10: Cualli 134 191). There is a story t
Page 11 and 12: Cualli 136 beverage (Soustelle, 196
Page 13: Cualli 138 eaten, the context in wh
Page 17 and 18: Cualli 142 insinuated into Spanish
Page 19 and 20: Cualli 144 felicitous union. Works
Page 21 and 22: Cualli 146 Kellogg, Susan. “Hegem
Page 23 and 24: Cualli 148 Williams, Raymond. Marxi

Food, Gender and Cultural Hegemony - Kennesaw State University

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