Food, Gender and Cultural Hegemony - Kennesaw State University

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Cualli 129 role of food and cuisine in the creation of creole identity and a “national cuisine”. (Pilcher ix) I. Food, Conquest and Culture The relationship of cuisine and shared meals to social organization has been noted by anthropologists as far back as Ernest Crawley (1869-1924). W. Robertson Smith (1846-94) emphasized the community bonds created through the sharing of food (discovered originally through analysis of the sacrificial meal). He argued that "the act of eating and drinking together is the solemn and stated expression of the fact that all those who share the meal are brethren, and that all the duties of friendship and brotherhood are implicitly acknowledged in their common act" (Robertson Smith 247- 48). A. R. Radcliffe-Brown saw the "getting of food" as a social activity, and underlined the social function of food in socialization and maintenance of the social system. Taking this further Audrey Richards wrote about "the way a transaction in food acted as an indicator of social relations. For example, "the preparation of porridge…is the woman's most usual way of expressing the correct kinship sentiment towards her different male relatives," (Richards 127; Goody 13). Claude Levi-Strauss and Mary Douglas looked at food and how it was processed or cooked to discern meaning and a kind of language about social relations. Levi-Strauss argued that the ritual role of fire in the transformation of food made it a "human" endeavor. Douglas viewed the meal as a ritual act that includes elements of all other rituals and constitutes a social language about identity and connection (Levi- Strauss 1970; Douglas 1971). “The autonomy of the cultural” is the core of a debate among anthropologists about whether human cultures are formulated out of practical needs and environmental availability or if they are created through “symbolic, meaningful or cultural reasons which structure utility,” (Goody 32; Magagna 65). Carole Counihan recently defined food as a “part of culture that is central, connected to many kinds of behavior, and infinitely meaningful. Food is a prism that absorbs a host of assorted cultural phenomena and unites them into one coherent domain while simultaneously speaking through that domain about everything that is important,” (Counihan 1513). “An [Type text]
Cualli 130 examination of food ways in all cultures reveals much about power relations, the shaping of community and personality, the construction of the family, systems of meaning and communication, and conceptions of sex, sexuality and gender. The study of food ways has contributed to the understanding of personhood across cultures and historical periods,” (Counihan 1513). When considering this question of food ways in the context of the conquest, it is obvious that much in the preferences and taboos in both the European culture and that of American indigenous cultures make no practical sense in terms of food. The primary food preferences of the Spanish and Portuguese and the indigenous Americans were most significantly tied to religion. In each case the primary food consumed by elites and the popular classes was sacralized: seen as being of sacred origin and importance. This was true for wheat and it was true for corn. The importance of corn to many of the food systems of the precontact New World is not news. Initially, however, anthropologists saw corn and the beginning of agriculture as related and therefore that the worship of corn had a material basis. However, anthropologists now argue that corn was for hundreds of years a minor crop before it rose to dietary, cultural and religious prominence. In addition, Christine Hastorf and Sissel Johannessen argue that maize (corn) was “an agent in the transformation of social and cultural identity” of these cultural systems (Hastorf and Johannessen 427-443). They argue that maize has had extraordinary cultural significance wherever it is grown, and that much of this significance is because it is a domesticated plant that does not exist in the wild and has not since about 3500 BC (Long-Solis and Vargas 4). Corn cannot exist without the continued cultivation of man and therefore is essentially “human.” They also argue that it was not the most economically advantageous or productive crop, and in some cases was quite precarious. Corn figured and figures prominently in the cosmology of many Native American groups and every detail about the way in which corn is planted, harvested and treated in cultural life was determined by ritual (Johannessen & Hastorf 396; Bohrer 469-499; Sahagun). The versatility of corn was significant to its cultural importance. Corn was used as a drink, porridge, and the most important ingredient in [Type text]
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Page 3: Cualli 128 The Spanish conquest of
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Page 17 and 18: Cualli 142 insinuated into Spanish
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Page 21 and 22: Cualli 146 Kellogg, Susan. “Hegem
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