Foodways
Sources: Internet sites, various lectures, and Camp, Charles. American Foodways: What, When, Why and How We Eat in America, Little Rock; August House, 1989.
Food Metaphors: You are what you eat Eat my words
Apple of my eye Comparing apples to oranges
The best thing since little apples (sliced bread, etc.) So how do you like them apples?
Sweet as sugar Wake up and smell the coffee
Eat, drink, and be merry Drink like a fish
Peaches and cream complexion Having egg on your face
Like walking on eggshells Getting down to bare bones
Flat as a pancake Squeeze blood out of a turnip
Clam up Other fish to fry
Something fishy about that That’s a piece of cake
Let them eat cake That’s icing on the cake
Like lambs to the slaughterhouse Taken with a grain of salt
Like rubbing salt on wounds To butter someone up
That’s a hot potato Not my cup of tea
Bring home the bacon Easy as pie
Not worth a hill of beans Spill the beans
Nutty as fruitcake You drive me nuts
No such thing as a free lunch Life is a bowl of cherries
Caught with your hand in the cookie jar That’s the way the cookie crumbles
Slow as molasses Don’t cry over split milk
Cream of the crop Got a loaf in the oven
Raking in the dough Feeling his oats
Sowing his wild oats Cut the mustard
Cool as a cucumber Going bananas
A few fries short of a happy meal
Cultural Significance
Centrality of food in human experience/activity
Need to eat physiologically basic, instinctual
Need to eat well, nutritionally balanced=desirous, socially mandatory
Culture is based largely on the search and means of acquiring food
Hunter GathereràAgriculturalàIndustrial Productionà Supermarkets
But still subsistence farmers, farmer’s markets, specialty markets, international, gourmet, etc.
Dieting–big industry in America (Oprah Winfrey—national obsession)
Sometimes: “We are what we don’t eat” (diseases: anorexia, bulimia)
Other Major Cultural Concepts Connected to Food:
Apple in Garden of Eden
Raw vs. Cooked= savage vs. civilized (only humans cook, prepare food)
FOOD reflects, expresses, enacts values which are both openly attested to and privately held
Food choices reveal much about one’s values and lifestyle
Consider “Vegetarian” vs. “Meat and potatoes man”
Foodways Traditions
Often especially evident at holidays
Family recipes (sometimes secret); bond between generations
Means of bringing communities together (potlucks, church picnics)
Special décor or rituals surrounding food
Dishes, tablecloths, dining room (vs. eat in kitchen), centerpiece, serving dishes, prayers, particular seats, ways of serving, etc.
Meal events require organization, involve symbolism
Who organizes? Who has responsibility for various parts (women in indoors, men outdoors); commemorative (bring food to loved ones families at death; special foods for holidays, etc.)
Place at table often symbolic, speakers at meals (leader of prayer, etc.)
Cooks & eaters differentiated (cook often sits nearest kitchen, eats less)
Ethnic traditions—foodways often retained longer than other traditions
(among immigrants – sometimes for many generations)
Particular special kinds of foods
Wedding cake at wedding (many traditions surrounding it)
Barbecues (various recipes, styles, contests)
Homemade wines and beers (show involvement)
Thanksgiving meals (foods all from Americas)
All holiday meals (special decorations, music to accompany foods)
Farmer’s markets (often enliven communities)
Food contests (cook-offs, fair recipe contests, etc.)
“Home-made” – nostalgia and marketing strategy
Diners – icons of American culture (films, lore)