Biting into culture

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One of the interesting ways to understand the intricate web woven by culture is to approach the subject through food humans consume and what they refuse to eat, what they eat, how and in what combination and so on. Such questions provide volumes of data about the beliefs and identity of the people. Food is never just food, it is woven into traditions and social relationships. There is so much variety in it which gets extremely exciting and intricate because food has to be processed, spiced, flavoured, cooked and served in a certain order. Each of these steps have become so elaborate and refined that human beings can eat anything but there is a big restriction imposed by culture — taboos, preferences and so on.

The first meal of the day is different from what is consumed mid-day and the last meal of the day. Food consumed on festivals and holidays is different. Food offered to guests depending on their status is different from what is served to the members of the family. Quality of food easily reflects the mood of the people. Mourning food is different from the food consumed on occasions of rejoicings.

Each one of these steps is not so straightforward. Each step is preceded or followed by a set of well-defined rules and procedures and is generally associated with the rituals relevant to the people. There are also so much regional differences as well. In India, there is another important variable on account of caste. Food also becomes an identity marker. The riddle of culture cannot be easily explained, though there have been many brave attempts to do it. Of course, it can be described, but the more you get into it more baffled you become and realise that the web of culture is not as fragile as the word “web” indicates.

Way back in 1970s, I was invited by a university in the U.S. as a Visiting Professor to teach two courses on India. One, I chose was rural society in India, which for me would not have required any major preparation. For the other, I wanted to choose a subject which would allow me to learn about the American culture. I wanted to select a topic which would allow the students to talk freely. I kept on debating and discussing about it with my scholar friends and then finally I decided to talk about the anthropology of food. My rationale was that food is a topic on which people give their opinions and preferences very easily. But that was not the subject of my specialisation, though I was generally interested in it. I decided to take the challenge and began my preparation earnestly. Honestly speaking, many times I suffered with post-decision dissonance. Anyway, since I had taken the decision which was also communicated to the authorities of the university, there was no question of going back on it. There was another major reason for self-doubt and that was that basically I have been a researcher and never had any major teaching assignment. That was going to be my first major teaching assignment and that too in an overseas setting with which I was not familiar with.