Food Culture Eating and Society Essay

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A sociological perspective places food and eating into a broader context, taking into account historical, cultural, political, and economic variables. Although there are some crossovers between the sociology of food and the anthropology of food, the sociological perspective is unique. In particular, sociology remains concerned with issues like race, class, gender, and power in societies. The sociology of food in part demonstrates how food and eating can reflect existing social stratifications and hierarchies or create new hierarchies or caste systems. Food, from the way it is produced and distributed, to the way it is priced, processed, packaged, and served, involves a series of structural and functional relationships not just between individuals but organizations and institutions. The relationships between individuals in a family or community can be impacted through different roles regarding food, as when the hunting, gathering, preparation, and serving of food is a gender segregated activity. Moreover, the sociology of food can help to illuminate the political factors involved with food regulations, testing, and subsidies for specific food industries. I am interested in all of these issues in the subject of the sociology of food and look forward to exploring each in greater depth.

I am struck by the vastness of this topic and feel that it actually could be one of the most important issues of our time because of the importance of food to basic human survival. Food has always had a political component, as well as an economic and social one as well. The politics of food is evident in such things as the differences between how the wealthy and powerful can and do eat versus how the poor eat. Ironically, I believe that poor people around the world often eat tastier food than wealthy people.

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The elevation of street food and food truck food to a trend shows how the existing social class hierarchies can be transcended consciously. At the same time, poor people around the world also tend to have access to lower quality oils and other ingredients that may render their food products less nutritious or even dangerous for everyday consumption. The result is that health and wellness reflect social stratifications and unequal power distributions in a society. Whereas wealthy people can afford to travel and eat street food at will, poor people cannot afford to eat haute cuisine.

Another angle of discussion in the sociology of food is related to gender segregation and gender inequality. Patriarchal cultures almost universally stratify labor according to gender, with women being assigned roles related to food harvesting, food preparation, and cleaning up but not necessarily to eating the fruits of their labor. Women in patriarchal societies are expected to labor throughout the day to feed their families—in many cases without receiving wages—and yet are also expected to feed their husbands and male children the choicest cuts of meat or the largest portions. Even in more technologically advanced societies and societies in which women work outside the home, food-related duties often remain gender segregated, with women….....

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