The cultural significance of food and eating.

From a strictly nutritional point of view it may not much matter what you eat as long as you are getting a balanced diet in suitable amounts. So, fish, pulses, meat or eggs can equally well provide proteins; what is important is their quantity and relation to other essential components of the diet. Sociologists and anthropologists, however, recognize that, nutritional concerns aside, it can matter very much what you eat. Smoked salmon, lentils, steak or coddled eggs, might be more or less equivalent nutritionally, but they carry markedly different connotations socially. Elaboration of the cultural significance of food and eating focuses on social values, meanings and beliefs rather than on dietary requirements and nutritional values. In this paper, I have outlined a sociological approach to studying cultural aspects of eating, illustrating various facets with reference to three pieces of recent work (James, 1979; Atkinson, 1980; Murcott, unpublished results). This approach starts by appreciating that peoples’ food choice is neither random nor haphazard, but exhibits patterns and regularities. Further, sociologists are compelled to realize that eating habits are not solely a matter of the satisfaction of physiological and psychological needs, nor merely a result of individual preference. Food has also to be seen as a cultural affair; people eat in a socially organized fashion. There are definite ideas about good and bad table-manners, right and wrong ways to present dishes, clear understandings about food appropriate to different occasions. Foods themselves can be seen to convey a range of cultural meanings; the four examples mentioned earlier communicate information in terms not only of occasion but also social status, ethnicity and wealth. These meanings, however, are not inherent in foodstuffs. They depend on the social context in which the items are found. As Atkinson (1980) has remarked, a ‘mouthful of wine will convey very different meanings to the professional wine taster, the bon viveur, the Christian celebrating Holy Communion and the alcoholic down-and-out’. Habits of eating and drinking are invested with significance by the particular culture or sub-culture to which they belong.