Cultural anthropology and food - Research Paper Example

Topic Summary and Preliminary References Theory comes in handy in explaining or interpreting a sample of data collected during a study. Theory has always provided a framework which helps in explaining phenomena or data. The biggest challenge with theory is that it offers a scenario where people find it hard to distinguish its difference in meaning from methodology. Therefore, anthropologists have opted to use practical situations in finding out solutions to their impending problems. This paper seeks to link up the diversified existing cultural groups and their mostly consumed food.

Therefore, it will briefly examine to what extent the food consumed defines one.Food has become extremely instrumental in clearly defining the differences among the diversified cultural groupings. Like all the other known culturally defined symbols and materials, food has also served in both solidifying group membership and setting groups apart (John 2001, 161). It strengthens the cultural groupings or national identity. Food clearly distinguishes people from different cultural backgrounds. John (2001, 243) argues that the correlation of one’s consumption, belonging and identity of feeds gives one imaginations of the person he or she is.

The food consumed has been used in the western and African countries to identifying the cultural backgrounds of an individual. Although in the past language has widely been perceived as a marker of culture, food has always endured where the language is lost, or its use is limited. According to the cultural anthropologists, food has been used in observing prestigious festivals and rites. According to John (2001, 128), Korean and Americans have varied preferred food. For instance, Koreans culture can easily be associated with the inclination for moon cakes.

While that of people from America is associated with pizza and hamburger eating behaviors. Conclusively, observing the kinds of foods consumed by one, can easily tell their culture. Therefore, according to the anthropologists food and culture are inseparable. BibliographyJohn, Bodley. 2001. Cultural Anthropology. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers