Eating and understanding

"There is no more intriguing problem in the history of food than that of how cultural barriers to the transmission of foods and foodways have been traversed or broken" - Felipe Fernandez-Armesto

The journey of different foods is not short. It combines the history, politics, migrations, evolutions of all humans. Yet we often aim to contain in, labeling the boundaries as "states", "nations", "ethnicities". To create definitions for these terms allows us to be part of something, to be on the "inside", to belong and to create or learn meaning. In a globalizing world the idea of strictly bounded cultures seems appealing: the concept maintains our identity when major shifts change the way we live in the rest of the world. However, bounded cultures are a falsity and unattainable. Bounded cultures are not realistic, considering history and our present influx of globalizing practices.

Food has become one area where many aim to maintain rigid boundaries over what is genuine. People judge who made it, where the recipe came from, and how it is prepared before they have the privilege of saying either Yes or No to its "authenticity". But the term authenticity is drawn by us, it paradoxically changes but maintains rules and regulations. Looking to history so much of what we enjoy around the world is technically inauthentic, yet we accept and reject things based on certain criteria. A global culture, as some believed would occur, has not necessarily evolved from globalization. There is a higher degree of intersection between cultures and groups that historically may not have influenced each other; this creates a series of new identities, but not really a single global culture. The local influences have and will continue to change how the global is represented in reality.

It is clear that definitions and boundaries are still required to some extent - we need prototypes, otherwise trying to identify anything would be chaos! Not all creative liberties will be accepted - re: the sushi corndog, the nacho donut - But, the extent to which we keep our walls up around certain ideas does not account for the evolution of cultures, and certainly isn't beneficial for tangible food experiences.