Introduction
The cultural meanings of the process of eating began to form in primitive society. In those distant times, primitive people, eating a slaughtered animal, seemed to join nature, adopting its power. It was believed that all the strength and power of the animal passed to the person who ate it. Eating plant foods was also understood as dissolving into nature, of which man was thought to be a part.
Symbolic Meanings
With the advent of religious beliefs, people began to fill food with even greater symbolic meanings. Religious dogmas and nutrition traditions greatly impact the formation of certain ideas and food, forming special symbolic meanings. In almost all religions, sacrifices to the gods were carried out with the help of certain foods. All this eventually developed into certain rituals (Edensor, 2020). Observing this or that ritual, a person acquires a sense of unity with his culture. In addition, certain values and ideals are laid down in a person with which a particular ritual is associated.
Culturological Meaning
Taking into account the culturological meaning of food, it is especially important to note the globalization trends in this process. The ubiquity of fast food – hamburgers, cheeseburgers, and carbonated drinks- leads to the unification and simplification of the nutrition process. A person is less and less aware of himself as a part of one unique national culture. The traditional meanings of a collective, measured ritual of eating with an obligatory conversation at the table, and friendly communication, are destroyed by the fast American model of simple saturation. From the point of view of cultural studies, such a model of nutrition speaks more about the absence of global roots, the absence of deep moral guidelines, and not about the convenience of the process (Edensor, 2020). In addition to the fascination with fast food, one can note the growing popularity of some national food traditions, primarily Chinese and Italian.
Cultural Self-Identification Nowadays
Nowadays, cultural self-identification is not only the adoption of a certain life position, worldview, or value system. People understand cultural identification as the correlation of a subject with the world of culture in which he is born, lives, and functions. Identity is an integral part of the individual’s self–concept, which one feels belongs to a special social group or community. The leading attributes of the latter are language and culture in general. There is a lot of writing about the nonverbal “language of food” as the most important code of culture (Edensor, 2020). These codes are refracted in religious, historical, and national features. In the process of cultural identification, traditions, and innovations, “one’s own” and “someone else’s”, are individual and public (Ellis et al., 2018). Modern man identifies with his people’s cultural and historical traditions but is also guided by new ones, particularly those related to the nutrition culture. Those originate in everyday, religious-ritual, magical customs of the past. The polyfunctionality of food has now become so obvious that it has pushed the interpretation of it only as a means of satisfying physiological needs and turned it into a means of cultural self-determination.
Cult Object
Now food has become a kind of fetish, a real cult object. From an object of physiological pleasure, it has become a condition of prestige and a sign of social status. Various reasons explain the real boom in interest in food, but to clarify them, it is necessary to determine its functional significance in the context of culture. The existence of food and “eating” is inherent in the culture itself (Ellis et al., 2018). They have long since turned from a means of satisfying our physiological needs into a cultural phenomenon that appears in various meanings.
Identification Process
Food accompanies all significant events in a person’s life – holidays, religious ceremonies, weddings, and meetings. The history of culture and everyday life of various peoples involves using a traditional set of food products and the traditions of their use, characteristics of different cultural subjects relevant to them (Ellis et al., 2018). Including the subject in the process of cooking and consuming food allows him to feel part of a social whole, with the ethnic and religious characteristics inherent in the latter, morality and etiquette. Thus, food is the most important means of awareness of cultural identity in the social space. The national and ethnic peculiarities of the attitude to food and its consumption form the distinction between “one’s own” and “someone else’s” (Ellis et al., 2018). In this case, food passes from its existence into the plan of a person’s spiritual and cultural existence. One should not forget the gender approach to the identification process through culinary preferences. Scientists note that newborn boys are fed more, and girls are talked to more. Nutritionists support the gender approach to food; it is believed that women need fewer calories than men. Food with a high protein content leads to weight gain, primarily in women.
The Cultural Potential of Food
The cultural potential of food, as a process, can become the basis of a dialogue between representatives of different cultures and faiths. Eating together has always been an act of consolidation and identification of individuals as a kind of community. It was not by chance that one of the manifestations of the democratic traditions of republican Rome was a solemn dinner with a public character (Ranta & Ichijo, 2022). Moreover, it is not for nothing that the ceremony of welcoming a guest from ancient times to the present day is the offering of “bread and salt”. Consumer society inculcates the cult of the human body, using various means, including food, to meet its needs. Pleasure in the postmodern era forms an indulgent person for whom pleasure has become the principal value. The more pleasure he receives, the higher his prestige, both in his own eyes and in society. This, in turn, provides the latter with many opportunities to manipulate the individual’s desire for gastronomic pleasures.
International Cuisine
Every day, more cafes and restaurants with Eastern or Western-oriented menus are being created worldwide. The development of international cuisine makes it difficult to identify a person in their own ethnocultural space, imposing various exotic dishes such as sushi, puffer fish, crocodile meat, and others on the consumer. At the same time, nutritionists tend to believe those products are useful to a person, the raw materials obtained not in an alien but in a relaxed environment (Ranta & Ichijo, 2022). The development of international tourism also contributes to the oblivion of domestic food traditions. The “Man of the World” brings a variety of impressions from foreign trips and food and culinary recipes that he likes to surprise his friends with exotic dishes.
Conclusion
In conclusion, analyzing the cultural specifics of nutrition, it is necessary to consider the following important provisions. Food is not only a biological process but also has deep cultural roots. Food’s cultural meanings differ in different national cultures and world religions. However, they are all united by the sense of cultural integration and awareness of being part of a certain society with its foundations, traditions, and morals. Unification of the eating process can negatively affect the expression of cultural identity, erasing the boundaries of one’s own and someone else’s.
References
Edensor, T. (2020). National identity, popular culture and everyday life. Routledge.
Ellis, A., Park, E., Kim, S., & Yeoman, I. (2018). What is food tourism? Tourism management, 68, 250-263.
Ranta, R., & Ichijo, A. (2022). Food, national identity and nationalism: From every day to global politics. Springer Nature.