Sociology of Food and Eating

Tras más de veinte años de carrera internacional como primera bailarina
a la cabeza de diferentes compañías de danza del más alto nivel, creo
poseer una visión realista y objetiva de la vida como profesional en este
campo artístico, extremadamente mitificado. Ciertamente, la imagen
corporal es un elemento clave en él, que puede llevar, a través de la
presión por la imposición de ciertos cánones estéticos, hacia conductas
desviadas con sus consiguientes patologías. Entre ellas, las conductas
alimentarias son las más conocidas, pero no las únicas.
Sin embargo, el tema de los trastornos de la conducta de tipo alimentario
en la danza profesional no ha recibido todavía la suficiente
atención por parte de los investigadores y teóricos vinculados a su
estudio. La sociedad actual mantiene y divulga creencias prejuiciosas
sobre el concepto de bailarín, en especial dentro del ámbito de la danza
clásica, que no hacen honor a la verdad. Por tanto, parece urgente y
necesario aclarar la verdadera naturaleza del bailarín, totalmente equiparable
a la de un atleta de alto nivel, y acallar así los falsos prejuicios
que tergiversan la imagen de este artista escénico.
Contrariamente a la idea preconcebida existente y generalizada en
el público profano, los trastornos de la conducta alimentaria (TCA) no
son una constante en la vida de los bailarines profesionales. Es sobre
todo durante la etapa anterior a la profesionalización, en la cual el sujeto
pre-, post- o adolescente se forma como intérprete en danza, que este
tipo de patologías y conductas de riesgo aparecen con mayor frecuencia
e intensidad.
Partiendo de la asimilación del bailarín profesional al deportista de
élite, se ha realizado una revisión de la bibliografía relativa a los TCA en
el deporte y en la danza, encontrando aspectos contradictorios en cuanto
a la etiología, la prevalencia e incluso la metodología de tratamiento
de estos desórdenes multicausales.
La incursión en la temática de las patologías alimentarias en un arte
como la danza, ha abierto nuevas miras y horizontes que invitan a exPaula
de Castro Fernández
10
plorar más allá de los a priori y de los estereotipos vigentes. Es necesario
continuar en esta línea esclarecedora, que se basa en principios
de exigencia y rigor científico, aplicándolos a la investigación sobre el
universo dancístico, tal y como se viene realizando en el ámbito del
deporte con gran éxito.
El bailarín profesional, como artista coreográfico, precisa ser
definido y valorado en su idiosincrasia, y no etiquetado en base a falsas
creencias o prejuicios injustificados. Solo la Ciencia detenta el poder
capaz de contrarrestar la influencia, en ocasiones nefasta, de los medios
de comunicación y de la ignorancia del profano, devolviendo a la Danza
su dignidad.

Prefacio
Tras más de veinte años de carrera internacional como primera bailarina
a la cabeza de diferentes compañías de danza del más alto nivel, creo
poseer una visión realista y objetiva de la vida como profesional en este
campo artístico, extremadamente mitificado. Ciertamente, la imagen
corporal es un elemento clave en él, que puede llevar, a través de la
presión por la imposición de ciertos cánones estéticos, hacia conductas
desviadas con sus consiguientes patologías. Entre ellas, las conductas
alimentarias son las más conocidas, pero no las únicas.
Sin embargo, el tema de los trastornos de la conducta de tipo alimentario
en la danza profesional no ha recibido todavía la suficiente
atención por parte de los investigadores y teóricos vinculados a su
estudio. La sociedad actual mantiene y divulga creencias prejuiciosas
sobre el concepto de bailarín, en especial dentro del ámbito de la danza
clásica, que no hacen honor a la verdad. Por tanto, parece urgente y
necesario aclarar la verdadera naturaleza del bailarín, totalmente equiparable
a la de un atleta de alto nivel, y acallar así los falsos prejuicios
que tergiversan la imagen de este artista escénico.
Contrariamente a la idea preconcebida existente y generalizada en
el público profano, los trastornos de la conducta alimentaria (TCA) no
son una constante en la vida de los bailarines profesionales. Es sobre
todo durante la etapa anterior a la profesionalización, en la cual el sujeto
pre-, post- o adolescente se forma como intérprete en danza, que este
tipo de patologías y conductas de riesgo aparecen con mayor frecuencia
e intensidad.
Partiendo de la asimilación del bailarín profesional al deportista de
élite, se ha realizado una revisión de la bibliografía relativa a los TCA en
el deporte y en la danza, encontrando aspectos contradictorios en cuanto
a la etiología, la prevalencia e incluso la metodología de tratamiento
de estos desórdenes multicausales.
La incursión en la temática de las patologías alimentarias en un arte
como la danza, ha abierto nuevas miras y horizontes que invitan a exPaula
de Castro Fernández
10
plorar más allá de los a priori y de los estereotipos vigentes. Es necesario
continuar en esta línea esclarecedora, que se basa en principios
de exigencia y rigor científico, aplicándolos a la investigación sobre el
universo dancístico, tal y como se viene realizando en el ámbito del
deporte con gran éxito.
El bailarín profesional, como artista coreográfico, precisa ser
definido y valorado en su idiosincrasia, y no etiquetado en base a falsas
creencias o prejuicios injustificados. Solo la Ciencia detenta el poder
capaz de contrarrestar la influencia, en ocasiones nefasta, de los medios
de comunicación y de la ignorancia del profano, devolviendo a la Danza
su dignidad.

This dissertation explores how Limeños imagine a cohesive society and a common national identity through food, despite the importance of boundary-making to Limeños' sense of citizenship and identity-construction. Lima, Peru, is a city of divisions that run deep in its history. Its explosive urban development in the second half of the 20th century followed fault lines of differentiation of race and class. By focusing on food and its associated practices (eating, cooking, eating out, talking about food, etc.), the dissertation shows how social spaces of exception, where normal rules of behavior toward Others are momentarily suspended, are constituted in Lima. Simultaneously, it examines the limitations and possibilities of an enclave publics based on food to the construction of civil society and democratic life in the city. To this end, it combines an analysis of long-term, macro-level social and historical transformations with a phenomenological (micro) perspective focused on the materiality of everyday life, people's sense of their own biographies, emotions, identities and experiential relationships to others in Limeño society. The dissertation contributes to the scholarship focused on cases where civil society cannot exist for structural, cultural and historical reasons, but where mutual interpersonal acknowledgment might still unfold in the realm of culture-as opposed to that of politics and institutions. I put forth the following hypotheses: a. food is an important basis of socialization and a central kernel of emotions in a city like Lima; b. food is able to mediate the constant transition between the deeply private and the public in Limeño society; c. I propose that the intersection of micro and macro aspects of social life is a privileged space of investigation of why certain non-human objects, events, images, discourses (such as food) seem to wield an important amount of symbolic power that connects the personal and the social.

The triangulation of food culture, food quality and national identity is often taken for granted in the Italian case. However, an increasing number of people and institutions affect what we eat, governing how food is produced, consumed and distributed day-to-day. Accordingly, food is a dynamic and transitional field where the process of its valorisation is constantly in transformation especially through the negotiation of production and consumption as specific and meaningful sets of activities. This chapter presents a two year ethnography of commercial cooking in a Northern Italian city, considering commercial cooks as particular “cultural intermediaries” within the process of institutionalization of a ‘territorial’ version of food quality in Italy. As Bourdieu suggested, cultural intermediaries are not a group of empirical subjects, in fact they exist only when social agents have the structural chance to position themselves within the field in such a particular place when intermediation practices become possible. Observing and listening to the cooks, from the point of view of their restaurants, emphasizing the importance of recalibrating the whole production chain on the culinary moment, as well as the relevance of a thorough knowledge of how to handle or smell certain foods, clearly show that there is at the stake the possibility of building a space for new consumers geometrically calibrated on their capabilities and skills. In this line, the chapter addresses the issue of how commercial cooks take part to the social construction of food quality on a territorial basis, and to what extent they participate to redefine the nexus between national identity and food culture.

The paper present the so-called “practice turn in contemporary theory” and its possible and profitable sociological application to the field of food studies. Starting from the epistemological perspective that sees the concept of practice as the ongoing arrangement resulting from the social organization between different elements, I present a brief critical review of the research works about food culture that has drawn on a practice-based approach, in order to show how it affords to move from a “sociology of food” to a “sociology of food social practices”. Then, I discuss one particular approach offered by theories of practice, based on the category of “sociomateriality”. Finally, I briefly introduce, by way of example, the empirical analysis of the practice of professional cooking to show the potentiality of this approach. In conclusion, I will discuss the strengths and the vulnerabilities related to the analysis of food social practices, focusing in particular on the issue of symbolic power.

"But didn't you say you like chips with mayonnaise?-Ah! chips with mayonnaise is my favourite dish. Really. I celebrated my thirtieth birthday last year in a rather nice Belgian restaurant, which had quite fancy dishes, and I actually was able to order steak and chips. Which made me very happy. And it was delicious. Even though I like gourmet cooking or Asian foods, but steak and chips with mayonnaise, mmmm. Make no mistake, not all chips are alike. The ones I like best come from fritkots. Thick chips fried in good grease. I like homemade mayonnaise, but I simply love the mayonnaise of the fritkots, which is a little sweet. Moreover, the paper cones the chips come in are also important; they add their own bit of flavour. I love chips, and just talking about them makes me hungry for them."

בהיותה מרחב של קולוניאליזם התיישבותי, ישראל/פלסטין היא זירת מאבק בין הגדרות של ילידיות והתיישבות. עם השקתו של ״היין הילידי״ הפלסטיני הראשון בשנת  2008אנו עדים ל"מפנה ילידי״ בשדה היין המקומי. מאמר זה מנתח את המאבק על הילידיות האותנטית בישראל/פלסטין באמצעות ביוגרפיה פוליטית של הגפן הילידית ורשת השחקנים שסביבה. שאלת הילידיות בספרות הפוסט–קולוניאלית עסקה
בקטגוריות אנושיות דואליות — מתיישבים וילידים; אולם אנו מתחקים כאן אחר הסוכנות של זני גפן ילידיים, כגון זן המראווי/חמדאני, אשר מאפשרים לתעשיית היין הישראלית והפלסטינית לתבוע את מקומן ההיסטורי בעידן שבו הטרוּאר (terroir) קרי המקום הייחודי, מגדיר ערך כלכלי ותרבותי. מתוך עמדה תאורטית העוסקת בממשק שבין גורמים אנושיים לגורמים לא–אנושיים אנו מראים כיצד הענב הילידי עבר מטמורפוזה בשנים האחרונות בזכות השילוב המדעי בין גנטיקה, ייננות והיסטוריה. ההתמרה הזאת היא חלק מתהליך גלובלי של חיפוש אחר אותנטיות תלוית מקום, אך גם מתהליך מקומי שבו שתי אוכלוסיות נאבקות על תואר הילידיות בהקשר בלתי שוויוני של קולוניאליזם התיישבותי. כך נוטל הענב חלק בעיצוב תבנית הנוף הגסטרו–פוליטי
הישראלי/פלסטיני.

In this article, following the steps of biography of things, attention will be paid to picture few different biographies of bread, which as an object of great importance appears constantly in Nazi concentration camp prisoners’ testimonies. It raises the question why certain objects are so strongly present in memory, while others remain in the dark. By tracing bread usages and trajectories in which metamorphoses occur, I try to better understand why memory of the camp manifests itself in relation to bread and what kind of forms it takes. Topics of memory as embodied rituals and habits present in everyday life, as well as, place of bread in the narratives will be also discussed in this paper. This study is based on biographical materials

ÖZ: Seyahatnameler özellikle tarihçiler arasında önemli veri kaynağı olarak kabul edilmektedir. Bu eserler ilk etnografik eser olma özeliği de göstermektedir. Seyahatnamelerde tarihî ve coğrafî bilgilerin dışında ekonomik, kültürel, antropolojik, filolojik bilgiler bulmak da olanaklıdır. Bu eserlerde seyyah karşılaştığı toplumda kendi kültüründen farklı olan unsurları daha ayrıntılı anlatmakta ve toplumsal yapı hakkında bilgiler vermektedir. Bu çalışmada yabancı seyyahların anlatılarında farklı Türk coğrafyalarındaki yemek kültürü değerlendirilmiştir. Bu değerlendirme yapılırken coğrafi koşullar ve beslenme ilişkisi, Türk mutfak kültürünü oluşturan yiyeceklerin neler olduğunun belirlenmesi amaçlanmaktadır. Çalışmada üzerinde durulan bir diğer konuyu da gerek törensel yemeklere ilişkin ritüellerin gerekse gündelik hayata ilişkin alışkanlıkların seyahatnameler kapsamında ortaya konulması oluşturmaktadır. Çalışmada 13. Yüzyıl (Wilhelm Von Rubruk) 14. Yüzyıl (İbn Battuta, Johannes Schiltberger), 15. Yüzyıl (Ruy Gonzales De Clavijo), 17. Yüzyıl (Jean-Babtiste Tavernier) ve 19. Yüzyıl (Arminius Vámbéry) seyahatnameleri incelenmiştir. Anahtar Kelimeler: mutfak, yemek, yemek kültürü, seyahatname, Türk kültürü, Türk dünyası yemek kültürü.

Turkish Food Culture from The Perspective of Foreign Itinerants’ Perspective in Different Centuries ABSTRACT: Itineraries are considered to be important data resources especially among historians. These are also the first ethnographic works. In the itineraries, besides historical and geographical data, economic, cultural, anthropological, philological data can also be found. In these works, the itinerants give detailed descriptions of the cultural differences between their own culture and the one they have encountered, and inform about the social structures. In this paper, food culture of the Turkic world in the foreigners’ narratives has beeen reviewed. While reviewing, connections between geographical conditions and nutrition, and the foods composing the Turkish cuisine will be determined. Another issue dealt with in this paper  is to put forward the rituals and practices regarding the ceremonious foods and daily life respectively.  In this paper, 13th century (Wilhelm Von Rubruk), 14th century (İbn Battuta, Johannes Schiltberger), 15th century (Ruy Gonzales De Clavijo), 17th century (Jean-Babtiste Tavernier) and 19th century (Arminius Vámbéry ) itineraries have been reviewed. Keywords: cuisine, food, food culture itinerary, Turkish culture, food culture of the Turkic world.

Toplumsal yapı harmonik olarak işleyen bir bütündür. Bu bütünsel yapı denge eğilimli olarak devamlılığını sağlamaktadır. Denge ise toplumsal kurumlar ve toplumsal kurumları ortaya çıkaran davranış örüntüleri aracılığıyla gerçekleşmektedir. Davranış örüntüleri ve ku-rumsallaşmış davranışlar gerek makro gerekse mikro boyutuyla toplumsal yapının işleyişini düzenleyen temel unsurlardır. Bu çalışmada işlevselci yaklaşım temelinde hem devlet siste-minde bireylerin politik ve toplumsal konumlarının inşasında hükümdarlık mülklerinin pay-laşımının hem de törensel bir yemekte alınan payın ve maruz kalınan muamelenin yani daha mikro boyutta yiyecek paylaşımın gündelik hayatta iktidar ilişkilerindeki işlevini değerlen-dirmek oluşturmaktadır. Burada toplumsal düzenin tesisinde devlet sistemindeki görünüşü ve gündelik hayat pratiklerine yansıması ile paylaşım sistemi değerlendirilmiştir. Bu payla-şım sistemi genel olarak "ülüş" olarak ifade edilirken, farklı Türk topluluklarında yiyeceğin törensel olarak paylaşımı "cilik" olarak ifade edilmektedir. Bireylerin devlet sistemi içindeki toplumsal konumlarının belirlenmesinde, siyasal ve toplumsal hiyerarşideki yerinin ortaya konulmasında belirli statü ölçütleri esasında değerlendirmelerin yapılması söz konusudur. Statü ölçütlerinin aynı toplumun farklı gelişme dönemlerinde farklı şekillerde görüleceği açıktır. Bu kapsamda günümüz Kazak ve Kırgız toplumlarda toplumsal hiyerarşinin yeniden üretiminde cilik esasında paylaşım önemli bir işlev yerine getirmektedir. Yiyeceklerdeki ülüş uygulamalarını içeceklerde görmek mümkündür. Bu kapsamda Alevi Bektaşi kültüründe önemli bir yer işgal eden kansız kurban olarak ifade edilen dolu-tolu ve lokma uygulamaları bu geleneğin bir yansımasıdır. Abstract Social structure is a body that functios in harmony. This structure as a body, survives in a way having a tendency of balance. The balance could occur by means of social institutions and the behavioural patterns that form social institutions. Behavioural patterns and institu

This new monograph series pays serious attention to food as a focal point in historical events from the late 18th century to present day. Employing the lens of technology broadly construed, the series highlights the nutritional, social, political, cultural, and economic transformations of food around the globe. It features new scholarship that considers ever-intensifying and accelerating tensions between tradition and innovation that characterize the modern era. The editors are particularly committed to publishing manuscripts featuring geographical areas currently underrepresented in English-language academic publications, including the Global South, particularly Africa and Asia, as well as monographs featuring indigenous and under-represented groups, and non-western societies.