Food and Memory

Abstract

Much of the burgeoning literature on food in anthropology and related fields implicitly engages with issues of memory. Although only a relatively small but growing number of food-centered studies frame themselves as directly concerned with memory-for instance, in regard to embodied forms of memory-many more engage with its varying forms and manifestations, such as in a diverse range of studies in which food becomes a significant site implicated in social change, the now-voluminous body relating food to ethnic or other forms of identity, and invented food traditions in nationalism and consumer capitalism. Such studies are of interest not only because of what they may tell us about food, but moreover because particular facets of food and food-centered memory offer more general insights into the phenomenon of memory and approaches to its study in anthropology and related fields.

It tastes better because … consumer understandings of UK farmers’ market food

“…What Mora seems to suggest is that meat nowadays is different. Of course, human memory is fallible and it is difficult to quantify differences in tastes over a number of generations (Holtzman 2006). Nevertheless, it would appear the lore of the markets accommodates a yearning for associations with yesteryear when food was perceived as tastier.…”

Food and traditions in the mirror of the ethnical identity and the globalization

“…Proust híres madeleineje óta tudjuk, hogy egy apró teasütemény által fel idézett emlékek vastag köteteket tudnak megtölteni (Holtzman 2006). Ám sokáig senki sem kereste a választ arra, hogy az ételnek miért van ilyen jelentôs szerepe az emlékezésben.…”

“…azt is leírták, hogy tengerpartról menekültek esetében az otthontalanság érzése a hal fizikai hiányának megtapasztalása során tudatosult (Holtzman 2006). nadia seremetakis (1994) pedig egész könyvet (The senses still) szen telt annak, hogyan jelenik meg a történelem a mindennapokban, az érzék szerveink emlékezetében.…”

“…Hasonló a szezonális gyümölcsök jelentôsége is, hiszen évrôl évre visz szatérô jelenlétük egyfajta prospektív emlékezetet teremt, és arra késztet, hogy a múltra emlékezve a jövôbe tekintsünk (Holtzman 2006). Lényeges azonban, hogy a szupermarketek évszaktól független választéka épp ettôl az élménytôl foszt meg minket (illetve fosztjuk meg mi magunkat).…”

The Multiple Values of ‘Botteghe Storiche’ Food, Urban Spaces and Memory in Contemporary Milan (Italy)

“…Issues related to food, its consumption and the connection that emerges with memory have been treated at length, implicitly or explicitly, by anthropological literature (Mintz and Du Bois 2002;Holtzman 2006, Sutton 2001. Human studies in recent years have tended to focus on the link established at a social level between food and the construction of identity (Goody 1998;Montanari 2004), gender identities (Douglas 1985;Appadurai 1988;Counihan 2009;Van Esterik and Counihan 2013) and ideas of class (Rimoldi, 2013), and on how food is viewed in contemporary society as a way of creating new subjectivities (Barberani 2012;Paxon 2013).…”