Topic:
Food
Source:
My experience of restocking my refrigerator on this
Saturday the 28th of January and the aisles of the Winco and Murphys
grocery.
Relation:
As mentioned in Robbins on page 5, “ Food is one
of the best illustrations of the differences between cultures”. In turn food is
one of the integral and revealing parts of anthropology when comparing or
examining different cultures.
Description:
After the disappointing realization of that my refrigerator
was stocked with only condiments, my Saturday plans of nothing turned into a visit
to the local supermarket. While browsing the aisles I became more and more
aware of the distinct segregation of foods (and non food items) into ethnic
groupings. Throughout the store one can find areas with a distinct theme
focusing on items that could be stereotyped as Mexican, Italian, and Asian. Each of these foci within the store contains
the appropriate canned foods, spices and even nonfood items that one would
associate with a particular culture. This
variety of food in one place is interesting as it illustrates an array of
cultures within the American populous.
Commentary & Analysis:
As I have been thinking about this division of foods into
cultural stereotypes within a grocery store, I have come to the conclusion that
this separation illustrates more about our American culture than the themed
groups of items. By this I mean that how the shelves are stocked in a grocery store,
will illustrate the construct of how that particular store has interpreted what
a specific cultures meal will look like. Due to this reasoning we have all grain
based pastas whether Italian or not grouped with all of the Italian seasonings
and sauces and all rice based noodle products in the Asian foods aisle. In turn
this could be an illustration of how a majority of American citizens view a
particular cultures cuisine. Additionally these representative constructs of
foreign cuisine also illustrate two other integral parts of American culture; wealth
and ease. The construct of money making is essentially what roots all American business
and what better way to suggest other items to be purchased than to put the
chips next to the salsa or soy sauce with white rice. In turn the cultural
grouping seen within a variety of grocery stores may be the result of the power
of suggestion and the money to be made with it. Lastly I feel that this division
of foods may more so reflect the sense of ease or laziness that is ever present
in American culture. What I am suggesting is that items are placed within these
cultural stereotypes because it’s an easy way to generalize where things should
be placed within the store. Rather than having a section for all types of rice,
most stores put rice in 2 locations with Asian themed foods or in the Mexican
themed foods. This could even be viewed as laziness on the part of the workers
stocking the shelves or a resultant of customers themselves buying items that
require the least amount of walking through the store. With both idea of wealth
and the laziness it becomes a profitable scenario to sort foods into
generalized cultures in which we as customers and as Americans can recognize
and use as a form of organization within the chaos that is a grocery store. As I finish typing this I realize that this
became less about food and more about how we as a culture organize food and
what it says about us.
