Indian Ocean

Cooking Cultures: Convergent Histories of Food and Feeling a review

The circulation of the material in the Indian ocean or in any part of the trading world has been
a sphere where the objects in question are not merely traded or exchanged in mere
quantitative ways. The material is consumed in not just its physical sense but also in all its
attributes that come with them, especially in the case of something as crucial as food and
cuisine. Food is a process of bringing in different identities and creating a pot pouri.
Sometimes it so happen as we will find out, it also serves to heighten one’s own markers for
culture and becomes a home for one’s self and identity which can be referred to and which
one can partake in repeatedly. But even then this mash of a culinary process serves to
disenfranchise certain groups and also has aspects to it that exclude. The self also becomes
grouped in the mass which dictates and is also dictated by the national structure which is in
this century one of the most passionate and effective markers for subscribing to a certain
genome.
Plating the food
From the Market to the Kitchen and Table Food and its Many Meanings in Dakar1- María
Guadalupe Aguilar Escobedo

Maria’s chapter must be seen in its two core elements: one of the public and the other private.
Here the interaction she sets out to detail has tremendous implications on the lives of the
Senegal populace where livelihood is gendered and mutuality is observed. It is the process of
how food itself is mediated in the public. How it is bought and sold. The market is both a
place of transactions as well as a place of cultural and societal experiences.
Her chapter starts off in the market, at the heat of this hustle and bustle is the role that women
have play and the space that they are able to create for themselves. It’s this detail which is so
crucial to understand the intersectionality theory whereby the gendered roles are not just
merely a listed hierarchy. Here an interplay of various choices and economic considerations
are seen. Let’s look at some of the examples that she gives to understand a complex cultural
and social place, as paraphrased;

“This is because the price of merchandise in the markets, except for the ones with fixed price, is subject
to bargaining.”

“The market is where they share and exchange life experience and advice, and work together to build
common strategies to fight scarcity.”1

The market is both a place of independence and mobility for women, where they can actually practice
and construct the social dynamics of the place and their own private lives through economy. Food
becomes not just a mere consumption commodity, but a means of generating livelihood and spaces for
women to at least have some control over. The market sustains both the material needs of the women
and their families but also emotionally gives support to their own highly gendered lives where men
dominate much of the public life. A role that is increasingly threatened as the overfishing of the nesting
pools in the region mostly by foreign( read european) fishing trawlers has greatly burdened the already
unsustainable occupation. The problem isn’t just illegal fishing, but also unreported and
unregulated fishing by companies that do have fishing licenses.2 Such events only complicate
the difficulties faced in the selling of fishes in the market as the men who catch the fishes
directly have a link with the women in the market selling their products.

Positions and roles are something which play an integral role in this process of procuring of
food from the ocean to being prepared and plated on the dinner table. The market showed us
this vivid men and female interaction in public space and at the same time a deep divide in
their roles. Men went out fishing while women sold the produce. Thus, the food by its own
virtue creates certain rights and wrongs ascribed to the gender relations.
A central place where this this position matters is that of the kitchen and the way food is
shared and eaten. The chapter discloses on the space that is generated either by compulsion as
in the case for women in the market place or due to a long drawn out development in social

1 Banerjee-Dube, Ishita. 2016. Cooking cultures: convergent histories of food and feeling, p.162.

2 Zach Campbell, EuroNews, 2018, http://www.euronews.com/embed/453816.

habits. The kitchen is both a place of support and seclusion. It gives a space where the woman
dominates and has utmost control over. The food after all being prepared is seen as something
which has feminine aspects to it that makes it less than inviting for men who are supposed to
preserve their masculine virility and such spaces deprive them of that. The division of the
feminine object and the masculine is very perceptive in regions as mentioned by Maria.
Utensils as it stands alone are seen with cultural connotations, they signify the role of women
in the region and at the same time something which is in parallel to what attributes concern a
man. Identities are shaped in such situations. The references to advice and statements such as
those like, ‘If the woman knows how to cook, her husband will never tire of her’ give
indication of the role which is both a material satisfaction as well as an emotional and abstract
one.3 We need look only back to our own borders where the women is told time and time
again of being able to cook and satisfy and placate her new family members. Food seems to
have gained by these very practices a role of cultural and identity importance. The sharing of
food, to the types of marriage that is practised give rise to certain tropes that dominate a
society. It is from this position that a woman is seen to be able to barter some share of her
rights and affection from her husband. The kitchen gives her the ability to form bonds and in
doing so create stability for her life. Food becomes a ground where people can exert pleasure
and displeasure with one another and also allow social bonds to be formed or restrictions to
be created. It is gesture which is rooted in both a desire to indicate societal differences in
wealth, health etc, and also to express solidarity within the commune. To cite Carole
Counihan’s statement with regard to food and eating.
‘Food choices’, she writes, are not simply based on what one eats. Eating is the end of a process
involving many other aspects linked to food, such as cuisine, the food elements used and rules for their
combination and preparation; etiquette and food rules, the customs governing what, with whom, when
and where one eats; taboo and symbolism linked to food . 4

Exclusion at the same time is seen when the values and roles attached are not followed or
deviations happen. The seclusion of an entity gives reason to believe that he/she has been
made an outsider at the greatest length or has a conflict in position and relationships with the
members of the society. It this interplay of gender roles and spaces where food is perceived
differently for boy and girls. The consumption and the preparation itself being highly
gendered, with the eldest son having a position of being the head of the table and where the
family is supported by the mother, who is seen as the nurturer of their peoples. Maria
highlights the role that women has over time played in most of the societies whereby her role
is highly seen as the nurturer, not the provider but as something which complements the role
of men. It goes deeply into gender relations where things that are taboo, are decidedly so
because of their implications in both the preservation of the dominance of men themselves
and at the same time enforcing the nurturing aspect of women in family roles.

To Allocate Taboos in Food

What is Human? Anthropomorphic Anthropophagy in Northwest Mozambique- Arianna
Huhn

3 Banerjee-Dube, Ishita. 2016. Cooking cultures: convergent histories of food and feeling, p.167.

4 Luraschi, Moira. 2013. ‘Food and Identity of the African Diaspora in the Postcolonial Literature’, The Nordic
African Institut. Available at: http://www.nai.uu.se/ecas4/panels/121-140/panel-134/Moira-Luraschi-full-paper.pdf,
accessed on 1 April 2013, p.19.
When in the earlier chapter we talked of the needed interaction to carry out societal functions;
with the method of work done so in cohesion and in groups and the means of expressing
sentiments through the sharing of food or denying them with others, we indicated measures
which bridge relations. Food becoming an extension of goodwill and social coherence. If so
Huhn’s chapter shows how the same moral goodwill can be in turn used to underpin a clear
demarcating of what one finds immoral. It’s the same principle which governs much of our
day to day practices. Considering that most items tabooed in one society are permitted fare for
many others, the question naturally arises as to why specific foods are implicated when,
where and by whom.5 Huhn tries to give reasons for such implications, as rightly put that
food germinates in itself a place to consume and become attributed with all the values
ascribed to the consumed object. Herein we delve deeper into the inclusion and exclusionary
role that food plays in shaping both individual identities and the collective too. As Huhn
mentions, the consumption of food awakens the experience of social events and thus associate
such relation to food as being markers of certain traditions. In her detailed chapter it’s this
relation between the somatic aspect whereby a certain consumption of materials is considered
to be culturally and socially acceptable, even cherish able, while at the same time certain
consumption of items are outright seen as markers of savagery. The notions becomes crucial
as the deviation from the prescribed habits, in our case food, leads to one being unfit for being
socially human. An example given is that of the idea of halal food and the principle behind
the lack of purity in foods prepared under incorrect ways. Lets give a direct example now, the
dalit case and his/her dietary significance in being ostracized.
“Even a superficial view of the food taboos of the Hindus will show that there are two taboos
regarding food which serve as dividing lines. There is one taboo against meat-eating. It
divides Hindus into vegetarians and flesh-eaters. There is another taboo which is against
beef-eating. It divides Hindus into those who eat cow’s flesh and those who do not. From the
point of view of untouchability the first dividing line is of no importance. But the second is.
For it completely marks off the Touchables from the Untouchables.”6
Food is after all as we learned earlier, a means to show and accentuate bonding between
people and groups. It is as in this case, something which is highly a case that transcribes
morality. Sense of community is inarguably a part of individual identity everywhere in the
world, as is a sense of the personal self, with each society balancing differently in emphasis
between the two.7 Thus, what does Huhn posit anthropophagy within the African continent?
The answer is quite particular. Whether psychical or physical, anthropophagy in Africa is
typically conceived to involve a callous accumulation of vitality for one’s own personal
benefit, and so the emplacement of oneself and one’s own wellbeing above that of others in
the community.8 Here we find what one calls biopower of Michel Foucault’s stress on the use
of various tools to subjugate the masses. The act of eating human flesh is by no means merely
a physical act, it can even be seen in the spiritual sense. Hence, the act conforms not merely to
uphold dietary restrictions but also to uphold morality within the society. So much so that
physical harm on those accused of being sorcerers or witches, i.e. those who practise the act

5 Banerjee-Dube, Ishita. 2016. Cooking cultures: convergent histories of food and feeling, p.180.

6 Ambedkar, BR (1948) The Untouchables: Who Were They and Why They Became Untouchables? In: Dr.
Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings and Speeches (vol. 7). India: Government of Maharashtra, 233–379.Available
at: http://www.mea.gov.in/Images/attach/amb/Volume_07.pdf(accessed 6 December 2017), p.318.
7 Banerjee-Dube, Ishita. 2016. Cooking cultures: convergent histories of food and feeling, p.181.

8 Ibid., p.183.
of “consuming” the flesh, is seen as a securing of normal societal functions. The identity of
the individual is then a product in its moral consumption, Social control as Huhn puts it, is
something that food habits allow to be examined in how we segregate those in supposed
harmonious relations to those that seek to disrupt the uniform structure.
Huhn did an interesting field study on the Metangula region and its people with a largely
personal interaction over this issue of sorcery(mfiti) and the extent to which it affected one’s
identity and social life. A clear desire then comes to invoke an outward projection of one
being a good natured person. This included maintaining friendly relations with family and
neighbours, assisting others in need where it was possible to do so, attending all
neighbourhood funerals (a sorcerer would not feel remorse and thus could not mourn), and
avoiding the conspicuous and inequitable accumulation of material wealth.9 Steeped in such
traditions, it is not surprising that the taboo of eating animals with inclinations similar to
Human beings are seen. Animals such as primates, lions, snakes, dogs, etc, become too
human in their behaviour to warrant an appetite for their flesh. This is something which is
exceedingly important when we discuss this fear of the sorcerer who is bereft of all human
positives and compassion but is seeking only personal gratification and power. An individual
is something then who is not just concerned in his/her own interest, but helps to build the
society. This atmosphere of group building as we have seen in both the chapters, this one and
the other above chapter, converge into the masses. A point can be made then of what an
individual identity is to do in such collective situations. As Huhn puts it, ostracization could
be worse than death for atleast in death one becomes part of the ancestoral myth, which is
absent in case of people indulging in anthropophagy.

Making and reliving memories

Ras el Hanout and Preserved Lemons Memories, Markets and the Scent of Borrowed
Traditions- Jean Duruz

The earlier discourse we tread upon was on the notion of understanding what constituted the
self in relation to the whole of society, how its role was determined by interplay of values and
beliefs. Now Duruz takes us to the realm of the senses and how these senses are brought
along into “foreign” lands to evoke a similar memory from the native place. A path to both
find and create Ras el Hanout, both in the real culinary sense as well as in the cultural sense.
Duruz sites many accounts of people from all walks of life, mostly from those who are
diaspora, who in their need and want for homely comfort create spaces of familiarity. Even
then, it also talks about the complex nature of identifying a cuisine that is singular as such. A
national identity becomes a varying mash of tastes who have intermingled due to the
porousness of borders and cultural sentiments. As one account would have it,
“The thing was that in Egypt we were a huge Jewish community. Not so much huge as varied … a
mosaic of Jews from mainly the Middle East, Ottoman Empire, North Africa. We weren’t just an
Egyptian community. … People ask me why I don’t do a book on Egyptian food, but this is what we
were. We were a mixed community in a mixed country.”10

9 Ibid., p.196.
10 Banerjee-Dube, Ishita. 2016. Cooking cultures: convergent histories of food and feeling, p.203.
It argues for in this case, of the building of a national character over a period of time. What once was
foreign can become second nature in the process of assimilation and acculturation. As Duruz mentions
to Chamber’s reason behind the idea of a reimagined cartography where there is a break in modern
sensibility of a national border, I.e. a physical and mental barrier which can be navigated using many
routes. This is a route not wholly defined by the ‘norm’ of national belonging; this too is a
route that endorses the legitimacy (rather than the deviancy) of that ‘mixing’, within rules of
cuisine and commensality that predate the ‘modern.11 This commensality is key for the
discourse which we are talking about, the cosmopolitan nature that if it develops lies in
experiments of rejection and adoption. It sometimes also lies in the base of building a myth,
which in our current understanding can take on negative shades of cultural appropriation or
exoticization of the otherwise mundane object of some culture.

This myth and the senses of sound, the lights, smell and tastes varied in texture can allow for
a national character to assume new tones. It is a terrific example that Durez gives of the
experiments of Julia Child, an american woman, who tries in her curious and excited
encounter with food in Paris, France, that she becomes enraptured by it. This leads to the
utmost popular book, mastering the art of french cooking, which along with her own show in
television had provided a new found curiosity in an Alien land to tackle the complexity of the
French cuisine. She was not alone, writers, critics, food enthusiasts, Chefs, etc, from U.S.A.
were in full vigour to unravel the French sights and beauty. However, the quintessential
aspect of a french image becomes quite narrow and seems to have been merely confined to
the wines and french bread, a certain exotic view of things as Durez puts it. This is true in any
cultural experience. People create an image which rests on both myths and truths.
This is where we come back to Jean’s hunt for the trail of Ras el hanout, the spice mix which
as described, changes its nature on the routes that it takes. It is a nod towards the caravans of
merchants who have each brought a new identity to the mix by means of acculturation. Thus
when we read the myth of the spice mix and its ingredients numbering in twelves to even upto
the hundreds, it only indicates the process of mixing new regional routes and peoples.
Thus, the ras el hanout is a hint towards a hybrid culture, something different from the normal
national directive. In this Ann Mah’s accounts of Paris and France differs from the generic
trail of bistros and cafes steeped in wines and baguettes. Instead she gives a new dimension to
her role as she shows a newcomer’s experience with very different cultural ties as her being a
Chinese American. Her accounts of China are not merely picturesque but also deeply personal,
with feelings of loneliness, a mixed feeling of this Frenchness whose colonial endeavour in
french Shanghai had brought a hesitance to her experience, or even her affinity to the working
class people as her speech entails;
‘On a late summer evening, we stood at the counter drinking red wine produced by the brothers at a
cooperative in Aveyron … . The twentieth, with its shop-signs in a mix of Arabic, Vietnamese, and
Chinese, felt very different from the hushed polish of the Left Bank, not a gleaming tourist attraction
but a quartier populaire, a working class neighborhood’

It removes from the exotic and gives new light on the common day to day space for new
immigrants to a nation. Food after all signifies acceptance and with it the various strata of diet
for various people. This national character then becomes as Durez returns to her Australian
roots, a very porous one. After all, food steeped in otherwise traditions are to be seen as part
of modernity when adopted as globalization and cosmopolitan are seen in progressive light.

11 Ibid., p.204.
Creating a national cuisine
Culinary Myths of the Mexican Nation- Sarah Bak-Geller Corona

While Jean Durez’s chapter gave us clues to how cuisines become part and parcel with many
variations in one region to another, this one is of a different nature. It doesn’t talk about the
inclusionary role that food provides as a ground. Instead it focuses on the imagined nation, the
building of a national identity. Now, it can be said that by its virtue nations build a character
on those it sees closest and most acceptable, something that is morally similar to their own.
But at the same time it can act to serve a very narrow interest with problems of representation
of various identities. This is the issue of creating a coherent national identity and to relate the
individual with the nation. Food here in our case of Mexico becomes very important. The
Mexicanidad or the belief and adherence to being a mexican in the modern sense is what is
being discussed in the chapter. A dichotomy is after all present in such cases of colonial
population still present and lingering in the demographic scale. A modern nation after all as
Benedict Anderson pointed out has to be imagined not only in the political sense, but in one’s
own conscience. A nation after all supposed to the representation of all that its inhabitant
adhere to and in our case, eat. The construction as evident in the chapter can be largely seen
as a way to accommodate the new reality of a modern nation with a divided past mostly on
cultural and ethnic lines. There food becomes a tradition inherent in being Mexicanidad, it is a
heritage of sorts starting from the Axtecs to the colonial and then to the current age.
This is what is being highlighted here, a shared history in food; items such as maize, vanilla,
tamales, etc, all become a lineage of cultural assimilation and development. Whether these lie
in truth is a whole another matter. Mexican cooking, represented as the product of the
harmonious fusion of Aztec and Iberian culinary cultures, became the favourite image for
illustrating the process of mestizaje (mixedness) between Amerindians and Spaniards. At the
end of the Mexican Revolution (1910–21), mestizaje became the dominant political and
cultural ideology. Official policies and revolutionary intellectuals sought to eliminate racial
and social differences that had led to the armed struggle in 1910, and promoted a new social
category in which the Creoles and Indians should converge: the mestizo.12 What we see here
is a clear conscious effort to share food between period and races. Of the colonized and the
colonizer. In our first chapter we talked of the need to place food within social context where
sharing is seen as a way to bond over. We share food with those that concern us, it is a moral
gesture. It is a gesture that is rooted in the Indian ocean context too, as we see food habits
accommodate new arrivals. Its a sort of a barter system, where we exchange ideas and goods.
Thus, the cities today are seen as cosmopolitan due to the presence of an accepted diverse
options. However in the case of Mexico it also limits the role of divergence and conflicts.
Food after all have values as we have seen. Communities differentiate themselves on the basis
of food too. The construction can be seen when we look at the sources provided in the chapter
questioning the very idea of a national cuisine whereby;
“maize is hardly ever harvested… and Indians sustain themselves with syrup from the maguey cactus
which they eat and sell and barter for maize, but for most of the year they eat mezquite which is a bread,
a food they make from the fruit of trees called mezquites (Ciudad Real, 1976, 137).”13

12 Banerjee-Dube, Ishita. 2016. Cooking cultures: convergent histories of food and feeling, p.227.

13Ciudad Real, Antonio. 1976 [sixteenth century]. Tratado Curioso y Docto de las Grandezas de la Nueva España,
Volume 1. México: UNAM-IIH, p.137.
Such accounts make for a break in the running theme that wants to ascribe a homogeneous identity.
Even in the past, food consumption made a case for segregating the civilized to the barbaric. The way
the Tezcocanos sought to distinguish themselves from other less-civilised peoples, and assert
their prestige in the territory, was through detailed episodic accounts describing their
transition from barbarians into a nation that consumed cooked food and learned to prepare
tamales and atole.14 A Mestizaje is not a natural creation in its own right, but a careful
consideration of what constitutes as part of the Mexican diet to connect from the ancient past
to the present. A shared coexistence. It also places a lot of emphasis on a shared amnesia, of
things, events, records, beliefs etc. Things which overtly challenge this new Mexican era.

In short what we learned is not merely about movement in beliefs and ideas, but how these
very things are shaped by dietary practices. A value is both ascribed and described by the
process. What is seen as foreign is not merely just a hesitation of investing in new things,
sometimes it is put against the self. The self determines the other and vice verse. It just so
happens that conflicts are also quick to emerge. The modern developments challenge
traditional thoughts. How do we accommodate the cosmopolitan? What can become part of
the National persona? All these are questions which are ever changing over the length of
human history.

14 Banerjee-Dube, Ishita. 2016. Cooking cultures: convergent histories of food and feeling, p.235.