SOC 103 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: C. Wright Mills, Indigestion, Macrobiotic Diet
Document Summary
Food is not just sustenance but carries a diverse list of social and cultural meanings in our lives. Food is an essential for biological organisms to survive. Yet, food is more than a source of energy and nutrients essential for human health and well being. What we eat, how we eat, when and with whom we eat reflect the complexity of wide cultural arrangements around food. Eating is one of the most common human activities we engage in on a regular basis. Food is sustenance a symbol, a product, a ritual object, an identity badge, an object of guilt, a political tool, even a kind of money. Most human interactions involve producing, preparing and consuming food. The latin term company refers to people sharing bread together. From birth to death, almost all human rituals involve food. Food is an important element that unites family members around the table.
