The Relationship Between Foodway And Rhetoric

It was very interesting to learn about the link between foodways and rhetoric, how food communicates history, culture, politics, etc. This was a new concept for me. The example of Portlandia was very enlightening to this subject. I watched a scene in the episode which was described in the article. It was interesting to see foodways in the 21st century and the hipster culture parodied to the extreme to make a point. The articles opened the concept, that food is not just what we consume to keep us alive and provide us with energy, but there is so much more involved: from advertising, food production, deliveries, supermarkets, farmer’s markets, choices at the store, all the way to food preparation. Yet, it goes even farther. Food is what we do

I have always observed how food is connected to culture; however, I seemed to think of this connection as a positive one. This subject introduced the negative rhetoric of food, and not just the positive links to culture. This made me think of my father’s memories of when he was young and the whole family would get together for the annual Thanksgiving feast. He talks about the negativity experienced during this celebration, since the family didn’t get together that often, many disagreements within members of the family would turn into huge blow outs. A cousin of his came over to spend Thanksgiving with us one year; he was waiting for disagreements to arise as we ate the meal. To his surprise, no such expected conflict arose; he was truly amazed that a Thanksgiving meal could be eaten in pleasant conversation and interaction. He, his wife and children did not make this type of celebration their tradition because of the negativity he had experienced growing up. I had better understand how people might react differently since their experiences might be different from mine. What I find greatly positive, might be negative to other groups of