About the author
Jack Goody, British social anthropologist. After World War II, he began to study anthropology and sociology, and made great contributions to these two disciplines. He made many field trips to Africa and gained a deep understanding of customs, ceremonies, marriage, diet and many other aspects there. Many of his academic achievements came from these field work, and his comparative research even brought a lot of inspiration to many philosophers and economists.
About this book
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This book is one of Jack Goody's representative works. The starting point of this book is that Goody noticed an interesting phenomenon: in the vast area of sub-Saharan Africa, until the arrival of industrial revolution in europe, there was no diversified and refined diet, and the food culture was relatively simple. In order to solve this mystery, the author investigates the cooking behaviors of major societies in Europe, Asia and Africa in history in detail, and links the differences in food consumption in these societies with the differences in their socio-economic structures.
Core content
Cooking, serving and dining repeatedly every day is a class symbol that we seldom think about. Whether a society's diet can be diversified and refined depends on whether it develops class differentiation in the final analysis. The hierarchical society emphasizes the difference, which will lead to the differentiation of food materials, practices, dining etiquette, concepts and many other aspects in the diet, and promote the development of the diet in a differentiated and complicated direction.
order
Hello, welcome to listen to a book every day. We will tell a book about the anthropology of eating, called Cooking, Food and Class. Let's discuss how high-class cuisine developed and what role the differentiation of diet played in human civilization.
We live in a country with an extremely exquisite food culture. Even the daily diet of ordinary people has various doorways, large and small. We in China are proud of eating. Horizontally, we have eight cuisines. Vertically, we have both palace dishes and farm dishes. We have long been used to this exquisite culture. However, in south-central sub-Saharan Africa, commonly known as "Black Africa", people took sorghum, millet and sweet potato as staple foods until industrial food became popular. They have nothing to eat all year round, not only the working people, but also the ruling class. Unlike Chinese food, they have so many seasonings and cooking methods, and unlike western food, they have a whole set of eating methods, such as a meal from appetizers to desserts. You must not understand this food culture in black Africa, and you will think their life is too miserable. Besides, in international metropolises like Beijing and Shanghai, we have hardly seen any African restaurants. Isn't that weird? With such a long history, why didn't they develop several good dishes?
Jack Goody, the author of Cooking, Food and Class, is also very strange about this problem. So he asked a question: Why doesn't Africa have as complicated and advanced a diet as Asia and Europe? This problem seems irrelevant, but it is closely related to a whole set of human culture such as politics, religion, social structure and national customs. Goody, the author, puts human dietary activities in a very high position and thinks that its importance can be compared with reproduction, because both diet and reproduction are important events related to the survival of a population. So today we will combine some specific examples of food culture in various countries to uncover this mystery.
The author of this book is Jack Goody, a famous British social anthropologist and historian. Because of his great contribution to anthropology, he was knighted by the Queen of England. Goody was born in 1 9 19. After the outbreak of World War II, he went to Africa to fight in the war, where he met many people of different nationalities. After the war, he began to engage in archaeological and anthropological research, and returned to Africa many times for field investigations. The peculiar personal experience has brought him an encyclopedic vision, and the research involves a wide range of topics. For example, the influence of writing on society, family and marriage patterns, flowers and death ceremonies, love, desire and food. His unique research method not only attracted the attention of anthropology and history colleagues, but also fascinated many philosophers, educators and economists.
Goody is good at comparative research. Many of his academic achievements come from his field work in West Africa. This book also began with his investigation in Ghana, a West African country. The contrast of different cultures will break through the familiar barriers and make the differences stand out. For Guti, what is "missing" in African society in turn reflects what is "extra" in Eurasian society. However, we need to know in advance that Goody's research does not emphasize the geographical distinction between Europe and Asia, but the cultural contrast between the two regions. When he mentioned "Africa" and "Europe and Asia" in his book, it sometimes seemed a bit vague. By Africa, I mean sub-Saharan Africa. Today, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Kenya and other countries are all in this region, while North Africa is mainly influenced by Arab culture, which is another matter. By "major Eurasian societies", he meant to point out some important civilizations in Eurasia, such as China, India, the Middle East and Western Europe. The problem is that compared with these civilizations, black Africa, which has a long history, has no differentiated diet. What is the profound reason behind this?
Here, we have to take a step back and re-examine the matter of "eating". To borrow a term from literary theory, we need to "defamiliarize" the problem, that is, we often turn a blind eye to something because we are used to it, and then we need to change our thinking and make it strange again. In the process of defamiliarization, there are some key issues that we should think about, such as what to eat, how to eat, who is responsible for cooking, who to eat with, when to eat, what tableware to use, what dining etiquette to follow and so on. The basic behaviors in these eating habits actually reflect the specific cultural background and socio-economic conditions.
Next, we will follow Goody's comparative method and interpret the emergence of the so-called "advanced diet" and its role in a society in three parts. "Advanced" is not exactly equal to food. Many times, there is a difference, which is reflected in ingredients, practices, dining etiquette, concepts and many other aspects. In the first part, we pay attention to the questions of "what to eat" and "how to eat". Different diets often mean a variety of ingredients and practices. What we want to discuss is where this diversity comes from. In the second part, we are concerned about the problem of "who is in charge of cooking", that is, who is in charge of cooking. This is from the perspective of division of labor to explore the conditions for the birth of high-end dishes. The third part looks at the problems of "who will eat" and "what etiquette to follow". It is about how people consume food. As you can imagine, in a stratified society, the process of food consumption is also stratified.
first part
First, let's enter the first part, about "what to eat" and "how to eat" (or, more accurately, how to do it). Advanced diet comes from the upgrading of ordinary diet and is related to the diversity of food sources and cooking methods. So are there any diverse diets in most parts of Africa? The answer is no, generally speaking, the daily diet in many parts of Africa is a dish, and there is nothing fishy about the dishes and procedures. Guti mainly studied two areas in Ghana, a West African country. One is called Lodaki, a tribal society, and the other is called Gongjia, a centralized society. The food they eat every day is simply that leaves and whole grains are cooked together and eaten almost every day. In food distribution, there are more adults than children, more men than women, and more chiefs than civilians. But their diets differ only in quantity, not in quality. Kings and chiefs have slaves, so they can plant bigger farms and set bigger tables, but they also eat like everyone else, only the food is heavier.
Compared with this dish in black Africa, the dishes in other parts of the world are very complicated, with the aim of distributing different foods to different classes. As early as 4000 BC in Egypt, there was already a division of dishes. The peasant class eats dates, vegetables and occasionally fish, but the food of the ruling class is much more exquisite, with dozens or twenty kinds of bread and cakes alone. About 3,000 years ago, in the 20th dynasty of ancient Egypt, there was a dictionary which included the names of various foods in detail. For example, there are dozens of kinds of bread, and each item uses a specific word to explain whether it is pastry, bread or cake. 23 kinds of drinks are also listed, among which beer is the first; Also, even cows will be divided into 29 portions, which is comparable to the fineness of Chaoshan people when they eat beef hot pot. In ancient Greece and Rome, the upper class often held large banquets, and the methods of making food were even more bizarre, such as making pork look like fish and birds. Obviously, the purpose is not to eat, but to show off wealth in a fancy way.
In addition, the diet in the Middle East also has a corresponding differentiation. Like many other places, the rich have meat to eat. Not only that, they can also use spices to make the meat taste better. In addition, the rich can eat exquisite bread made of wheat flour, and even make iced drinks with ice cubes shipped from the mountains. There are many local dishes from different regions in the court. In the 10 century, many recipes appeared in the Abasi dynasty, which ruled the Arabian Peninsula and the two river basins. The authors of these books are not chefs, but some court nobles, and the books record not daily dishes, but the cooking methods of the nobles. Noble cooking often means showing off, based on local dishes, not afraid of expensive materials and boldly absorbing foreign elements. The emergence of recipes is particularly interesting. It is conceivable that not only the food is used to show off, but also the words on the menu are used to show off. In order to cope with all kinds of strange practices, people have also created many fancy verbs and adjectives. These words can only be used by the upper class, and ordinary people can't even read them. This recipe is not so much a practical guide as a profound skill. You need to be literate and able to write, so you can only circulate among the rich and idle classes, which expands the choices of a few people, but also further deepens the class gap.
After centuries of development, Arab cuisine has been influenced by many regions such as Egypt and Byzantium, and precious spices from China, India and East Africa are often used, making it a world-wide dish. In addition, the aristocratic cooking methods are extremely complicated. A dish often needs several rounds of operations, such as barbecue, boiling and frying, and a lot of ingredients and seasonings are used. The upper class disdains simple food because it is for ordinary people.
China seems to be a little more special in complicated cooking techniques. From the Song Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, even the food eaten by China people was not so simple. Give a more recent example. In 1950s, someone made a comparative study of the lives of ordinary people in China and Scotland, and found that "the poorest class in China seems to know more about the art of food preparation than their Scottish counterparts". Scottish workers drink porridge and milk for breakfast, bread and beer for lunch and porridge and milk for dinner. They have never enjoyed complicated dishes, and have not even reached the average level of their peers in China. As we all know, Chinese food is a peak of human diet, and Goody also said in this book that Chinese food can be said to be the most complicated of all dishes and deserves special analysis. Chinese food is called "cooking". Regardless of the "big four" or "big eight", in short, regional differentiation is a remarkable feature. During the Northern Song Dynasty, citizens lived a prosperous life and the catering industry developed. In Kaifeng, the capital, restaurants can provide a variety of local dishes, which can meet the needs of civilians and elites. As we all know, The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is a long scroll reflecting the life of Song people, and there are as many as forty or fifty restaurants in this long scroll. These local restaurants in Beijing seem to form the basis of various cuisines, and the higher-level cuisines are divided into cuisines. These foods not only have the characteristics of the rich, but also enter the public life circle through restaurants.
Civilians are like this, and court dishes are of course more exquisite. The court itself is an extremely complex organization. In order to prepare daily necessities and sacrificial supplies for court personnel, it needs to consume huge human and financial resources. For example, in the Ming Dynasty, there were at most 6,000 chefs and at least 3,000 chefs. As far as class and cuisine are concerned, the higher the status in the class, the wider the social contact and the broader the vision, so high-grade court dishes often absorb lower-grade and foreign cooking elements. High and low dishes interact with each other, and Chinese food is becoming more and more complicated.
Some scholars have summarized the exquisite upgrading process of China cuisine and mentioned several decisive conditions, which are also applicable to the Arab cuisine mentioned above. First of all, it must be the development of agriculture and commerce, such as the introduction of new crop varieties and the improvement of farming techniques. Second, the country is strong. In the Song Dynasty, the development of food was brought by the country's prosperity and was the product of Dadoucheng. Of course, complex dishes are not developed from a single region, but need foreign raw materials and various recipes, and only Dadoucheng can synthesize these factors. The last point is related to people. The development of food needs a group of diners who are good at commenting and taking risks, including not only court nobles, but also a wider range of elites, officials and businessmen. And these people should be enthusiastic about eating it. As one critic said, "The poor eat to live, and the rich live to eat."
Let's go back to Africa. They are satisfied with gathering, hunting and simple farming, and their political strength, economic foundation and writing ability are not sufficient, so there is no diversified diet and high-end dishes are out of the question.
the second part
Chinese food and Arabic food are both typical representatives of high-level cooking, but sometimes the difference in diet is not fully reflected in the rich ingredients and complex cooking techniques, and sometimes it is related to the social functions and status of chefs. Next, in the second part, let's talk about "who is responsible for cooking". Food production is the most basic labor in a society. Who will engage in this kind of labor is not only related to diet, but also to the whole social structure. So we look at the conditions of dietary differentiation from the perspective of division of labor. Here are two kinds of division of labor: gender division of labor and class division of labor, both of which have had a far-reaching impact on dietary differentiation.
The most basic division of labor in a society should be gender division, so let's first talk about why sex and diet are always linked and what role marriage plays in the differentiation of diet.
First, both of these activities need to be based on the division of labor between men and women, one is physiological and the other is social function. These two kinds of division of labor are quite common in human society. Diet and sex, these two behaviors generally occur in the family field, the scope is very small, and the people involved are all people in the same family, so the two behaviors have formed a very close relationship. It may not be obvious in a monogamous society, because no matter how they divide their work, they are the same two people. But in the polygamous African society, the situation is different. The wife who sleeps with her husband is usually the one who cooks. In a family, cooking and sex are tied together and rotated between wives, while menstruating women are excluded from these two schedules.
Whether women's cooking role and gender role are separated directly determines the development direction of social diet, that is, whether there will be differentiation between high and low diets. In most parts of Africa, even in the king's court, the kitchen staff are usually composed of wives. The daily recipes and processes have hardly changed, because such women cook as wives rather than domestic servants. In tribal societies, chiefs are responsible for providing accommodation and protection for businessmen and other travelers, so the more guests there are, the more wives they need to cook for visitors. Sometimes the work will be very heavy, so they have to marry the captured woman to help. Women's gender roles and cooking roles are rarely separated. In most societies in history, women who undertake reproductive tasks have limited time and energy, so it is difficult to specialize in cooking, but the development of cooking needs professional catering personnel. Different from Africa, in the courts of Europe and the Mediterranean, male chefs have been employed since they were very young. They will learn recipes from women's daily cooking and turn them into high-end court dishes. As professional chefs, they also developed many technical operations and professional appliances, such as stoves, grinders, alcohol fermentation and storage methods, juicers and so on. These are all based on the separation of female cooking roles and gender roles. Without this separation of African society, there would be no advanced diet.
Second, marriage and diet are symbols of boundaries. What kind of people in a community can get married and eat? In many cultures, these two behaviors are not random, but have a clear or dark boundary. The same is true in Africa, but in Guti's words, their marriage can cross "internal boundaries" and rarely cross "external boundaries", that is, they emphasize the differences between "tribes" and "nationalities" and ignore the differences of classes. Polygamy is practiced in African society, and wives come from different backgrounds. Marriage is not limited to a specific class, nor does it emphasize "matching". So cultural differences are often eliminated in the family. In such a family, wives exchange recipes and work together, children are raised by mothers with different backgrounds, and different manners are also integrated. This situation is obviously different from Eurasian society. Eurasian social groups prefer so-called marriage, which will widen the differences between social classes. This stratification difference is the key to the hierarchy, as well as in the diet.
The more complicated division of labor is not only gender division of labor, but also class division of labor, which is the core of stratified diet. This "class" is not only an economic concept, but also has multiple meanings such as politics and religion. For example, in India, the caste system is centered on the ruling class, and many intermarriage groups are divided on the basis of occupation, which is closely related to India's social system, world outlook, religion and interpersonal relationships. So how does cooking combine with caste system? An important concept of caste system is "cleanliness". In ancient India, people thought that the cleanliness of thought depended on the cleanliness of food, and what you ate would become what you were. The cleanliness of food corresponds to the level and position of the producer.
Eating involves contact, which is dangerous. As we said just now, marriage and diet are symbols of boundaries, and contact may break the boundaries, so it must be strictly controlled. Part of the caste system is defined according to the kind of food a person is allowed to eat. During the Vedic period from 1500 BC to 700 BC, food differentiation based on caste appeared. The four main castes have their own drinks and different staple foods, such as manual workers eating wheat barrels, slaves and chefs eating inferior rice, and the rice eaten by the king is carefully selected. Members of different castes are forbidden to eat together, just as they are forbidden to get married. They think that contact with people of low caste will cause food pollution.
Because whether food is polluted depends on the level of the chef, people of lower caste are not allowed to cook food at high-class banquets or religious ceremonies, and the chef must be a Brahmin of the highest caste. Even in Brahman's home, the kitchen is the most sacred and pure place. You must take off your shoes when you enter the kitchen. Outsiders are not allowed to enter, and even family members who have nothing to do with cooking cannot easily enter.
When dealing with leftovers after meals, Indians think that leftovers are polluted, but the higher the level of people who start eating, the less food pollution, and the more people who can continue to eat. Sacrifices offered to God at home can be regarded as God's leftovers, which are still clean for human beings. Similarly, the guru is a senior guru in Hinduism, who can eat other people's leftovers. It can be seen that food pollution is a universal concept, but it is not a single rigid law. According to the specific situation, it has many detailed rules, which are integrated into people's daily life. The differentiation of diet is closely combined with the religious concept and organizational structure of the whole society, which jointly strengthens the hierarchy.
Through the comparison between Africa and India, it can be seen that whether there is a division of food in a society has a great relationship with the division of cooking activities. Before entering the modern society, Africa hardly realized the specialization and professionalization of cooking, and its society did not emphasize the difference of class, which is an important reason for its indiscriminate diet.
the third part
In the third part, after thinking about "what to eat", "how to cook" and "who will cook", we will look at the questions of "who is the participant" and "what etiquette L follows" after the food is served. In fact, these two things can also be combined to understand one thing: in a hierarchical society, etiquette defines the identity of diners, and sometimes it is a symbol of identity itself. However, in a society without hierarchy, this concept is vague.
Etiquette is a symbol of human civilization, which means that we have abandoned our inner wildness and divorced from nature, among which etiquette involving diet is an important part. Edmund Leach, an anthropologist, once said: "Almost any etiquette involves diet at some stage in the ritual process, and the food and drinks related to it are by no means arranged at will." Etiquette and etiquette generally appear in the occasion of eating together. In all human societies, the act of eating itself has some collective characteristics. Allowing someone to sit at the table and have dinner with themselves is a friendly expression in itself, but different ceremonies have different connotations.
Let's look at Africa first. There is an annual festival in Gongga, Africa called Danba Festival to celebrate the birth of the prophet and the rule of the ruler. In this festival, everyone will eat rice cooked in the same pot. The regional spokesman stood in front of the chieftain's house and called representatives of various groups to receive meals. These groups include people with specific identities, such as wizards, thieves and rapists. In other words, everyone should share the meal together, even criminals should participate, whether they like it or not. This is a meal with obvious political color, but it does not emphasize differences. Even thieves and rapists can eat a pot of porridge with the rulers, and class differences are even less likely to be highlighted in this ceremony.
In a hierarchical society, although there are similar dining ceremonies, in many cases, the occasion of dining together is not as simple as mentioned above. Take Europe as an example. The European diet is highly carnivorous. In medieval Ireland, the meat cleaver on the noble table played an important role in court life. They usually come from samurai nobles. At the banquet, they will decide what kind of meat to distribute to them according to the identity of the banquet members. Distinguished guests are always the first to be served and get the best meat, while lower-level guests can only get the part with poor meat quality.
The example just now is about the allocation rules of shared meals. Besides, etiquette also includes some personal codes of conduct. Cooking transforms dining into a social activity, and food is gradually surrounded by etiquette. The more developed the diet, the more complicated the etiquette. Part of the purpose of etiquette is to show differences, delimit grades and exclude outsiders. Because etiquette is complicated, only some people can master it after training.
1 106, a priest named Alfonso in Toledo, Spain, wrote a code of conduct for clergy, which listed a series of table manners, which is still out of date. For example, wash your hands before meals, don't eat bread in a hurry, don't wolf down, don't talk with food in your mouth, don't drink on an empty stomach, don't eat things on the next plate, and so on. In the western world from12nd century to15th century, table manners distinguished social classes and even became more important than food and cooking techniques. Table manners are essential in the life of nobles and later bourgeoisie. A German translator of ancient documents also said, "I would rather ignore what they eat, because they pay more attention to noble manners than eating."
Nobles are vulgar, so are there any concrete manifestations of the differences between classes? For example, in England in the14th century, the dining tables of different classes showed different characteristics. Noble banquets are rich and orderly, the middle class is happy, and farmers and civilians are eating simple food. In this regard, the Middle East is similar to Europe. People in the upper class should wash their hands in different places before and after eating. When they eat, there will be a menu to inform them of the next dish, and the civilian class will gather all the dishes. Upper-class society uses cutlery, and civilians are used to eating it directly with their hands. Such differences abound.
The hierarchical differentiation of table manners can reflect the hierarchical differentiation of lifestyle. Food can stimulate emotions, help individuals socialize and become a member of the community. Therefore, etiquette problems such as whether you can put half the meat back in the bowl and wipe your nose with your sleeves are not superficial. When a behavior becomes a specific habit of a group, they will take it for granted and deeply and sincerely reject lower-level behavior. A nobleman is a nobleman because he can not only eat well, but also eat gracefully. They regard the cultivation of taste and interest as proof of their advantages in education, political power and economy, and at the same time, it is also part of their living standards and identity.
Complex diet is always combined with complex culture. All the etiquette related to the identity, status and education of diners mentioned just now is almost invisible in African society. American scholars mentioned in the book History on the Tip of the Tongue that some hunting tribes in Africa follow a strict egalitarianism. Whoever hunts for food must share it, not take it privately. Everyone even tried their best not to take good things to avoid being jealous. A good hunter should be modest and low-key, and never stand out. It is conceivable that in this society where there is no hierarchical differentiation, no attention is paid to or even efforts are made to avoid differences, the diet is inevitably relatively simple.
At the end of this book, the author Goody quoted the famous anthropologist Simmons: "The meaning boundary of a food may go far beyond its production or use place." It means that a food not only provides us with energy, but also has a deeper connotation behind it. There are many interesting books about diet, which can make us think more deeply. For example, Westminster once wrote a book "Sweetness and Power" to discuss the relationship between sugar industry and capitalist economy. Marvin Harris wrote a book, Delicious, explaining why we eat and don't eat. Curran, a gourmet writer, has a book Salt, which tells us the cultural history of sodium chloride. You can have a look if you are interested.
abstract
Here, the content of this issue is basically finished. Looking back at our original question: why didn't Africa have the differentiation between high-end and low-end dishes like most parts of Asia and Europe? Below, let's briefly summarize.
First of all, high-class cuisine comes from the differentiation of diet, which is closely related to the social hierarchy. The key is to highlight the differences. The difference of diet is reflected in ingredients, practices, dining etiquette, concepts and so on.
Secondly, on the issues of "what to eat" and "how to eat", high-class diet comes from the upgrading of ordinary diet, which is related to the diversity of food sources and cooking methods, and the diversity of food is related to the political and economic development of a society. In areas where agriculture and commerce are developed, national strength is strong, writing ability is strong, and there are many elites, diet is also divided. African society does not have these conditions.
Third, "Who is in charge of cooking" has a great influence on the development of cooking. Cooking activities in Africa are mostly done by women in the family, and women's cooking roles and gender roles are not separated, so it is difficult for cooking to become professional and specialized. In addition, the lack of class division of labor is also a reason for the lack of differentiation in African diets.
Finally, regarding the question of "who will eat" and "what etiquette to follow", in a hierarchical society, etiquette defines the identity of diners, and sometimes it is a status symbol in itself. However, in a society without hierarchy, this concept is vague. The complexity of culture also determines the complexity of diet. In Africa, which does not attach importance to differences or even advocates equality, a single diet has emerged.
Miao Wei wrote it.
Brain map: Ada
Report: Cheng Ya
A book a day 000 1-0050