Assignment - Cultural Anthropology Foodways Paper

Essay Instructions:

For your Week 3 paper, explore American foodways related to the Thanksgiving holiday, and compare and contrast them to the foodways of one named society of your choosing among foragers, horticulturalists, or pastoralists. • To remind you, foodways are described on page 97 of Chapter 5 in the textbook (Nelson, K., & Braff, L. (2020). Introduction to anthropology. In N. Brown, T. McIlwraith, & L. Tubelle de Gonzalez (eds.), Perspectives: An open introduction to cultural anthropology (2nd ed.). American Anthropological Association). • What "must" be in your own family's Thanksgiving meal? What is typical in an American family's meal? What "can't" be in your own family's Thanksgiving meal? How much of the Thanksgiving meal is produced/cultivated/grown by the people eating the meal, either in your family or in a typical American family? What is the gender division of labor of a typical American family's Thanksgiving meal? How does that compare with the gender division of labor of your family's Thanksgiving meal? • Compare and Contrast these observations regarding an American Thanksgiving meal with observations of foodways of a foraging, horticulturalist, or pastoralist society of your choosing. The society you choose must be a specific named society of only foragers, horticulturalists, or pastoralists, preferably named in the Week 3 textbook reading (Shearn, 2020). What does a typical meal of your chosen foraging, horticulturalist, or pastoralist society look like? What does a celebratory meal of your chosen foraging, horticulturalist, or pastoralist society look like? How much of the typical or celebratory meal of your chosen foraging, horticulturalist, or pastoralist society is produced/cultivated/grown by the people eating the meal? What is the gender division of labor of a typical meal of your chosen foraging, horticulturalist, or pastoralist society? • Create a 3-page, double-spaced paper describing the foodways. The paper must be formatted in APA Style, with an APA-Style title page, page numbers in the upper right, headings, parenthetical in-text citations, and a reference page. The headings must be centered on the line and formatted in bold and in title case. Include at least the following headings: Thanksgiving Holiday American Foodways, Foodways of (name the foraging, horticulturalist, or pastoralist society), and Conclusion. • Paraphrase or quote and cite from the textbook and from at least one additional scholarly, outside source to support your points in the paper.

Essay Sample Content Preview:

Comparative Analysis of American Thanksgiving and Vietnamese Foodways Student’s Name Institution of Affiliation Course Instructor Date Comparative Analysis of American Thanksgiving and Vietnamese Foodways Culinary or food habits system or the complete social, cultural, and even economic arrangements known best as foodways reflect a favorable terrain and promising area of investigation inside cultural anthropology. This paper focuses on studying the foods consumed during the American Thanksgiving holiday and then contrasting them with the Vietnamese Protestant Food Tradition in Hoi An. Analyzing these foodways, this paper will reveal the cultural importance, food preparation techniques, and gendering division of labor in both cultures. Thanksgiving Holiday American Foodways A standard Thanksgiving meal in America has certain food items that 'have to' be included, and among them are turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie (Nelson & Braff, 2020). Such foods represent the history of the holiday and its cultural essence. Several typical dishes are a must-have during Thanksgiving in many families, if not all, such as my family. On the other hand, some foods that are not conventional, like pasta and sushi, cannot be incorporated into the holiday because they need to fit the cultural norms of the event. Preparing the Thanksgiving meal sometimes includes bought products and fresh produce that are locally grown. Thus, in a typical American family, much of the meal, for example, turkey, is bought in supermarkets, while some components, for instance, vegetables grown in the family's garden, are cultivated by the family (Nelson & Braff, 2020). For example, in my family, we also cultivate our herbs and some vegetables, but the major requirements, such as turkey and potatoes, are locally purchased. The gender division of labor during Thanksgiving is usually stereotypical; for instance, women are mainly assigned work related to cooking, while men are just expected to prepare items such as carving the turkey or even arranging the table. Namely, the bulk of preparatory work, starting from deciding on the choice of food and the preparation of main dishes, is performed by women, while men engage in peripheral activities (Nelson & Braff, 2020). In my family, my mother and sisters do most of th...

Updated on December 9, 2024

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