Sociology of food? What's that?

The first question I am asked when I say I am taking a sociology of food class is – Sociology of food? What’s that? To be brutally honest, when I signed up for this class, I didn’t have a clue. I just knew that it had two parts I was genuinely interested in – Sociology on one hand and Food on other. But how these two were connected I didn’t know.  The semester is over and this is my last blog-post as a class assignment. I guess it’s time for self-assessment and reflection – what have I learned about myself and the world around me? What was our class about?   Emotions are still fresh, information is still processing and it’s difficult for me to describe comprehensively what I did learn. But one thing is certain – I never will be able to look at food in same way I did before. I am not just a consumer any more; I am a conscious consumer with sociological lenses.

We all have food we prefer, certain tastes we like or dislike. I don’t know about you, but I love food and I love eating. Food is one of the immense pleasures of life and the crucial point around which we organize social events and leisure activities. Food is not only about biological drive and survival, there is much more to food and eating than the fulfillment of physical needs. There are also “social drives, based on cultural, religious, economic, and political factors, that effect the availability and consumption of food” (Germov and Williams. p.4).

But why we prefer one food, or one taste to the other? Where do our individual likes and dislikes come from? The proof that individual food preferences are not formed in a social vacuum is the existence of national cuisines, such as French, Italian, Thai, Mexican or Georgian (to name only a few). Our food habits are not biologically determined, they are not universal, inevitable or natural, but socially constructed. As Claude Fischler notes in his “Food, self and identity”, food can be considered as a bridge connecting nature to culture, and food habits are developed through culturally determined understanding of which food is appropriate and which is not. For example, some cultures prohibit alcohol consumption, while others consider it a necessary part of cultural identity.

And even though some people consider food consumption as a very individual, personal act, what we eat, whom we eat it with and where we eat is very much a social act. As sociologists we are learning to look for patterns in human interaction and find links between individual behavior and social organization. How exactly does one approach this goal? C. Wright Mills, in his book “The Sociological Imagination” (1999), writes “neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both.” The intent of the sociological imagination is to see the bigger picture within which individuals live their lives; to recognize personal troubles and social issues as two aspects of a single process.

Every course has an introduction and objectives. Here is the introduction for my class - Sociology of food 2010.

“In this course we will explore current issues of food production, distribution, and consumption from a sociological perspective.  We will consider the relationships between inequality, poverty, food insecurity and food production; food movements, and the patterns of food consumption as related to ethics, culture, class, and identity.  We will also explore current controversies such as the case for local farming versus agribusiness, irradiation, organic farming, genetic modification of food, fair trade alternatives, etc.  Lastly, we will consider our own relationships with food, how these impact and shape our identities, and reflect our culture and family traditions.  You will be asked to consider multiple viewpoints and conflicting values and to imagine, analyze, and evaluate alternative positions on issues or solutions to problems” (SYG 3930 Syllabus)

This class was a roller coaster for me – it was very emotional, very intense and very interesting. We’ve touched everything – macro and micro, local and global, concrete and abstract aspects of food production, distribution and consumption. We had readings, discussions, and field trips, we watched movies and had guest speakers, we planned and participated in service learning projects, we learned how to blog and I would say – we became better people because of this experience. One of the most instrumental tools I am taking from this class is the skill of blogging. And because knowledge is a power and power is a knowledge, I want to share knowledge and information I have to those who don’t’ have it yet. I will use my blog as a stage for the social activism.

I want to end my post with the quotes from the great book “Privilege, Power and Difference” by Allan Johnson. I agree with author that even though society encourages us to think that the social world begins and ends with individuals, that we are just a collection of people; we are more than just that. “We are always participating in something larger than ourselves – what sociologists call social systems – and systems are more than collections of people” (p.78).

“To perpetuate privilege and oppression, we don’t have to do anything consciously to support it. Just our silence is crucial for ensuring its future, for the simple face is that no system of privilege can continue to exist without most people choosing to remain silent about it. If most heterosexuals spoke out about heterosexism, for example, or if most nondisabled people came out of their closet of silence and stood openly against ableism, it would be a critical first step toward revolutionary change. But the vast majority of ‘good’ people are silent on these issues, and it’s easy for others to read their silence as support.

As long as we participate in social systems, we don’t get to choose whether to be involved in the consequences they produce. We’re involved simply through the fact that we’re here. As such, we can only choose how to be involved, whether to just be a part of the problem or also to be a part of the solution. That’s where our power lies, and also our responsibility” (Johnson, p. 86)

I want to finish with the words from this video-interview with Mark Winne - "Imagine your kitchen is this place where you are going to begin to change the society." Dr. De Welde says that there are people who can be called "closet sociologists." I am adding one more category - "kitchen sociologists." Join us and lets take care of this little planet together.

Appendix

Class material

Omnivore’s Dilemma: a Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan. “A brilliant, eye-opening account of how we produce, market, and agonize over what we eat. If you ever thought ‘what’s for dinner’ was a simple question, you’ll change your mind after reading Pollan’s searing indictment of today’s food industry.” (The Seattle Times)

Closing the Food Gap – Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty by Mark Winne. “Reading this book should make everyone want to advocate for food systems that will feed the hungry, support local farmers, and promote community democracy – all at the same time” – Marion Nestle, author of Food Politics and What to eat.

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser – “This is a book about America’s stomach. It is a chronicle of a revolution in the economy and gastronomy of the United States that while universally visible has been scantily examined. If you are what you eat, for much of America this book is your anatomical portrait.” – Hartford Courant.

The Earth Charter - The Earth Charter is a declaration of fundamental ethical principles for building a just, sustainable and peaceful global society in the 21st century. It seeks to inspire in all people a new sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the well-being of the whole human family, the greater community of life, and future generations. It is a vision of hope and a call to action.

Food Politics – How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health by Marion nestle. “Food Politics absorbingly details how the food industry--through lobbying, advertising, and the co-opting of experts--influences our dietary choices to our detriment. Central to her argument is the American "paradox of plenty," the recognition that our food abundance (we've enough calories to meet every citizen's needs twice over) leads profit-fixated food producers to do everything possible to broaden their market portion, thus swaying us to eat more when we should do the opposite. The result is compromised health: epidemic obesity to start, and increased vulnerability to heart and lung disease, cancer, and stroke--reversible if the constantly suppressed "eat less, move more" message that most nutritionists shout could be heard.” - Arthur Boehm

Stolen Harvest – The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply by Vandana Shiva. “Shiva compares the “free trade” system to British colonialism. Today the system of “free trade” produces the same results, destroying local markets and robbing the poor of their right to food-and even their right to life. When the food system is industrialized, millions of peasants are forced off the land and a system of agriculture that was once ecologically friendly and diverse is replaced by mono-culture cultivation that can only be supported by toxic chemicals. It is a system that actually steals food from other species “to bring larger quantities of specific commodities to the market, using huge quantities of fossil fuels and water and toxic chemicals in the process.” – Sally Fallon

Home Grown – The Case for Local Food in a Global Market by Brian Halweil.

The Future of Food - a documentary by deborah Coons Garcia - The Future of Food has been a key tool in the American and international anti-GMO grassroots activist movements and played widely in the environmental and activist circuits since its release in 2004. The film is widely acknowledged for its role in educating voters and the subsequent success of passing Measure H in Mendocino County, California, one of the first local initiatives in the country to ban the planting of GMO crops.

The Food Inc. Filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

Reference:

C. Wright Mills (1999). Sociological Imagination. Oxford University Press.

Germov J., Williams, L. (2001) A Sociology of Food and Nutrition. The social appetite. Oxford Universuity press.

 Johnson, A. (2001). Privilege, Power, and Difference. McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social sciences

http://www.greaterlearning.org/sociology/index.html

http://www.shastacollege.edu/sociology/

http://sanjoyphotos.blogspot.com/2008/05/seasonal-food-habits.html

http://psfn.org/blog/about/

http://www.leyden.co.nz/food.htm

http://lowcarboneater.com/

Chocolate Temptation

“- Why is there no organization such as Chocolate Anonymous?

  - Because no one wants to quit.”

I had difficult time to choose what to write about. I tend to be too serious in my previous blogs, too heavy and almost revolutionary. Too much strain on me (and maybe on you too)! So I thought, I need something light to write about, something pleasurable. And than I heard this commercial on TV “…it is sooo light and fluffy with just the right amount of chocolate…” I knew right away – I am writing about chocolate. I love chocolate and I had a serious craving in the moment.

First thought was – I don’t even need to write anything, I can just display chocolate advertising pictures and videos, put some extracts from books about chocolate and it would be self-explanatory (tempting thought of an overtired and exhausted college nontraditional student). But my inner voice told me it would be almost cheating. And here I am, researching everything and anything possible about chocolate (and as always I generate so much information, that I don’t know what to choose and where to start).

Some say it’s a staple food. Others say if chocolate is not in heaven they don’t want to go. Some call it a healing herb and for others it is linked to the power and status. A closer look reveals that chocolate is not just a food (there is even debate on that – is chocolate a food or drug) but a whole empire with accompanying social characteristics – there is stratification, inequality, power relations, gendered roles and gendered media marketing, oppression and slave labor (good luck on escaping serious topics!). There are books and movies about chocolate, blogs, articles and scientific research, dedicated fans and even chocoholics. I even found an annual West Coast Chocolate Festival. There is a whole world of chocolate out there. Chocolateland! Do you know that they’re building the first chocolate theme park in Amsterdam?

It would be too ambitious to even try to tackle with all the social problems of this magic land, so I decided to look at how chocolate is presented as the symbol of sexuality (am I trying to merge two of my classes here – gender studies and sociology of food? Maybe! J )

In the book entitled Better Than Sex: Chocolate Principles to Live By, British author Theresa Cheung states that it was her long-standing “love affair with chocolate” that prompted her to write this little pocket-size guide to better living through chocolate —“without feeling guilty.” According to her “a massive 60 percent of women would rather have a one-to-one with a chocolate bar than have sex!” The intimate connection between women and chocolate has long been recognized.  Richard Barber’s book Chocolate Sex: A Naughty Little Book begins by stating: Women lust after chocolate.  Their desire for it is overpowering; no matter how hard a woman tries to restrain herself with visions of tight black dresses or tiny bikinis, she knows in her heart she will ultimately succumb to chocolate’s seductive call.

There is a category of food labeled as comfort food, and chocolate is identified as being the most craved for. The term “comfort food” first was used in 1977 in Webster’s dictionary and refers to food consumed to reach some level of enhanced emotional state. According to the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America comfort food consumption has been seen as a reaction to emotional stress, and therefore, as a key contributor to the epidemic of obesity in the United States. Laurette Dube’s research showed that consumption of comfort food is triggered in men by positive emotions, and by negative ones in women. (How interesting – men eat chocolate when they are happy and we eat when we feel bad? If we follow this line of thought than if women eat more chocolate than men, it means that women are generally in a negative mood all the time. And if men eat chocolate when they have positive emotions, and they don’t crave chocolate as much as women, does it mean that men are in negative mood too? Oh, my – I am really confused here J )

In the book “Chocolate: a healthy passion", Shara Aaton and Monica Bearden compare men’s and women’s chocolate cravings. They say,  both men and women enjoy chocolate, though women tend to be more vocal in their “needing” chocolate (p.165). Eighty-five percent of men and 86% of women claimed to give in to their craving whereas only 57%  of women reported a positive affect after their indulgence. Interesting, why do women feel guilty after eating chocolate? See, we eat chocolate to feel better and instead we feel guilty about it?

A modern feminist philosopher, Susan Bordo in her article, “Hunger as Ideology,” talks about dessert advertisements. In the Victorian era, the portrayal of women eating and demonstrating sensuous surrender to rich, exciting food was considered a taboo. Victorians had conduct manuals that educated elite women on how to eat in a feminine way. Display of any desire for food or participating indulgence and overeating was forbidden. According to Bordo modern women violate this taboo by seeking emotional satisfaction, intensity, love, and excitement from the food they consume (Fahim).

The consumption of a sweet food high in fat is naturally taboo for women and presumably the idea of  “sinfulness” comes from here. To overcome women’s hesitation, marketers and advertisers had to be creative. Susan Bordo believes that advertisers have replaced this food taboo with a sexual one. They have turned chocolate into a sexual, self-indulgent, private experience that invokes a taboo similar to that of masturbation. (I hesitated for a moment here – I guess I have taboo on using proper sexual terminology). The consequence is that now when a woman feels the urge to eat chocolate, which she knows will damage her figure, she is already equipped with an inner-response to reason with her moment of self-restraint: she believes that chocolate consumption represents and enhances her femininity via satisfying her sexuality. This precisely contradicts her knowledge that chocolate will harm her feminine appeal (Fahim).

Bordo argued that “advertisers are aware of women’s insecurity about their bodies; therefore, many advertisements aimed at women portray the ideal female body. The women who advertise for chocolate are generally slender, confident, upbeat and sexy individuals who appear as though they do not eat that is high in fat.” As a rule, chocolate commercials are narrated by a woman with a smooth sensual voice and ends with a beautiful woman eating a piece of chocolate very sensually. These advertisements are manipulations of reality all in order to sell a product.

Oh, I really should stop writing and get some chocolate. As a good consumer, trained and manipulated properly, I believe that I will feel (not necessarily look) more feminine and desirable. It’s too much temptation to handle. It will be a sweet surrender.

But before I go, here is some more dessert for you - enjoy!

CHOCOLATE TONGUE TWISTER: A CHEEKY CHIMP CHUCKED CHEAP CHOCOLATE CHIPS IN THE CHEAP CHOCOLATE CHIP SHOP.

References:

Aaron, S., Bearden, M. (2008). Chocolate: A Healthy Passion. NY Prometheus Books.

Barber, R. (1994) Chocolate Sex: naughty little book.Warner Books.
Cheung, T. (2005). Better than sex: Chocolate pronciples to live by. Conari Press

Fahim Jamal (2010). Beyond Cravings: Gender and Class desires in chocolate marketing. Sociology at Occidental College Scholar.

Nutter Katleen. Chick Chocolates?
http://www.londonfoodfilmfiesta.co.uk/Artmai~1/Chic.htm

Photoes and Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzOchsY4RhQ

http://hubpages.com/hub/amsterdam-sex-drugs-and-chocolate

http://whatscookingamerica.net/Cake/MoltenChocolate.htm

http://humanbodyart.blogspot.com/2008/11/chocolate-body-art-paintings-in-sexy.html


 

Eating is a political act

“We’ve got to live in the real world. If we don’t like the world we’re living in, change it. And if we can’t change it, we change ourselves. We can do something” – Nikki Giovanni

I love to eat. I love to cook. I love to entertain my friends around a table full of delicious food. But I never thought that it could be a political act. I never thought that “each trip to buy food is really a visit to the polling place, and everyday we each have dozens of votes to cast for the foods we buy and dozens of the polling places where we can vote, from grocery stores to farmers’ markets” (Hamilton, p.22). Who knew that by the simple act of eating we become involved in not only local, but also in global politics.

Looking back I am wondering – is ignorance really bliss? Is it right that “what you don’t know cannot hurt you”? I now know that I will never be able to look at food in same way as I did before. Now I know that by supporting the existing food industry, I am “helping to create a homogenized international culture that sociologist Benjamin R. Barber has labeled “McWorld” (Schlosser, p.229). I don’t want to be part of the world’s McDonaldization.

The Indian philosopher, environmental activist, eco feminist, and author of several books Vandana Shiva writes, “What we are seeing is the emergence of food totalitarianism, in which a handful of corporations control the entire food chain and destroy alternatives so that people do not have access to diverse, safe foods produced ecologically.” Pretty scary word – totalitarianism. For most of us this word refers to images of a dictatorship, but according to Robert Conquest, a well-known writer and researcher of the Soviet Union, totalitarianism is a political system where the state, usually under the control of a single political person, faction, or class, recognizes no limits to its authority and attempts to regulate every aspect of public life wherever possible.

For Vandana Shiva, food totalitarianism is “an authoritarian system that takes away my freedom to grow quality food.” Totalitarianism is the way in which international corporations and trade organizations reinforce their treaties on to countries. In her interview to CorpWatch (the organization which investigates and exposes corporate violations of human rights, environmental crimes, fraud and corruption around the world),  she describes how the agricultural agreement, crafted by Vargill and a US delegation, was “sold” to the world with the promise that it would remove subsidies. “But the subsidies for corporations like Cargill have doubled in the US since the closure of the Uruguay round in the last 5 years. Rich countries are subsidizing agribusiness by up to $343 billion a year. While in a country like India, agriculture is negatively subsidized up to minus 23 million dollars a year. This is not about competition. This is about monopolies.”

                         

Isn’t it hypocrisy on the part of these institutions (WTO, IMF, World Bank) to announce that their sole mission is to promote democracy, eliminate hunger and poverty, support industrialization and development of nations? “In India we are being forced to import meat and waste from slaughter houses. We are being forced to import wheat, sorghum and milk, which we produce in abundant quantities. And those imports are destroying our markets, pushing our farmers into suicide. It is a system that is worse than any dictatorship that we are familiar with.” (Shiva).

The 11^th principle of The Earth Charter states “Require multinational corporations and international financial organizations to act transparently in the public good, and hold them accountable for the consequences of their activities.” In her interview with CorpWatch  Vandana Shiva explains why its taken so long for citizens of the United States to recognize how the food industry is manipulating their rights - “The regulatory agencies that should have been controlling Monsanto, that should have been holding Cargill to account, were actually held captive by these corporations. And on behalf of these corporations, the regulatory agencies in the United States have lied to the American public.”

I have to confess – I never thought about these issues before. It is not a topic I would research and read about. Maybe this is one reason that I feel so embarrassed now for my ignorance and I would say even arrogance. People and nations are exploited in our name, and we don’t even think about it. Why in the world we don’t think about this? Maybe because it didn’t happen overnight. Mostly it was and is unnoticeable by the general public.

They say that if you put a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will leap out right away to escape the danger. But, if you put a frog in a kettle that is filled with water that is cool and pleasant,
and then you gradually heat the kettle until it starts boiling, the frog will not become aware of the threat until it is too late.

German philosopher, Karl Jaspers once said,  “It is not easy to see through totalitarianism. It is like machinery that starts itself while its very operations often fail to grasp what they are already putting into effect… To speak in mythical terms, it seems like a soullness, daemonic something which seizes everybody – those who drift into it blindly as well as those who half-knowingly bring it about” (Jaspers).  And maybe we don’t see it because we don’t want to. Or maybe we don’t see it because we are masterfully manipulated. Any totalitarianism is built on propaganda and food totalitarianism is no exception. We just call it advertising and consider it an organic and necessary part of the capitalist economic system. In reality we are methodically deprived of our rights.

There was a story in Time magazine about a man who had been pulled over by the state police in Michigan, accused of using his pickup truck for the transporting illegal cargo. Do you want to guess what was in his truck? “This was the culmination of a string operation that resulted in seizure of the cargo. But this was no ordinary drug bust; the driver of the mud-splattered pickup truck was a dairy farmer dealing in raw milk” (Wright & Middeldorf, p. 1). Raw milk!!! Are you kidding me? My first thoughts – why is it illegal to sell raw milk? Why can’t I buy it? Who decided? Hm… and who is benefiting from this policy? 

It’s pretty obvious that the beneficiaries of this policy are not diary farmers or we – the costumers. Beneficiaries are big corporations who have monopolized food production and distribution. But look how they camouflage their interests and convince us that it’s “in our own interest” to delegate all of our rights to them. In regard to raw milk, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) states that unpasteurized milk contains E.coli, salmonella, and listeria – dangerous to our health. See, it’s not about corporations, it’s about us. They have our best interests at heart.

When I was first introduced to the western democratic model (on international training for non-profit organizations) I was told that the only healthy model is the collaboration and cooperation of three sectors – governmental, business and civic, or the so called third sector. To function productively and for everybody’s benefit, these sectors should be interdependent but not interchangeable. What I see now is that government and business sectors are totally merged and power is not distributed equally among all players. We delegated all our rights and responsibilities to them. The only way to gain power back is to admit that we don’t really have a democracy, (even though we like to believe that we do) but that we have, according to Kevin Phillips, a plutocracy in which there is a “fusion of money and government.”

Go to any supermarket and you will see about 30,000 different items. The first impression is that we have abundant choices, but in reality there are only a handful of companies who are branding almost identical products and creating an illusion of variety. In the book Hope’s Edge Frances Moore Lappe and her daughter Anna Lappe, make the point that only 138 people – 117 men and 21 women – are in charge of the decision making boards of these companies. “Rather than coming to us from thousands of different farmers producing different local varieties, these products have been globally standardized and selected for maximum profit by just a few powerful executives” writes Brian Halweil in his essay Food Democracy.

Going back to the frog fable, I can see that our ignorance on where food comes from, and how it’s produced and distributed, allows us to feel comfortable. We don’t notice how the water is getting hotter and hotter. Because we see only a little piece of the big picture, it’s easier to manipulate us. We need to step back, connect the dots, and start acting. In the Stolen Harvest Shiva talks about the importance of the development of food democracy; when concerned citizens, such as environmental activists, social activists, consumer activists, farmers, public interest scientists, educators and consumers will unite to fight back.

In the mid-1990s a professor of food policies, Tim Lang, developed the term “food democracy” as a response to growing corporate control and the lack of consumer involvement in the food system. At the core of food democracy is the idea that people can and should be actively participating in shaping the food system, rather than remaining passive spectators on the sidelines. In other words, food democracy is about citizens having the power to determine agro-food policies and practices locally, regionally, nationally, and globally. (Hassanein, p.79).

I started reflection on this topic with the notion that we can “vote with our fork”. According to this position a person who has more money to spend on food of his choice has more votes. But this alone is not enough to change food totalitarianism and achieve food democracy. What about those who have little income and few choices? Can they vote with their forks? Real food democracy means – one person- one vote. The idea of food democracy is to decentralize power, remove it from corporate control, and bring it to people.  

Reference:

Hamilton, N.D., (2004). Essay – Food democracy and the future of American values. Journal of Agricultural law. www.NationalAgLawCenter.org

Hassanein, N. (2003). Practicing food democracy: a pragmatic politics of transformation. Journal of rural studies. 19; 77-86.

Jaspers, Karl. The Fight Against the Totalitarianism. 

            http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/jaspers02.htm

Lappe, F. M., Lappe, A. (2002). Hope’s edge: the next diet for small planet. Tarcher.

Schlosser, E. (2001). Fast Food Nation. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

Shiva Vandana – Interview to CorpWatch http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=573

The Earth Charter - http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/pages/Read-the-Charter.html

Wright, W., Middendorf, G. (2008). The fight over food: producers, consumers, and activists challenge the global food system. Pennsylvania State University Press.

Georgian Supra - How food saved my culture

“We are not only what we eat, but how we eat, too.” – Michael Pollan





“According to Georgian legend, God took a supper break while creating the world. He became so involved with his meal that he inadvertently tripped over the high peaks of the Caucasus, spilling his food onto the land below. The land blessed by Heaven's table scraps was Georgia” (The Georgian Feast).

We, Georgians, love to eat; and believe me we have delicious food. “Every Georgian dish is a poem,” said Alexander Pushkin, a Great Russian poet. Although for Georgians eating is not only about food, but social interaction. Eating is a social act.

 

Any foreigner who ever has been in Georgia will tell you that it would be a crime to miss out on the most quintessential Georgian experience, the supra. A Georgian Supra is a celebratory feast (banquet). We, Georgians, take our eating seriously, but even more so when it comes to celebration. There are various levels of formality in a supra. The most formal supras usually mark weddings, baptisms, birthdays, Easter, Christmas, housewarmings or funerals. But usually we can find any reason to get together and celebrate, because the main reason for supra is not the consumption of food but a human interaction.

The supra is usually held at a single long table, or a string of tables running end to end. When the guests arrive, most of the food is already set out. The food varies by region, but almost always includes chicken and ham, different vegetables with walnuts, salads, assorted cheese, fish, walnut and plum sauces, beans, and fresh greens such as parsley, spring onion, tarragon, radish, or watercress. As the supra goes on, more hot food is brought out--lamb stew (chakapuli), Cheese bread (khachapuri), and Georgian dumplings (khinkali). The food keeps coming, but the serving plates are not removed; so, by the end of the meal, the plates of food are literally stacked on top of each other. At the end of the meal, the host brings out sweets for desert.

There is no supra without wine; it’s as important as the food. Georgians claim that we are a country of winemaking. In his book “Georgia” Tim Burford writes,
”There’s been wine in Georgia almost as long as there have been Georgians: around 6,000-7,000 years. Wine is absolutely central to the Georgian lifestyle and to their self-image...There are at least 500 varieties of grape in Georgia, with up to 38 in common use” (Burford, p.71-72).
Wine is considered a holy drink (it has energy of sun, energy of earth and energy of a person who made it) and maybe because of this wine is never drunk without toasting.

Every and any time where wine is to be consumed, even if only two men are present. One of them is appointed to be toastmaster (tamada). An ideal tamada must have the skills of an orator, a poet, a philosopher, a social commentator, a singer, and also good drinker.

He is expected to give deep, meaningful toasts and keep the supra-goers entertained at all times. Most importantly, the tamada must always drink the most at the table but can never act drunk.

This is how Kevin Tuite from University of Montreal describes supra etiquette,
” No wine is to be consumed unless a toast (sadγegrdzelo) has first been pronounced by the drinker. But that is far from all: Each round of drinking begins with a toast on a particular topic declaimed by the tamada, after which he – and only he – drinks. After the toastmaster finishes, the other guests, one after the other, give toasts of their own on the same theme, then each of them drinks. Furthermore, each drinker, ideally, should drink ALL of the wine in his drinking vessel (glass, horn, or whatever it might happen to be) in a single draught. In practice, only the tamada is obliged to adhere to this rule, but the other men strive to consume at least half of the wine in their glasses. Although the toastmaster chooses the subject of each round of toasts, his choice is by no means free. The order of toasts, especially in the opening phase of the banquet, follows a quite rigid sequence, although the exact order followed depends on the type of occasion, and also the region of Georgia where the banquet takes place. Anywhere from three (the absolute minimum, to my knowledge) to three dozen or more rounds of toasts may occur during a single banquet. A typical evening supra in a private home might go on for three or four hours, though banquets lasting from 7 or 8 pm until 3 o’clock or later at night are not at all rare.”

For a while now, I am trying to find the answer to a question – what purpose does all this strict traditions at the Georgian supra serve? I read somewhere that cultural traits are usually reactions against something. Therefore, culture can be understood as a reaction against one thing and in favor of some other thing.  I wondered what the explanation of Georgian obsession is for supra. It’s not love of food as such, or drinking for main purpose to become drunk. Supra is a way of communication through consumption of food and drink. But what is underlying purpose? And I found answer in Florian Muehlfried’s book “Post-Soviet feasting – the Georgian Banquet in transition” (unfortunately book is only in German not in English).

According to Muehlfried Georgian supra became especially important in the 19^th century, when Georgian kingdom became protectorate of Russian empire, and afterwards in the Soviet times. He argues that the Georgian supra was a major way to provide secondary education. Tsarist Russia first, and then Soviet official institutions were suppressing Georgian culture, its, oral history, Georgian way of life, and development of Georgian identity. Schools were dominated by Russian superstructures. And supra became “a very important vehicle that helped preserve this oral history.” Supra was the way to channel knowledge and values through generations - people talked about history, national heroes, folk, and rituals. Through tradition of supra we managed to preserve unique Georgian cuisine, diversity of food and wine, songs and dances. It was a way to protect Georgia’s past, traditions and identity.

Muehlfried believes that Georgian identity was set against Russian identity, and supra, as we know it today was developed as the way of coping with oppression. “On an official level, national identity was suppressed. Thus, on a sub-cultural level, people reacted and paid more attention to practices like the supra, and these practices became more important “(Muehlfried). I heard so many times from our elders that Georgian supra is an academia where we learn from each other. But only now, being so far away from my motherland I see the deep meaning of those words.

In his article “Home Grown” Brian Halweil mentions Slow Food Movement. On their web-site one can read “Slow Food stands at the crossroads of ecology and gastronomy, ethics and pleasure. It opposes the standardization of taste and culture, and the unrestrained power of the food industry multinationals and industrial agriculture. We believe that everyone has a fundamental right to the pleasure of good food and consequently the responsibility to protect the heritage of food, tradition and culture that make this pleasure possible. Our association believes in the concept of neo-gastronomy - recognition of the strong connections between plate, planet, people and culture.” Looks like Georgian supra has internal agreement with the Slow Food Movement and really played its role in saving my culture. But will it be strong enough to withstand pressure of the Fast Food industry?

      

             

           

Reference:

Brian Halweil – Home Grown. Worldwatch Paper 163. November 2002.

Florian Muehlfried – “Post-Soviet Feasting – the Georgian Banquet in Transition” - http://www.amazon.com/Postsowjetische-Feiern-Georgische-Post-Soviet-Politics/dp/3898216012/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1287453238&sr=8-1

Kevin Tuite – “The autocrat of the banquet table: the political and social significance of the    Georgian supra.” http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:wj6QfLW-iVwJ:www.mapageweb.umontreal.ca/tuitekj/publications/Tuite-supra.pdf+kevin+tuite+georgian+supra&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgFpMyV1AXC9p6RiVDzEctEYLN8sXkmSifvlHp4UtuvvQOMos8JPsrHNvl7VlNzg5uTbY0zHGXKMoLWesG1PbPoSSPxsW8cmymxMilJDSJigyJ4MvyYlclS0JtssRuhBA9bTJsf&sig=AHIEtbRcey6THvlNW0zi8g41hhLisN1ajQ

Michael Pollan – “Omnivore’s Dilemma”

Slow Food - http://www.slowfood.com/international/2/our-philosophy

The Georgian Feast - http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520219298