Two anthropologists treat mealtimes as cultural sites forsocializing c - PDF document

Two anthropologists treat mealtimes as cultural sites forsocializing children into commensality, communicativeexpectations, and the symbolic, moral, and sentimentalmeanings of food and eating. Using ethnographicevidence, they indicate how mealtime comportment isembedded in practices and ideologies relevant to sites are here conceptualized as historically durable yet transformable,socially organized and organizing, and tempospatially situated arenas,Cultural sites are given life through recurrent social participation andnecessarily share common understandings and knowledge of the situation IRECTIONSFORHILDAND, no. 111, Spring 2006© Wiley Periodicals, Inc. EALTIMEASAONTEXTOFEVELOPMENTANDculture. As vehicles, mealtimes constitute universal occasions for membersor less conventional and demarcated as a kind of social practice thatrequires certain sensibilities of participants. Mealtimes vary within andacross social groups in relation to participation, setting, duration, mealThese considerations inform the cultural structuring of mealtime social-altered through socially and experientially asymmetrical relationships. Agood deal of scholarship has been devoted to eliminating an either-ordren, while children are endowed with the agentive capacity to appropriatewith a more knowledgeable participant (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Rogoff,ologies and social arrangements for learning. This chapter considers waysas either observers and overhearers or as more central participants (forLanguage socialization is the process by which children and othercollaborative construction of social order and cultural understandings. Insome cases, the sociocultural messages are conveyed explicitly to the lesscommunicative strategies can co-occur in the same mealtime and can beIRECTIONSFORHILDAND (family) was stipulated as Òthose who feed togetherÓ (Lacey, 1968, p. 15).Similarly, on the Micronesian island of Fais, the family roles of father andfood, and extended family relationships are maintained through redistribu-share their food items. Among the Kaluli of Papua New Guinea, for exam-ple, young children are socialized through prompting to obtain food fromword before the neutral form of the Þrst-person pronoun (Ochs, 1988),Fais island, children who fail to notice when food is ready may be tauntedrimanded for their greed, while boys come to expect prime selections ofand Western Europe has been for family members to come together for theevening meal (Dreyer & Dreyer, 1973; Murcott, 1982; Ochs, Pontecorvo,all family members are seated at the table, they may be explicitly repri-manded, as in the American family dinner interaction below (Ochs &MOTHER:() Come on. DonÕt start eating yet. You know better...TRUCTURINGOFIRECTIONSFORHILDAND EALTIMEASAONTEXTOFEVELOPMENTANDLAURIE:I wanna pray. (MOTHER:Wait a minute Laurie. (social order whereby certain members eat before others, according to gen-ily members take food before the younger generation, and Òon formaldining table until the adults are Þnished, or seated at a table separate fromshare their food (Ochs, 1988). During more intimate family mealtimes,before women and children when several family units assemble, but inrounding quality and amount of food according to generation, gender, andsocial rank. For example, in a study of Italian family mealtimes, parents1996; Sterponi, 2002). In contrast, in the United States, parents emphasizeMOTHER:(ADAM:Okay okay.IRECTIONSFORHILDAND regarding the morality of food distribution and consumption and the rightsof adults and children to determine how, when, and how much familyhealth-related meanings. Adults and children can also use food as a symbolof communal identity over historical time as well as to afÞrm or diminishDouglas, 1975; Farb & Armelagos, 1980; Goody, 1982; Mintz & Du Bois2002); less attention has been devoted to the practices through which chil-ChildrenÕs development is often linked to contact with or avoidance offood item offered to infants, all children are eventually weaned. In the high-from village Þelds (Hollan & Wellenkamp, 1996). In Papua New Guinea,aging them to take responsibility for the food taboo (Schieffelin, 1990, p. 69).At mealtimes, different aspects of the food may be accentuated in dif-ferent social groups. A comparative study of U.S. and Italian dinnertimesocialization, for example, found that U.S. parents urged children to eattiations and tensions at the dinner table, as illustrated below (pp. 14Ð16):FATHER:If you donÕt eat a good dinner you wonÕtIÕm especially concerned about eating your vegetables, okay? They haveTRUCTURINGOFIRECTIONSFORHILDAND JANIE:I would like to leave this (FATHER:Eat the vegetables? (JANIE:And eat that (FATHER:You eat one piece of corn and two pieces of the green...someIn cases as the above, childrenÕs compliance with eating their mealSocializing children into food as a reward focused in the United Statesportion of the meal, framing meat and vegetables as food the children mustFATHER:Whoever does not Þnish their vegetables does not get any iceilies evidenced this contradiction at the family dinner table, as illustratedSANDRA:(FATHER:Drink your milk Þrst. You heard Mom.LAURA:Mommy? (FATHER:Yeah (food items as part of their personalities and sought to afÞrm these prefer-of positive affect to praise both the food and the person who prepared or EALTIMEASAONTEXTOFEVELOPMENTANDIRECTIONSFORHILDAND CHILD:Mamma questo pezzettino lo voglioMamma questo pezzettino lo voglioIn addition to commending the food and its preparer or purchaser, par-ents at the Italian family dinners would also recount their own positivener, food items were not only imbued with positive sentiments but alsoserved to link family members across generations, and in some cases toInvoking spirits of ancestors in the consumption of food is commonacross many societies, where children and other family members arefamily (Bloch, 1985; Feeley-Harnik, 1994; Watson, 1987). The emphasis onrefuse othersÕ attempts to get them to eat, when others reject childrenÕsEating disorders such as anorexia and compulsive overeating areassociated with issues of care and control in the family. In the case ofersÕ care and control (Katzman & Lee, 1997). Though anorexia is multi-determined, its increasing prevalence (Anderson-Fye & Becker, 2003)about food and the body. These messages have been exported to andinvolves clinical attempts to resocialize sufferers through a variety ofTRUCTURINGOFIRECTIONSFORHILDAND self-destructive. Those undergoing resocialization, however, may Þnd thesechildrenÕs socialization into mealtime communication, it is important towill largely remain silent during the course of the meal, as among theMatsigenka of the Peruvian Amazon (Izquierdo, 2001). Alternatively, insome families and communities, children are expected to generally remainers providing more than half of all comments at the dinner table (De Geer,If there is communicative activity at mealtimes, children are socializedauthor (person who composes message), animator (person who utters mes-communicative activity) (Goffman, 1981). Across social groups, expecta-EALTIMEASAONTEXTOFEVELOPMENTANDIRECTIONSFORHILDAND ChildrenÕs table manners, for example, have been a focus of moralof food, and cut and chew meat. In contemporary times as well, familiesof comportment in excerpts presented earlier in this chapter. Northcorrectly, sit still and attentively, eat fast with concentration, or otherwisefail to display respect (Rydstrom, 2003). Similarly, Chinese children areStates, for example, children in certain families are expected to lead, join in,drenÕs song that gives thanks for Òthe sun, the rain and the apple seedÓ), sud-DAVID:BANG! BANG! MaxwellÕs silver fork!FATHER:(MOTHER:(come, as David also joins his parents in Þnishing the grace with a series ofTRUCTURINGOFIRECTIONSFORHILDAND personal or collective signiÞcance is often a central facet of the meal, asimportant as the food consumed. While in some cases, one family memberportion of narrative space, and hence socialization for narrative skills...relies more heavily on modeling and on allowing (limited) participation inEven when they are not the primary authors, animators, or principalssal, powerful medium for socializing children into moral perspectives.incidents that transpired in the course of the day or the recent past. TellingLUCY:I donÕt think Mrs. Arnold is being fair becauseMOTHER:Mhm?LUCY:She onlyÐÐall she did was get a day in detention.MOTHER:Mhm? You think she should have gotten suspended? (LUCY:At leastÐÐthatÕsÐÐMOTHER:Mhm?LUCY:Not allowed in school.EALTIMEASAONTEXTOFEVELOPMENTANDIRECTIONSFORHILDAND gression: suspension from school. After a detached, ironic commentary byelementary school principalsÓ), both her mother and her little brother,MOTHER:Lucy was ...I mean you really would haveheld back because you thought your school was going to do it and theCHUCK:I think she should be in there for a MONTH or so welldaycount on the support of at least some of her family and that her motherCHUCK:LucyÐÐyou only went to it LucyÕs moral high ground is undermined by this disclosure. Herreceived the same amount of detention. We suggest that like Lucy, othernarrated during mealtimes. As such, some children come to regard dinner-interrogation and criticism (Blum-Kulka, 1997; Ochs & Taylor, 1992;TRUCTURINGOFIRECTIONSFORHILDAND PAPË:Leonardo.PAPË:Ascolta una cosa. [Listen to this.] Come mai oggi hai grafÞato a IvanAscolta una cosa. [Listen to this.] Come mai oggi hai grafÞato a Ivanyouscratched Ivan today?](2.5) (Leonardo looks at Papˆ)PAPË:Eh?Eh?Here the father offers the possibility that Leonardo may have beentime narratives, a parent may take the blame himself or herself for a childÕsThis chapter has considered language socialization and cultural appren-ticeship into family mealtimes. Ethnographic evidence from various partscally signiÞcant for the reproduction of families and social groups, but areordering of who eats before, after, or along with whom; the social distribu-participants. In many communities, children are often expected to eat afteradults and to be relatively silent. Through engagement in this mealtimecontrast, in many households in the United States, children are expected toa focus in many U.S. family mealtime discussions on parental attempts tonutritious. 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