Social Inquiry
Defining the Social Constructions of Hunger for Mexican Origin People in the U.S.
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Janett Barragan Miranda
On June 1, 1968, George I. Sanchez, chairman of the Mexican American Joint Conference wrote to the Texas Board of Public Health asking for the removal of the Commissioner of Public Welfare following an interview where the commissioner stated, “If a Mexican woman had a bushel of money, she would still feed her kids tortillas and beans,” indicating that food choices rather than circumstances caused malnourishment among people of Mexican origin. Hunger has been a prominent actor in society and this paper explores the social constructions of hunger. Biologically, hunger is defined as the absence of food causing the desire to consume – a commonly recognized sensation. The social constructions of hunger help to define aspects of identity like ethnicity and race. Centering on the experiences of people of Mexican origin, this paper offers examples of the social constructions of hunger from the 20th century, particularly during the War on Poverty, the Civil Rights Movement, and the labor migration of Mexicans to the U.S. As a population that has historically trekked to the U.S. to work in agriculture it is ironic that this group would also be at the center of discussions about hunger and malnourishment. Nonetheless, the discourse used by social workers, nutrition experts, and government officials to describe the dietary circumstances of the Mexican origin population in the U.S. held culture and ethnicity as the culprits of hunger. This paper explores how hunger served to define the community of Mexican origin racially in the U.S.
Towards the Development of a South African Culinary Identity Framework View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Hennie Fisher, Gerrie Elizabeth du Rand
The South Africa (SA) of today consists of a melting pot of cultures (du Rand & Fisher, 2020), including in the mix a relatively recent influx of immigrants from other African countries. These different cultures with their own unique food traditions have contributed to what is today understood to be the everyday food culture of South Africans, often referred to as The Rainbow Cuisine (Snyman & Sawa, 2001). The cultural diversity of the country is celebrated through the opening of restaurants by people of different cultures such as Vusumuzi Ndlovu of The Marabi Club (Qukula, 2018) and the publication of a variety of cookbooks. A local food identity, or a national culinary identity, according to Murcott, Jackson and Belasco (2013) and Moreno and Malone (2021), is described as the shared food habits formed by people within a defined geographical region. Even though the Sackett and Haynes (2012) model in Figure 1 proposes only three main elements, namely ingredients, cooking method and attitudes about food and eating, the Elements of Food Culture and Cuisine model is much more detailed.
