Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Sushi and (my lack thereof) Cultural Capital
A few of my friends took me out a few weeks ago for some “real” “authentic” sushi, which besides being an absolutely amazing (and delicious) experience, I also found it to be pretty surprising. I actually felt a little uncomfortable while I was there which I didn't anticipate, especially considering I am pretty food neophilic, so I began to question why was it that I was feeling rather out of place beyond my initial “it just must be that I am trying something new” instinctual reaction that I had. I starting thinking that I had taken for granted my knowledge, my cultural capital, of the rules governing how to eat in Canadian contemporary culture and reflected upon how the ways in which one eats, what one eats, the table mannerisms surrounding how one eats or even the very contrast between whether one uses a table and cutlery or not reveals the great power behind discourses on food and its symbolic use in both differentiating oneself from others as well its use as a means to identify with others in order to belong to a particular group (for example, to a class, ethnicity or religion). Even while writing this, I realize that what I wrote above regarding my attitude towards trying new types of food is really a means of using food and my relationship to it to define my “self” and thus a way of individuating myself from others, which I did not really think about while I was typing it initially.
But, going back to my first “real” sushi experience, what I had noticed during my lunch hour was that I clearly was not familiar with the “rules” of sushi eating and that a change from my usual methodology of eating (as in from a fork and a knife to chopsticks) as well as a change in the context in which I was eating (from say a Western restaurant for instance to a sushi bar) was making the underlying power of food and the social rules surrounding it quite apparent to me. I was really struggling to use chopsticks (which my friends used with such ease that it was really kind of frustrating) and about midway through our meal my friends had to go get me a fork and a knife because I was “eating way too slowly” since I was pretty unsuccessful at getting the food to my mouth that is. Although it was pretty funny to us how poorly I was using the chopsticks, when my friend did go ask the server for some cutlery the servers reaction was sort of a combination of a frown and head shake and the fact that she had to search a bit for some alternative eating utensils really made it apparent that in this context I was clearly using an “improper” and perhaps less “sophisticated” method of eating. I did notice here how variable the signification of what you eat with is – i.e., the use of chopsticks in a Western context previously has been considered as an “uncivilized” means of eating or in the very least as unusual and could look pretty funny at say a fast food restaurant for instance. However, in the context of a sushi bar the signification of the same signifier, the chopsticks, changed from being an “improper” means of eating to the more “proper”, “elite” and even more “civilized” method of eating where the inability to appropriately use them is, well not necessarily “bad” behavior, but certainly not looked upon favourably.
Although food is a very complex indicator of many facets of contemporary culture this really showed me that beyond eating as a means for survival a very complex language exists underlying food and its uses that we often just take as common knowledge and conform to automatically without really thinking about it. This language is neither always explicitly stated nor obvious but it is pretty interesting to really feel how the rules we learn regarding food and proper eating etiquette are really quite influential in directing our behavior which I found especially evident to me in my experience in not being equip with the necessary cultural capital to behave in a "proper" manner at the sushi bar.
An aside note though, my friends told me that only men were allowed to make sushi since women are considered bad sushi makers because their hands are warmer (although I’m not really sure why that makes sushi bad?). I was just interested if anyone knows whether or not this would have any implications, i.e., is the role of the sushi maker revered or not?
But, going back to my first “real” sushi experience, what I had noticed during my lunch hour was that I clearly was not familiar with the “rules” of sushi eating and that a change from my usual methodology of eating (as in from a fork and a knife to chopsticks) as well as a change in the context in which I was eating (from say a Western restaurant for instance to a sushi bar) was making the underlying power of food and the social rules surrounding it quite apparent to me. I was really struggling to use chopsticks (which my friends used with such ease that it was really kind of frustrating) and about midway through our meal my friends had to go get me a fork and a knife because I was “eating way too slowly” since I was pretty unsuccessful at getting the food to my mouth that is. Although it was pretty funny to us how poorly I was using the chopsticks, when my friend did go ask the server for some cutlery the servers reaction was sort of a combination of a frown and head shake and the fact that she had to search a bit for some alternative eating utensils really made it apparent that in this context I was clearly using an “improper” and perhaps less “sophisticated” method of eating. I did notice here how variable the signification of what you eat with is – i.e., the use of chopsticks in a Western context previously has been considered as an “uncivilized” means of eating or in the very least as unusual and could look pretty funny at say a fast food restaurant for instance. However, in the context of a sushi bar the signification of the same signifier, the chopsticks, changed from being an “improper” means of eating to the more “proper”, “elite” and even more “civilized” method of eating where the inability to appropriately use them is, well not necessarily “bad” behavior, but certainly not looked upon favourably.
Although food is a very complex indicator of many facets of contemporary culture this really showed me that beyond eating as a means for survival a very complex language exists underlying food and its uses that we often just take as common knowledge and conform to automatically without really thinking about it. This language is neither always explicitly stated nor obvious but it is pretty interesting to really feel how the rules we learn regarding food and proper eating etiquette are really quite influential in directing our behavior which I found especially evident to me in my experience in not being equip with the necessary cultural capital to behave in a "proper" manner at the sushi bar.
An aside note though, my friends told me that only men were allowed to make sushi since women are considered bad sushi makers because their hands are warmer (although I’m not really sure why that makes sushi bad?). I was just interested if anyone knows whether or not this would have any implications, i.e., is the role of the sushi maker revered or not?
# posted by Kristin @ 6:42 PM 
