Cultural Anthropology Thanksgiving Holiday
Question :
Explore American foodways related to the Thanksgiving holiday, and compare and contrast them to the foodways of one non-industrial society of your choosing.
To remind you, foodways are described on page 1 of Chapter 5 in the textbook.
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 non-industrial society of your choosing. What does a typical meal of your chosen non-industrial society look like? What does a celebratory meal of your chosen non-industrial society look like? How much of the typical or celebratory meal of your chosen non-industrial 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 non-industrial society?
Create a 1-to-3-page, double-spaced paper describing the foodways. The paper must be formatted in APA Style, with an APA-Style title page, running header in the upper left, 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 non-industrial 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.
Answer :
My family’s Thanksgiving meal must have turkey, as typical with American family’s meal (Bir et al, 2020). There are no particular food restriction for American’s family’s Thanksgiving meal, but for my family’s meal there are few things that are not allowed. These are cranberry sauce and green bean casserole. At present, the Thanksgiving meal of a typical American family can be traced to various states around the country. As for instance, turkey is famously procured from Minnesota, cranberry sauce (cranberries) from Wisconsin, stuffing and rolls (wheat) from Kansas, mashed potatoes (potatoes) from Idaho, green beans from Wisconsin, sweet potatoes from North Carolina, and pumpkin pie (pumpkins) from Illinois. As far as gender division in labour is concerned, the load of in-house work on a particular Thanksgiving day mostly rest on the women’s shoulder, and external work load is borne by male counterpart. In my family, however, everyone can be found involved from procuring material to cooking and preparing the meal. Only the guests do not involve. For few years, however, turkey for Thanksgiving has come from my farm of my Grandpa, until it stopped then family resorted to purchase of turkey from the market. Grandpa’s turkey created a different kind of emotional association in the mind than we can feel with the purchased turkey. In my family, the days that lead up to the Thanksgiving, the Thanksgiving Day, and the days afterwards are equally significant. Everyone can be found running in all directions arranging for everything for the final day whether it is menu planning, decoration arrangement, recipe selection, or others. And after the Thanksgiving Day, everyone can be found handling the leftover items.
A non-industrial society picked for comparison is Republic of Congo has been taken. The families grow their own agricultural food items. The country is mostly being run on subsistence farming where often the goal of growing something by family members is self-consumption. Some of the food items are procured through export, but most of them are grown locally. If the example of Thanksgiving is taken, then it can be said that as with American culture, Turkey is not the first thing run towards every year. There menu contains several traditional items such as samboussas plantains (pastry filled in beef), African beignets, bananas, and beans ("Thanksgiving Traditions - New American Pathways", 2020). As for gender division, the in house chore is handled by women and external activities are handled by their male counterpart. There is mostly self-dependence on the food items that will be included in a particular celebration. However, gradually with the growing economy, the dependence on food item procurement can be witnessed as there are some food items that have become common to all families during celebration and whose procurement require engaging in commercial sales and purchases. Unlike American, the foodways of Republic of Congo is different. The economy is yet to achieve self-sufficiency in the area of food production. They mostly cassava (manioc) throughout the country, except the south region where the growth of plantains and bananas are common. Sugarcane, coffee, and cacao is also grown, but enough to be consumed ("Republic of the Congo | capital at Brazzaville", 2020).
References
Bir, C. L., Widmar, N. J. O., Davis, M. K., Erasmus, M. A., & Zuelly, S. (2020). Willingness to pay for whole turkey attributes during Thanksgiving holiday shopping in the United States. Poultry Science.
Republic of the Congo | capital at Brazzaville. (2020). Retrieved 23 May 2020, from https://www.britannica.com/place/Republic-of-the-Congo
Thanksgiving Traditions - New American Pathways. (2020). Retrieved 23 May 2020, from http://newamericanpathways.org/thanksgiving-traditions/
