New Trains of Thought

Was anyone else bombarded with all kinds of information they were unaware of? Wow! What an informative introduction! I of course have been a tourist in more places that I guess I even realized throughout my lifetime, but I had no idea the kind of thought and study went toward this field.

The thought that you can be a tourist even in your own home is a new one for me. Though I know that you don’t necessarily need to leave the country to become a tourist, the thought of being one by simply flipping through a cookbook filled with unfamiliar foods is a new concept! I think it’s awesome though. While I was reading I wanted to get out of the library, head back to my dorm, put on some exotic music, sip a drink with a little umbrella in it and flip through a tropical cookbook. The thought that even doing something seemingly silly could somehow transport you and make you think in a bigger way about another culture is really cool to me.

I was also very interested in the fact that we sometimes make certain foods into a “tourist” attraction. Long used the examples of Maine’s lobster or the Georgia peach. These foods are not exclusive to these regions, but because they are easily accessible and many have gone, tried, and liked, they have become staples of those areas. The fact that we can create or destroy a culture’s food is rather powerful. Long paraphrases Donna Gabaccia’s book in saying “as food items were introduced to new consumers and became ‘American,’ they sometimes lost their original meaning as markers of ethnicity. However, those foods that maintained a tourist status also maintained their ethnic symbolism.” This passage makes me wonder how we decide what is “ethnic” and what is “American.” (I think we began to touch on this question in class Tuesday).

Also important to note was the explanation of “other.” We have talked extensively about the “other” in my Anthropology and Sociology class, and it was exciting for me to be able to put these concepts into a different perspective with this essay. As far as food goes,  I have held for some time that there is only “cultural” or “ethnic” foods. Here, we are delving into ideas of food representation far beyond just two categories. Foods may be “other” to us due to time-relation, religious/ethical reasons, regional differences, reasons of gender or age, or even socioeconomic reasons. It is amazing to me the variety which the word “other” holds. There are so many forms of experiencing new things, and there are so so many new things to experience.