Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates how talk about and around food in Dominica contributes to cultural continuity and change in the sociocultural meanings of creole cuisine, modernity, and national identity.

Paper long abstract:

This paper investigates how talk about and around food in Dominica contributes to cultural continuity and change in the sociocultural meanings of creole cuisine (Ochs and Shohet 2006). In Dominica, a distinction between local and non-local pervades discourses about food in the home, community, and nation. Types of foods and methods of food production and preparation index rural/urban differences, socioeconomic class, social identity, and ideas about tradition and modernity. Many foods that are grown and prepared in rural communities are considered local or "traditional." Things "brought in" from town or abroad are considered foreign and expensive, but also "modern" and desirable. In rural villages, packaged foods have become associated with higher status and wealth, while foods like root crops are increasingly considered old-fashioned and signifying lower socioeconomic means. Meanwhile, local "creole" food has become part of national efforts at cultural revitalization as well as the development of a tourism industry. This paper examines how child language socialization practices in rural settings devalue local foodways and cultivate the desire for commercially available goods, while cultural revitalization and ecotourism discourses prize and promote them as representing a uniquely Dominican culture and identity. Further, it analyzes a recent debate over which "national dish" truly represents this postcolonial nation, as its previous dish was based on a now endangered frog. The paper gives insights into how language and food are intertwined and related to identity, nationalism, and cultural and linguistic change over time.