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- Convenors:
-
Håkan Jönsson
(Lund University)
Tanja Kockovic Zaborski (Ethnographic Museum)
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- Chair:
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Daša Ličen
(Scientific Research Centre - Slovenian Academy of Science and Arts)
- Format:
- Panel
Short Abstract:
We invite papers on food as communication beyond writing, from cave paintings to social media, and/or dealing with undocumented social and material practices of food and eating. The panel wish to explore if the unwriting theme can unwrap alternatives to current hierarchies in the food system.
Long Abstract:
The panel invite papers that reflect on food as communication beyond the written word, from ancient cave paintings to contemporary social media. What does the multi-sensory forms of communication that food offers add to the textual and visual forms of communication? What does the transition from printed cookery books to tik tok movies mean for culinary skills, and the symbolic meaning of food?
The panel also wish to explore if the unwriting theme can unwrap alternatives to current hierarchies in the food system. Can the unwriting of food facilitate a de-centering of the human subject? How can the understanding of proper meals and food quality change if we move beyond the hierarchies of ingredients found in menus and cookery books?
The panel further invites research exploring undocumented social and material practices of food and eating. It may be historical accounts of pre-colonial practices in the Global South, oral stories from homeless people in contemporary urban settings or any other food stories excluded from food writings.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper Short Abstract:
Food is a vital component of two pre-wedding rituals practiced by women in Northern Scotland, the hen party and the blackening. Food is used in both, but in contrasting ways. This paper explores the multisensory uses of food during this liminal period and the unwritten messages it conveys.
Paper Abstract:
Food is a vital component of two pre-wedding rituals practiced by women in Northern Scotland, the hen party and the blackening. Although food is used in both, it is used in totally contrasting ways. At the hen party it is consumed, whereas at the blackening it is used as a component in a “gunge” which is thrown over the bride-to-be to dirty or “blacken” her. And while food is consumed at a hen party in an apparently normal fashion, a closer examination of consumption practice shows that there are some idiosyncrasies, both in terms of what is eaten and for what purpose. A particular group of foodstuffs has been created, lewd in appearance, to cater specifically for hen parties. This paper will explore the multisensory uses of food during this liminal period and the unwritten messages it conveys.
Paper Short Abstract:
Activities in kitchens from Mexico and Spain do not suggest a plain opposition between the written and the non-written, but rather its articulation. A multiplicity of ways of inscription, description, and prescription punctuates the flow of activities where they coexist, merge, and/or collide.
Paper Abstract:
What role does writing play in kitchen life? How do various forms of inscription coexist, blend, or conflict with non-writing activities and practices? We explore this question through a comparative lens, focusing on kitchens in Mexico and Spain. The everyday acts of cooking, chatting, and eating—alongside other intimate activities happening in kitchens—reveal a rich interplay between inscription, description, and prescription. This triad punctuates the interaction rhythm, shaping how people connect, create, and share in these domestic spaces.
Our comparison draws on self-ethnographies of kitchen life conducted by students in the two countries, representing diverse ages and backgrounds. The “A Cultural World in My Kitchen” exercise invited participants to document, photograph, describe, and analyze the activities and interactions in their kitchens. The resulting corpus comprises hundreds of texts, and photographs filled with vivid accounts of habits, actors, spaces, and dispositions. This collection forms part of the larger In Kitchens project—a multi-sited ethnography spanning six cities, led by twelve researchers.
The task of description requires the student, dweller, and author to adopt an intensely self-reflective attitude. It quickly becomes evident that analyzing one’s kitchen intertwines with personal biography, tastes, relationships, and individual context. Discussions of cooking, eating, and nourishment are never neutral, detached, or dispassionate. On the one hand, this exercise highlights the profound and often unspoken influence of these non-written activities. On the other, it reveals their inextricable connection to a nuanced repertoire of ancient and modern forms of inscription—textual, analog, and digital—such as the clock, the recipe, and the planner.
Paper Short Abstract:
This paper examines how sensory practices communicate coffee quality, focusing on differences between Brazilian and British coffee tasters. By investigating these multisensory dynamics, the study highlights how embodied tasting practices convey meaning and value within the global food system.
Paper Abstract:
This paper explores how sensory language and flavour perception communicate coffee quality beyond textual descriptors, uncovering how sensory practices shape the global coffee trade. Focusing on divergences between Brazilian and British coffee tasters, it examines how the sensory lexicon—anchored in tools like the Coffee Taster’s Flavour Wheel—reproduces Northern Hemisphere hierarchies, marginalizing producers in coffee-growing nations. By investigating these multisensory dynamics, the study highlights how embodied tasting practices convey meaning and value within the global food system.
Grounded in a sensory anthropology of food but paired with experimental sensory science work, we looked at how professional coffee tasters from Brazil and the UK develop and deploy sensory references. Blind cupping sessions reveal contextual shifts in flavour descriptions when evaluating coffee for different markets. Complementary interviews and participant observation document the tacit, material, and social dimensions of sensory expertise, emphasizing unwritten forms of communication central to the coffee supply chain.
By analyzing sensory practices as communicative acts, this research challenges established hierarchies of taste and knowledge. It considers how unwriting can reframe food quality and value, centering diverse lived experiences and non-textual narratives. This approach offers pathways to disrupt systemic inequalities, fostering more inclusive and equitable communication within the global coffee economy.
Paper Short Abstract:
Cookbooks and menus have been powerful tools for organizing discourses about the proper meal, giving priority to consumption of animal sourced foods. Inspired by Mary Douglas, the paper discusses if it is possible to unwrite the menu hierarchy, making space for plant based food to become proper meals in all kinds of social settings?
Paper Abstract:
Cookbooks and menus have been powerful tools for organizing discourses about the proper meal. The culinary texts were mostly organized around the main source of proteins, often with meat in focus. Headings such as Red meat, White meat, Game, Fish and seafood, etc are examples of an hierarchic structure favouring the consumption of animals. Green dishes, if on the menu, were offered as side dishes or as small dishes between the main courses, but with a few exceptions not considered to be stand alone meals.
The transition towards sustainable food systems require a reduction of meat consumption. But is it possible to unwrite the menu hierarchy, making space for plant based food to become proper meals in all kinds of social settings? The paper builds on ongoing ethnographic studies of chefs and domestic cooks working to challenge meat based definitions of proper meals. With examples from the Nordic countries, the paper asks questions concerning the development of plant based meals. How do they affect social relations? How can they be presented and sold on fine dining restaurants? Inspired by Mary Douglas, the paper aims to decipher a vegan meal, in all its symbolic, linguistic and material components.
Paper Short Abstract:
This paper explores Latvian family food rituals as unwritten, multi-sensory practices. It examines how these rituals reflect diverse values, identities, and relationships, focusing on the complexities of family dynamics, food decision-making, and evolving food systems.
Paper Abstract:
Food rituals in this study are viewed as both deliberate and habitual practices that create unwritten, multi-sensory narratives, reflecting values, identities, and relationships. In Latvian families, these rituals, influenced by ecological, social, psychological, cultural, and economic factors, function as dynamic communication systems beyond textual expression.
Building on insights into family food decision-making, the study examines food rituals as an interplay between individual preferences, shared goals, and contextual limitations. The research employs qualitative methods, including in-depth interviews, participant observations, and digital ethnography, to investigate food practices in rural and urban Latvian households. Interviews capture personal narratives and intergenerational stories, while participant observations focus on the preparation and sharing of meals in everyday and celebratory contexts. Digital ethnography highlights how food rituals extend into digital spaces.
Key processes such as food acquisition, preparation, and meal sharing are explored as essential components of family food routines. These routines adapt to changing socioeconomic and cultural contexts, balancing household priorities, economic resources, and personal preferences to maintain harmony at mealtimes.
This study demonstrates how sensory interactions—taste, smell, and touch—shape family food rituals and reveal their multi-dimensional nature. By analyzing these practices, the research highlights the capacity of unwritten rituals to foster inclusive and sustainable food systems, offering new perspectives on food quality, equity, and resilience.
Paper Short Abstract:
Through the teaching if ‘not quite right, but good enough,’ simplified Hong Kong recipes shared not through written recipes but communal cooking, Hong Kongers find ways to share their unspoken political beliefs and identity surrounding Hong Kong and their migration, making spaces of unwritten, unspoken, understood identity and community building.
Paper Abstract:
This paper explores how recent Hong Kong migrants adapt Hong Kong-style cuisines to beginner skills and UK food shops, Hong Kongers in Bristol often gathered around food - sharing recipes and cooking techniques as well as comradery. Finding ‘shortcuts’ to recipes, Hong Kongers prepare dishes with the phrase, “it’s not quite right, but it’s good enough!” These recipes are shared in-person, as a central part of socializing, remaining unwritten, as people will simply regather for another demonstration rather than write notes. Centralising the social aspect of knowledge transfer through doing creates a space of ‘productive community’ - gathering around the acquisition of skills. In a carefully depoliticised space of good enough Hong Kong food, identity and allusion to politics painted a silent picture of Hong Kong, recent migration, and the politics of resettling in the UK. While at once I was continually told ‘not to mention politics or why people migrated,’ unsaid, unwritten, but not unheard politics were told to me in round about ways, ‘not quite right (explicit), but good enough’ ways of still conveying political views and reasons for leaving without having to bring up politics. Discussions surrounding food highlight how ‘traditional,’ ‘authentic’ Hong Kong-style food is disappearing in Hong Kong, with the PRC’s ‘mainlandization’ of Hong Kong (Chan, Nachman, Mok 2021). ‘Mainlandization’ led to a mass exodus of not quite refugees, partly to maintain ‘Hong Kong culture and identity.’ Discussions of identity and Hong Kong are left, like the ‘good enough’ recipes, unwritten, unspoken, but not unknown.
Paper Short Abstract:
The so-called traditional and poor communities have always used their senses and memory to build games of flavors based on what, for some, is considered non-food. It is a cuisine “outside” the recipe books, with strong family, community and identity contours that, in recent years, has become a fashion phenomenon.
Paper Abstract:
The so-called traditional and poor communities have always used their senses and memory to build games of flavors based on what, for some, is considered non-food. In Portugal, until the 70s of the 20th century, there was a high rate of illiteracy, especially in the interior of the country and within women group, therefore, except among the elites, cuisine was essentially transmitted by memory. Training was used which, from an early age, gave, almost exclusively to girls and women, the skills to replicate family or local recipes.
In the case of Baixo Alentejo, where the majority of the population did not have agricultural land or vegetable gardens, it was a food generally poor in ingredients, based on bread and the collection of wild species, which used legumes and some horticultural species and which had a scarce amount of meat and fish.
It is a cuisine “outside” the recipe books, with strong family, community and identity contours that, in recent years, has become a fashion phenomenon. Its presence in cookery books is subsequent to the recipes made in the homes of the elite or wealthy, which used the finest parts of slaughtered animals and fish, in addition to a diverse range of vegetables, legumes, cheeses, fruits, sweets and game meats. .
Women's illiteracy allowed recipes to become more heterogeneous, with local variants of the same recipe and also the closure and crystallization of ways of preparing and making them.
Paper Short Abstract:
This article analyzes the representation of Roma culinary traditions in social media. Examining the phenomenon of Roma cuisine on social media raises many important questions, such as food and identity politics, ethnic eating habits and stereotypes, and the relationship between activism and food.
Paper Abstract:
Romani culinary traditions are a complex phenomenon, as Roma refers to various groups that call themselves Roma, Sinti, Travelers, Manouches, Gitanes. There is no specific Roma cuisine; it varies and is influenced by the culinary traditions of the countries in which they have often lived for centuries. Roma cuisine has been associated with racist stereotypes in the past. In Eastern Europe, "Roma" dishes are often described in public discourse as being made from cheap ingredients or leftovers, or as having a dark color. Nowdays young Roma on social media, seeking to connect with their family heritage and community, present traditional recipes in a modern form. The focus of this article is therefore not on what constitutes authentic Roma cuisine or its typical characteristics, but rather on how young Roma use digital technologies to present their culinary heritage. Particular attention will be paid to how they negotiate their cultural identities and heritage in an environment where they are often marginalized and discriminated against. Examining the phenomenon of Roma cuisine on social media raises many important questions, such as food and identity politics, ethnic eating habits and stereotypes, and the relationship between activism and food.