I am sitting on a terrace in the shade of a vine in the South of France invited by some friends. Not the kind of like-minded buddies we mistake for friends, but the kind of neighbors you know you can count on whatever happens. The day was good, and the evening is promising. Drinking a [...]
Farming system analysis is at the core to what food really is. It describes the ecology of men in nature, or the place of nature in the human environment. This is why this chapter is central in our series. As with every story, a tentative to a coherent picture is presented, while reality is much [...]
The cultural identity is based on the biology, but tastes better.
Answering the question “what do we eat” is central to our omnivorous identity, unknown by herbivores nor carnivores, as they just eat the same every day.
The major cuisines of the world compose meals from the main food groups: meat or milk products when available, beans [...]
There might be as many taboos as people
A taboo food is a food from which people abstain for cultural or religious reasons. As the common meal is an important way to share common humanity, the food taboo is an important way to separate “us” from “them”. While the laws of hospitality join everybody around the [...]
Dining together to create a common identity and as an educational tool
Dining together, is an important community-building institution. Extended family and community are less defined by bloodlines than by sharing a meal on a regular basis or on special occasions such as Christmas, marriage or funerals. Indeed, the genetic offspring was never sure for men, [...]
