Dignitas: You Gonna Eat That?
Reflection Paper
DUE Thursday, December 2
This assignment asks that you be an anthropologist at the Thanksgiving table. Consider what foods are present on the table. What do they represent? Mean? To whom? Generations? Genders? People who “married in?”
Where did they come from? What do they say about your family? Your culture?
What happens at the table? Who sits next to who? How long does the meal go on? What do people talk about?
As part of this assignment, do at least ONE of the following:
1. Help shop for and/or prepare some of the food—DO IT!
2. Interview older relatives about the dinner and/or the meanings of food in their past and current lives—DO IT!
3. See your grandmother’s favorite cookbook and discuss it with her—DO IT!
As you write this essay, reflect on your reading, our class discussions and presentations and other experiences you’ve had this semester thus far. Seek connections!
This year, I helped my mom make the meal. I made the pie, and when we went to my granparents' for thanksgiving, I made the sweet potatos. The pie I made was a creamy pear pie. My mom and I both make it, but she can't make it as good as I can.
ReplyDeleteMy mom made the stuffing, the potatos, which were store bought, the turkey was store bought, the sweet potatos were from the store, my mom made the corn bake out of store bought ingredients. What this means is, as a society, we rely too much on foods from a grocery store, also known as mass produced foods.
We raised turkeys two years ago, but we ate them all, so we couldn't have home grown turkey for thanksgiving.
My dad was on call this year, he's a lineman and works for Lake Country Power out of Grand Rapids. He did not get home until five thirty and my sister was so hungry, that we started having dinner without my dad. We usually sit at the table, but for some reason, we did not this year. So, this year, we ate in front of the tevevision in the living room.
ReplyDeleteWe also had thanksgiving at my grandmother's house, on my mom's side. Usually, everyone is there, in cluding the husbands, but this year, it was only my grandparents, aunt Jena, Dawn, and Toni, Toni's kids, Trevor and Taylor, my mom, my sister, and I. Usually, we have a big table full of people eating, but this year, the table was really small. Afterwards, we had a family game of "crap" on your neighbor.