Food Culture Of Sarania Kacharies

Abstract

Culture is the identity or felling of belonging to a group. Without culture a race will not be
able to prolong their own identity for a longer period of time. A race can establish their
existence in a global stage through its versatile culture only.
Food is an important cultural feature of a community besides being the most essential
item for survival of human beings. The present study look forward to explore the relations
between food and the community, the way food is socially and culturally constructed in the
Sarania Kacharies society. The preparations and practices of food habit helps to understand
the social relations and focus the cultural identity. This area of work includes issues like
changing food practices, food and culture relations etc. In every community or in every
culture, food ways have important roles to play signifying various beliefs and practices . Food
is not only a collection of products that can be used for statistical or nutritional studies. It is
also, and at the same time, a system of communication, a body of images, a protocol of usages,
situations, and behaviors‖ (Barthes, 1975, pp. 49-50). The historical evidence also reveals
that the effective communication of human being is organized only through the food ways of
every cultural system. “The cuisine of a people and their understanding of the world are
linked‖ (Soler 1973, pp. 943).” Lévi-Strauss states, “natural species are chosen [as totems‖]”
not because they are ‘good to eat’ but because they are good to think‘‖ (1963, pp. 89). Food
as a metaphoric term conveys different meanings and also mediates between nature and
culture. The relation between nature and culture is universal in human society.