Understanding Culture Food, Faith, & Culture Dr. Fred Foy Strang For this exercise you are conducting anthropological “field research” through participation, participant observation, and data recording. This is a simple foray into the field so it does not include a formal literature review or establishment of hypotheses. Our task is simply to experience and reflect upon a ‘hands-on’ opportunity for actual observation, data recording, and preliminary analysis. Food is an important part of everyone’s culture. Food is also connected to religious observance and spiritual ritual for many different faiths, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. The role of food in cultural practices and religious beliefs is complex and varies among individuals and communities. Focus on the Issue (Food, Faith, & Culture) • To examine local and non-indigenous cultural influences reflected at various at public eateries? • To discover where these distinctives find convergence or how local culture is reflected in the eatery/food. • To observe social dynamics and cultural practices in public eateries and postulate connections to local culture and/or religion. Focus on Observation What are the surroundings? What are people wearing? What language(s)/dialect(s) is/are spoken? What customs are observed? Who is involved in these customs? What do you notice about the participants (workers/owners/customers). Focus on Interaction Who is serving you? What do you observe about their work? Are their other people involved in the establishment? What are their roles? You are encouraged to engage in ‘non- directive interviewing’ on the topic of food and its relationship to culture & religion. (This is simply getting a responder to talk and converse about a certain subject as opposed to ‘directive interviewing’ which asks specific questions or utilizes surveys.) Focus on Participation Place an order for something to eat. How is the food you ordered and will eat related to the cultural influences you are observing? How do you pay for your food and recognize the service you received? Focus on Analysis (This will be a minimum of 4 double spaced pages and a maximum of 7). Document your research in a formal report format. Include in your analysis preliminary answers to the initial issues. Finally, postulate a relationship between food, culture and faith. What questions require further research? What kind of research might that be? .

1. Understanding Culture
Food, Faith, & Culture
Dr. Fred Foy Strang
For this exercise you are conducting anthropological “field
research” through participation,
participant observation, and data recording. This is a simple
foray into the field so it does not
include a formal literature review or establishment of
hypotheses. Our task is simply to
experience and reflect upon a ‘hands-on’ opportunity for actual
observation, data recording, and
preliminary analysis.
Food is an important part of everyone’s culture. Food is also
connected to religious
observance and spiritual ritual for many different faiths,
including Christianity, Judaism,
Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. The role of food in cultural
practices and religious beliefs is
complex and varies among individuals and communities.
Focus on the Issue (Food, Faith, & Culture)
• To examine local and non-indigenous cultural influences
reflected at various at public
eateries?
• To discover where these distinctives find convergence or how
local culture is

2. reflected in the eatery/food.
• To observe social dynamics and cultural practices in public
eateries and postulate
connections to local culture and/or religion.
Focus on Observation
What are the surroundings? What are people wearing? What
language(s)/dialect(s) is/are
spoken? What customs are observed? Who is involved in these
customs? What do you
notice about the participants (workers/owners/customers).
Focus on Interaction
Who is serving you? What do you observe about their work?
Are their other people
involved in the establishment? What are their roles? You are
encouraged to engage in ‘non-
directive interviewing’ on the topic of food and its relationship
to culture & religion. (This is
simply getting a responder to talk and converse about a certain
subject as opposed to
‘directive interviewing’ which asks specific questions or
utilizes surveys.)
Focus on Participation
Place an order for something to eat. How is the food you
ordered and will eat related to the
cultural influences you are observing? How do you pay for
your food and recognize the
service you received?

3. Focus on Analysis
(This will be a minimum of 4 double spaced pages and a
maximum of 7).
Document your research in a formal report format. Include in
your analysis preliminary
answers to the initial issues. Finally, postulate a relationship
between food, culture and faith.
What questions require further research? What kind of research
might that be?