Cultural perspective of food in south east asia

1. FOOD CULTURE
AND SYMBOLISM
IN SOUTH ASIA

2. Asian Society
• Asian Culture is divided into six sub regions:
1.) Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan
2.) East Asia (China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Mongolia, and Taiwan)
3.) South Asia (India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh,
and Sri Lanka)
4.) West Asia (corresponds with the Middle East)
5.) North Asia (Russia and Mongolia)
6.) Southeast Asia(Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia,
Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines)

3. • Structure of Asian Society:
- Hunter-Gatherer
- Nomadic
- Agrarian/Rural
- Urban
Asian Society
• Asian Society has adapted to the
various climate zones across Asia:
- Mountains
- Deserts
- Grasslands/Forests
- Wetlands
- Arctic

4. Asian culture and society is also
a mixture of traditional Asian
culture with modern Asian culture

5. Food
Common Foods:
• Rice is a staple of most diets
- Noodles, Bread, and Curry are other important staples
• Fish dishes
- Raw fish popular in Japan (Sushi & Sashimi)
• Goat, Lamb, and Chicken are most common meats
- Hinduism forbids the consumption of beef
• Dishes with spices common in Southeast Asia
- Ginger, cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and coriander
• Stir Fry is most common Asian cooking technique
Dining Etiquette:
• Chopsticks are used as eating utensils in
China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam
• Eating with hands is common in India
Food in Asia varies depending on the different regions:

6. Rice Dishes Noodle Dish
Sushi Dish Curry Dish

7. FOOD SYMBOLISM
• A language is comprised of symbols;
• Symbolic eating is communication; the brain likes
to consolidate and simplify.
• Maybe symbolic eating is processed as language.
Then the neuroscientist in me said did you have a
stroke. Just because we communicate
symbolically with food doesn’t mean we’re
excluded from the goal-directed behavior of
satisfying hunger or hedonic eating pleasure.

8. SOME EXAMPLES
• Dates = Ending the Ramadan fast
Muslims end the fast of Ramadan by emulating Muhammad and symbolically
partaking in three dates. Three dates are also a milestone event for contestants on
The Bachelor.
• Noodles = Longevity
In many East Asian cultures, the New Year is celebrated by consuming the longest
noodles possible. That's because the length of the noodles are associated with
longer life. Want to live forever? NEVER STOP EATING NOODLES.
• Dumpling- symbolizes wealth because the shape is similar to money-related
instruments such as the tael(Chinese weight measure) or Chinese ingots. They are
eaten at midnight of Chinese New Year.
Hinduism
Ghee - sacred food of the Devas. Burnt in the ritual of Aarti, offered to gods, and used
as libation or anointment ritual.
• Pongal - a Tamil dish associated with many Hindu rituals and feast such as
the Pongal feast.
• Modak - a sweet dumpling with a filling of fresh coconut and jaggery made
specially during Ganesh Chaturthi.
• Ghevar - is a Rajasthani sweet traditionally associated with the Teej Festival

9. Food eating culture
• Humans commonly symbolically interact through eating.
For example, sitting at the head of the table symbolizes
head of the house.
• Being selected to carve the Thanksgiving turkey is a symbol
of honor.
• Likewise, holidays have traditional, symbolically associated,
foods. So, during holidays and sit down dinners, we often
symbolically eat or interact.
• We eat symbolically eat comfort foods for nostalgia
because they have personal meaning. Sometimes comfort
foods are comforting because of the neurochemical
benefits of the carbohydrate or fat content

10. • Research says emotional eating is commensurate with
aversive life experiences.
• Research also reports that aversive experiences are
higher in compulsive and binge eaters than in normal
eaters.
• Emotional eating is always symbolic eating and among
the chief architects of compulsive and binge eating.
The probable source of conditioned fear is the
associative, collateral context of aversive objects and
events. It’s also likely that compulsive overeaters have
more conditioned fears than normal eaters because
they have more aversive experiences.

11. Food in Literature
• Eating is a fundamental human activity, an activity that is both necessary
for survival and inextricably connected with social function.
• Eating habits and rituals, the choice of dining companions, and the
reasons behind these behaviors are fundamental to fostering an
understanding of human society.
• Recent psychoanalytic theory suggests that eating practices are essential
to self-identity and are instrumental in defining family, class, and even
ethnic identity.
• Although food and related imagery have long been part of literature,
psychological theories have led to the examination of food and eating as a
universal experience.
• Themes related to food are common among all types of writing, and they
are often used as a literary device for both visual and verbal impact. For
example, food-related images in the theater are commonly used to create
a mood or convey an idea. Food is also a significant theme in literature by
and about women and in children's literature.