| dc.description.abstract | "Based on ten weeks of fieldwork in New Orleans, we argue in this thesis that food is central in the construction of belonging to a particular place and to its community of residents. We approach the local cuisine as a frontier, a zone where different foodways intersect overlap and influence each other. It is at those frontiers where a sense of local belonging, being part of New Orleans, and feelings of ethnic belonging, connecting to one s ethnic group, overlap.
We aim to contribute to the anthropological literature about belonging by taking food culture as a starting point, and relating different spheres of belonging to food. Several ethnic cuisines contributed to the food culture of New Orleans which is mostly described as Creole. A shared food culture that is linked to a specific place creates a sense of local identity through food and this contributes to a sense of community and place-belongingness. By taking on an expert role in food discourse, knowledge about local foodways creates a boundary with tourists and visitors who generally do not know much about local food culture. Expressing knowledge marks local belonging to the New Orleans community . Yet we argue that within the local community food functions mostly to connect, the boundaries between different communities become blurred." | |
