ANTH203: Food Sharing, Culture, and Social Bonds Essay Analysis

This essay, written for an ANTH203 assignment, explores the multifaceted role of food sharing in human societies. It argues that food is more than sustenance; it's a powerful means of expressing social behavior, fostering connection, and conveying cultural values. Drawing on anthropological perspectives, the essay examines how collective eating rituals, from ancient harvest festivals to modern business negotiations, promote trust, cooperation, and social bonding. The author references key scholars like Maurice Bloch and Norman Wizha to illustrate the significance of food in shaping social dynamics and cultural identities across different communities. The essay highlights how food sharing serves as a fundamental element of human interaction, influencing both individual relationships and broader societal structures, emphasizing its importance in building interconnectedness and resolving conflicts. The work also mentions the importance of cross cultural interactions that are established over food and drink.

Running head: Anthropology
Anthropology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction:
Food is not only seen as a means to satisfy the biological hunger of humans, but the
culture that has developed with eating together or through the concept of dining in the same
table is actually a means of expressing social behaviour, connectedness and issues of
expressing gratitude and showing mutual respect. As the anthropologist Maurice Bloch
(1999, p.133) rightly claims that sharing of food is one the major way of expressing the
connectedness to other people, it had always been a ritual practiced among societies to
increase the interconnectedness and bonding among individuals and among groups.
With respect to the above given notion of food sharing as a means of social
connection but it is also a ritual to honour among several communities around the world, it
has to be understood that food binds people with each other and has very less alternative to
promote social connectivity and emotion. In fact sharing of food is not an activity of eating
but is a social construct associated with the notion of delivering a message of shared belief,
connectivity and emotion. All communities have the culture of organising feasts or events
that are dining in activity but have a different purpose to achieve. With this context the book
“Food and Faith: A theology of Eating” authored by Norman Wizha (2018, pp. 112-150),
explores the fundamental significance of eating collectively. He rightly claims that the
association of food to theology is a long tradition that has been passed down through the
various occasions that are celebrated throughout the year are just examples of associating the
collective eating ritual (Wirzba, 2018, pp. 198-260).
Since the time of the ‘Last Supper’ till date the association of food sharing habits or
rituals are more than just a ritual that is being performed. The works of Ann Means, Kate
Mackenzie Davey and Philip Dewe (2015, p.306-308) in exploring the role of collective
eating in developing cooperation, connection and association among different cultures or

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races of people. They have also identified that the culture of sharing food has been regarded
as one of the highest customs since ancient times and state that it promotes cross cultural
interaction and many a times important decisions and discussions are done over an event of
eating together.
Food and drink are one of the fundamental requirements of human beings and since
the time humans have become civilised they have laid a huge emphasis on the food and
eating. It is because of this reason humans have always associated harvests with big festivals
commonly including rituals of eating together (Cooper, 1986. pp.179-184). Around
the cultures of the world, all have a harvest festival included in their customs. Thus the
culture of eating together have always been placed at a high esteem and sharing of food has
been treated as share of equal rights, honour and esteem among races and cultures. The major
customs of collective eating in various religions are also an example how eating together has
been integrated within the customs and have been done only to increase the bonding between
people and within cultures.
According to the Economist (2019), sharing of food leads to the heightened
connection between individuals and claims that sharing a plate of food can lead to more
successful negotiations which suggest that sharing of food leads to trust building and is seen
as a symbol of mutual trust. Many a times serious issues, business deals and deadlock
situations among politicians have been resolved over a dinner or launch.
Thus we can understand that the ritual of food sharing is one of the oldest rituals and
traditions practiced by humanity to foster connectedness. Eating together is not just a
collective activity, but has an emotional and psychological attachment that is major reason
why social rituals are associated with collective eating practices.

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References:
Bloch, M., 1999. Commensality and poisoning. Social research, 66(1), p.133.
Brulotte, R.L. and Di Giovine, M.A. eds., 2016. Edible identities: Food as cultural heritage.
Routledge.
Cooper, E., 1986. Chinese table manners: You are how you eat. Human
Organization, 45(2), pp.179-184.
Geertz, C., 1960. ’The Slametan Communal Feast as a Core Ritual’in. The
Religion of Java, pp.11-15.
Harvey, G., 2015. Respectfully eating or not eating: putting food at the centre of Religious
Studies. Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis, 26, pp.32-46.
Means, A., MacKenzie Davey, K. and Dewe, P., 2015. Cultural difference on the table: Food
and drink and their role in multicultural team performance. International Journal of Cross
Cultural Management, 15(3), pp.305-328.
The Economist (2019). Sharing a plate of food leads to more successful
negotiations. [online] The Economist. Available at:
https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2019/03/14/sharing-
a-plate-of-food-leads-to-more-successful-negotiations [Accessed 12 Apr.
2019].
Warde, A., 2016. The practice of eating. John Wiley & Sons.
Wirzba, N., 2018. Food and faith: A theology of eating. Cambridge University Press.

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