Taylor's University: Reflective Learning on Food Anthropology

This is a reflective journal detailing a student's experience in an Anthropology and Sociology of Food module at Taylor's University. The reflection covers topics such as symbolic consumption of identity through food, food crises, food safety, food security, food modernity, and the sociology of obesity. The student discusses personal weaknesses related to food consumption and strengths discovered during a group project, including writing and motivational skills. The module's impact on future career aspirations in the restaurant business is also highlighted, along with the development of research, critical thinking, and writing skills. The student expresses gratitude to the lecturer for the module's effective delivery and its contribution to their future development. Desklib offers a wide array of study tools and past assignments for students.

reflective learning
Anthropology and sociology of food.
BY-
Sejal Joshi (0331006)
TO THE MODULE LECTURER-
Dr. Elise Line Mognard
2017
masters in international hospitality management
TAYLORS UNIVERSITY OF HOSPITALITY, TOURISM & CULINARY ARTS.

This is the critical reflection of my experience for Anthropology and
sociology of food module. In this assignment, I have inscribed about
what I have learned from this module, my weakness, strength and
how it will be useful for my future development.
Reflection is like, looking back at a photograph or a video coming
back from a holiday. Malaysia is a multicultural country and
especially Taylor’s university with students from all over the world.
Some students are older than the average graduate student, some have
wealth of work and volunteer experiences and have a social justice
perspective that they bring to the class. The Taylor’s student body
reflects this diversity. Which makes for an enriched classroom
experience.
Since childhood food itself is one of my weaknesses. I have been
fighting with my mind and body over my food consumption. My love
for junk food like French fries, burger, Maggi noodles led me into a
lot of challenging situations like I had to deal with obesity and other
health issues caused by my unhealthy diet. This module turned out to
be very helpful for me to have a clear mindset about my food
consumption, as from this module first, important thing I learned is
that we symbolically consume identity through our food and drink
choices. Eating is an intensely personal act. What I eat communicates
to others about my beliefs, cultural and social backgrounds and
experiences.
By this, I understood that while we can digest the two main food
groups (animals and/or plants), we have a choice. All of the dietary-
tribes likes: vegetarian, paleo, vegan, halal, Atkins, etc. are defined by
their rejection of some aspect of ‘everything’. There are many reasons
why we exclude foods from our diet, from basic health needs to deep
cultural and religious beliefs.
Then I learned about the food crisis, food safety & food security. That
lecture was quite shocking for me as I always thought French fries,
chocolates etc. are fattening but from this module, I discovered about

how some food companies are involved in food adulteration as well.
Like McDonald’s in India used beef fat for French fries, being
vegetarian and coming from a Hindu background, it is very offensive
and disrespectful for my culture, similar case like pig DNA
discovered in Cadbury products in Malaysia, broke the trust of the
consumers but moreover it disrespected the culture of Islam, as it is a
sin for them to consume pigs. Claude Levi-Stauss identified that food
can be conceived as a language that expresses social structures and
cultural systems. He posits that food "must not only be good to eat but
also good to think (with)". Another interesting topic was about food
modernity, it referred to the food and nutrition getting affected by the
changes in the work environment, the expansion of commerce and the
question of identity. By understanding the food phenomenon and
consumption, I believe it is possible to make progress in configuring
the nutritional sciences, adopting a comprehensive approach to food
and nutrition in this day and age.
In the topic of Sociology of obesity, I discovered I am
not the only one dealing with my overweight but many
people who are affected by it suffer from the way they
are viewed and socially judged. They suffer not only
the possible physical consequences of their state but
also the social consequences like they are stigmatized
and sometimes victims of discrimination. Obesity is a
social problem because the human diet is culturally
determined in terms of what is considered edible, how
it is prepared and consumed, and the way these
prescriptions are implemented in precise social
contexts. I learned that obesity is a complex problem
depending on multiple factors: genetic, physiological,
psychological, social, anthropological etc. it was

surprising for me to know Appreciations of fatness and
slimness vary from one culture to another. There are numerous
examples of cultures in which girls were fattened up to make them
more attractive. Most importantly I learned about the nutritional
education and the medicalization of everyday diet.
I found social dimensions of food & identity topic
fascinating, it’s about how one’s culture influences the
behavior of the individual. It is interesting to learn
these types of concepts because you have to imagine
what kind of person you would grow up to be if you
were born in a different part of the world. Like in
Malaysia being multi-cultural country you can find
allot of food outlets which serve halal food followed by
Islamic culture, Indians in Malaysia are majorly Tamil,
they follow the south Indian culture and have
restaurants and food outlets with their traditional
dishes like tosai, vada etc. and even serve food in
banana leaf which is also a part of tradition. Similarly,
I learned about the Japanese and French cuisine as
well. It helped me to understand why people act the
way they do. This is important because by learning
and knowing these different customs and norms it
made me more accepting and tolerant of customs and
norms I once found odd and incomprehensible.
I was even assigned a group project with 2 team members from
different race and gender, which came together by choice rather than
any pressure, with each one having own strengths and weakness, As a
student's we were aware of what we need to do demonstrate evidence
of learning. We were informed of the criteria that are used to assess
the learning. They were clear about the meaning of the language used,
and the subject specific terminology. It helped us with demonstrating
the extent of the knowledge, understandings, and skills. looking back
I feel the team did a good job of collecting the information, sharing
and working along to get this far for the project and there are no

regrets about the team and the effort that they had put in, except the
only regret being the project could have been done better if we could
balance the time management. I got weak at managing the time with
the lectures and the other assignments. I could have researched more
and better if I could get to manage the time. But the main problem
occurred when we had to make a video for the project. None of us
knew how to make and edit a video and submission was very next
day. My confidence started to melt like an ice cream on a summer
day. However, the two days’ time extension given by our teacher for
the presentation saved some of the ice cream. We managed to learn
and make a video as good as we could. But along with my weakness,
I even discovered my strength while doing this project. As my
teammates had language and grammar issues, I started writing the
project, my good command over English polished my writing skills
and even though we had a very short time and a lot of pressure I
managed to motivate myself and my teammates and together we
finished the report on time. As international students we had a hard
time collecting the information necessary, next time we will device a
better way for the research and learn to balance the time.
In future, my aim is to open a restaurant business and this module
helped me learned about the barriers, factors influencing food
policies, practices & a lot more issues related to the food industry. I
even learned how to do research, how to read and think critically and
how to write reports and assignments. In future whenever I have to
research about the suitable location, government policies, or have to
seek knowledge about the competitors for my business these qualities
would be my savior.
For the summary, with this module I learned about the various
dimensions of food culture and practices, moreover, I learned about
the obesity which will help me craft my own self in a better way. I
learned the importance of time management, and knowledge of useful

technologies while doing projects and assignments. With the help of
this module now I have a profound knowledge of food crisis
management, gastronomy, and food safety which will help me in my
business. And most importantly while facing my weaknesses I
discovered my strength, I realized I can manage to work under
pressure equally motivating my other team members and will work
hard to polish my writing skills.
This module was a great help for my future development and I am
thankful to my lecturer Dr. Elise Mognard for delivering this module
to me and my class in a very effective way.