Examined more broadly, the ways in which cultures create, produce and consume food can be seen as “narrative performances of how societies construct notions of self and community, and their relationship with the world.” Food cannot be examined in isolation. “When we talk about food, we are then, in the midst of a rich and complex mosaic of languages, grammars, narratives, discourses,
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and traditions,” all of which are intricately intertwined. Individually, the parts mean little or nothing. They must be examined dialectically; in contrast to and in conversation with the adjoining points of the matrix.
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