Free Paper Sample: Ethnography of Eating of Sri Lanka

Food is defined as "edible and nutritious substances that we consume in order to grow" (Pollan 9). It encompasses and forms aspects of gifts and social relations, memory, sensoriality, political economy, representation, and language form—many things bond people in the same cultures, one of them being the food that they eat. Therefore, the food that we eat not only carries the aspects mentioned above across social relationships but also collaborates with human beings in shaping different facets of life (Daele 67). How other people characterize food, that is, what they underscore and ignore, defines their health, culture, values, psychology, and identities. This paper will discuss the ethnography of eating of Sri Lankan people by looking at their food culture, practices, beliefs, and traditions.

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The most common meal in Sri Lanka consists of rice, followed by up to 12 side dishes such as fish stewed with pepper, eggs, meat, spices, and coconut milk. Fish is also a typical meal in Sri Lanka since fishing is one of the significant economic activities practiced in the country. Sri Lankans get fish from the Indian Ocean and culture-based fishing (Wijenayake et al. 184). From the olden days, curry meal and ice is served in the afternoon, but can also be served in the evening. Early morning meals generally consist of hoppers (cup-shaped pancakes), fresh rice noodles (string hoppers), (sourdough pancakes), or roti (coconut bread. These meals are served with a mixture of hot peppers and other vegetables. For snacks and beverages, the people of Sri Lanka take robust and sweet tea mixed with milk. Drinks can be taken alone or after taking a small serving of sweets or finger food. Commonly, this is taken at mid-morning or late afternoon. For dessert, Sri Lankans often take Curd- yogurt made from cow milk or water buffaloes mixed with sugar or syrup. The country also enjoys a rich harvest of different types of fruits available all year round.

Food in Sri Lanka is not for soft-eaters: the food is laden with robust flavors, for instance, sweet caramelized onion in onion relish, fiery curries, and sour lime pickle. Tourists in the country may be watered-down versions of Sri Lanka cuisine, but Sri Lankan cooking is impenitently deep flavored. On the Island, a meal is generally called "rice and curry"- an almost identical phrase to all meals in general. Depending on the time and place, meals comprised of rice and curry with a thin broth and large pieces of featured protein, along with four to nine side dishes. Sri Lankans refer to snacks as "short eats," which may be a newspaper cone of fried spiced chickpeas, a coconut roti with hot sauce, or a samosa.

Pollan advises against eating food that the ancestors would not recognize as food (9). Three-quarters of Sri Lankans are Sinhalese (mostly Buddhist) who take pride in their indigenous foods. Tamils (mostly Hindus), especially those in the northern part of the Island, use slightly different ingredients and other spices in their curries. However, the food format is the same as the one in the rest of the country. Muslims living on the east coast of the country have adopted dishes from other parts of the world, for instance, Biryani. Also, the Burghers (colonial Europeans' descendants) have introduced Portuguese and Dutch candies and desserts.

Theravada and Ayurveda Buddhist philosophy of Sri Lankan people recognize entities in their community as composed of five elements (water, earth, fire, air, and ether), the qualities of rasa (flavor), dosa, guna (beneficial quality and absence), and also their hot and cold states. These elements give a contained description of the abstract and relatively conceptualized assembly. For a person to have good health, there has to be a balance between these elements. The concept of striking a balance instills a social bond and expresses the qualities of desire and greed. Sri Lankans believe that too much passion in the form of greed reflects the phenomenon of hungry ghosts (pretax). Pretas are commonly viewed as detrimental to the health of people who are trapped in the web of influence (Daele 69).

Food brings an assemblage of people, not only in Sri Lanka but also in most South Asian countries. It is believed that the food absorbs the cooks' moral qualities, which can have an impact on the digestion process (Daele 69). This is because, during the digestion process, food and human beings share components in their common transformation. If the moral quality of the cook is low at the time they are cooking, the same low moral quality diffuses to the assemblage. Therefore, the food no longer has moral purity and is considered a source of pollution (Daele 70). For this reason, people who have a high status do not eat together with those with lower rates since this "polluted food would negatively transform the former. "This is a matter that the people on the Island take seriously as they view food as a conduit for intentional and emotional components.

Daele explains that Sinhalese cooking activities are highly segmented (71). The mothers are the ones who assume the duty of cooking and serving three times a day. They take the primary responsibility of preparing meals and, on average, spend about five to six hours in the kitchen daily. Sometimes, husbands or sons assist in the process, for instance, by cutting vegetables. Working-class women reorganize their cooking to handle their jobs and domestic work, such as cooking breakfast and lunch together. When their sons and daughters join learning institutions in the urban areas, they often cook together in their hostels and take out food parcels in food stalls for lunch. Back at home, the families' male members are tasked with collecting firewood, breaking and grating coconut for the milk to add to the curries, and peeling. Food preparation and eating are often the joining forces around which family members gather, relate, chat, and make jokes (Daele, 72).

Generally, when food preparation is done, people move to the process of consumption, where new moral aspects are acquired. Guests, older men, and husbands receive the first portions and eat in the table's living room. If men from a lower class are present, they receive their amount later and eat in a chair placed elsewhere or in a different room. The children receive their share after the men finish their share and rinse the plates. Ironically, the women, who generally take the largest part of food preparation, take their portion last and eat with the children at the dining table when the men have finished or in the kitchen. According to Daelle, food symbolizes such codes and makes people experience the rhythm through the process of ingestion, digestion, and transformation (72). Not only does food carry the protocols, but it also enhances collaboration in the production of these codes and the norms around it.

In Sri Lanka, the cost of food is the primary determinant of the choice of food in a family (De Silva et al. 282). Whether the price of food is unaffordable depends on an individual family and principally on the income. According to De Silva et al., having a higher income does not correlate with a better quality diet (282). However, access to more money increases the range of food that a person can choose from. About 81% of Sri Lankans have home gardens; 54.5% have vegetables, fruits, and flowers. The number of people with a home garden strongly correlates with the region, where most of the people with a home garden live in rural areas. About 89% of people rear goats and cattle for milking purposes in their homes (De Silva et al. 282).

Understanding eating behavior is a complicated process; a good comprehension of the effects of the factors that affect food choice is essential. De Silva et al. emphasize that food selection is incredibly varied among individuals of the same cultures. In Sri Lanka, examining the individual food group constituents shows that food choice varies by personal socio-demographic status. A percentage of 82% of households in Sri Lanka fail to consume foods from every food group daily (De Silva et al. 283). Bread is substituted for the staple food, rice, which is eaten 2-3 times a day. A comparison between different genders revealed that women consume significantly more cereals and vegetables than men do.

On the other hand, men consume more meat, fish, eggs, oil, and sweets than women (De Silva et al. 283). De Silva et al. point out that 64% of Sri Lankans comply with the recommended daily intake of fat and sugar groups, with women more likely to meet this target than men (283). Men have a greater consumption of foods from different food groups than women do, whereas women consume a greater variety of food than men (De Silva et al. 283). The imbalance in food consumption between the two genders appears to be partly affected by the firm belief in health. Comparing people in different age groups, individuals above 35 years old consume significantly more fruits and vegetables than those below that age (De Silva et al. 283). Contrary, they consume fewer sweets, cereals, fats, oils, and meat. An increase in age correlates positively with a reduction in the number of dairy servings per day. Individuals in higher-income groups consume more fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and meat than those in lower-income groups.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this paper has looked at the ethnography of eating in Sri Lanka. The paper has significant implications for understanding the Sri Lankans' food choices and consumption. With the knowledge that food choices are determined by social, financial, and cultural circumstances, people can be concerned about the implications of meal planning to better their health.

Works Cited

Daele, Wim Van. "Cooking" Life: An Anthropologist Blends In with Everyday Sustenance and Relationality in Sri Lanka." Food and Foodways 21.1 (2013): 66-85. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263750161_Cooking_Life_An_Anthropologist_Blends_In_with_Everyday_Sustenance_and_Relationality_in_Sri_Lanka

De Silva, P. H. G. J., W. M. C. B. Weerasinghe, and Thakshala Seresinhe. "Socio-demographic determinants of perceived influences on household food choice in Galle, Kalutara, Matara and Moneragala Districts." Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences 8.3 (2011): 142-145. https://www.euro.who.int/en/publications/abstracts/social-determinants-of-health-and-well-being-among-young-people.-health-behaviour-in-school-aged-children-hbsc-study

Pollan, Michael. In defense of food: The myth of nutrition and the pleasures of eating. Penguin, 2009. https://www.abebooks.com/9780141034720/

Defence-Food-Myth-Nutrition-Pleasures-0141034726/plpWijenayake, WM Hiranya Kelum, et al. "Use of geographical information system and remote sensing techniques for planning culturebased fisheries in nonperennial reservoirs of S ri L anka." Lakes & Reservoirs: Research & Management 19.3 (2014): 183-191. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/lre.12071