Anthropology of Food - presentation help needed!?

I have never taken an anthropology course before, and I'm a bit lost as to what I'm supposed to do for this assignment.



I am to participate in a "food ritual" such as a meal with friends, an outing to a restaurant, or meal I cook for just myself, and then give a 2 minute presentation illustrating the cultural nature of consuming/producing food.



I'm lost as to what I should actually present on. What should I take note of while participating in this "food ritual"? What kinds of things should I say? Any thoughts or ideas you have are likely to help.



Thank you!Anthropology of Food - presentation help needed!?
Two minutes is absolutely no time to do anything of substance, and the teacher will be hard-pressed to keep people under 5 minutes! So focus, focus, focus. Each of the four examples you provide will be quite different (cooking for yourself is likely the harder one) but some things that you can consider are:

1. Purpose -- aside from merely filling a dietary need, what social or cultural purposes were served by eating a certain way and that could not be fulfilled by taking a (hypothetical) pill that met your nutritional needs? Why bother having a date at a restaurant when you can just take a meal pill?

2. Kind of social relations expressed through the meal -- unless you have the same kinds of meals regardless of whom you are eating with (friends, parents, siblings, dates, self, boss), each meal is usually characterised by certain social relations that shape where you eat and how you eat (do you say "are you going to finish that" to your date or boss?). Some good examples for this are: how people pay (down the line to be "fair", separate cheques, no worries about who pays more) or how you order (separate plates or shared food, does someone order for the group, how much can you spend when you are not paying?).

How these issues are addressed varies from culture to culture AND on your (social) relationship to the other people, which will also vary depending on culture. You should be able to talk about one or two things that are interesting, including observations about your own culture and (PERHAPS) how it differs from how people from other cultures do it. For example, Chinese food is supposed to be shared not ordered separately for each person, and it is usually a senior person who makes the order ensuring a good balance of dishes that satisfy everyone present -- no small task; in a culture focussed on individualism, people are often uncomfortable eating that way.



Keep it focussed and interesting. Try presenting to a friend (if you are brave) or at least to yourself and you will see how little two minutes is!Anthropology of Food - presentation help needed!?
First choose one. I'd go for 'preparing dinner at home for friends'. You should fill in the blanks as to how would you decide each part. Now lets see how many parts does this have:



Planing: What would you prepare? If one of your friends is vegetarian, or dislikes sea foods, or loves macaroni and cheese. Who would you please? Where would you buy ingredients?



Ingredients: Healthy? Expensive? Traditional? Organic?



Preparation: Rich so everyone is happy or low fat because that's what you would eat? Oven? Barbecue? Vapor? Skillet? Slow cooker?



Consumption: Who seats where? Prayer? What is the proper order of each course? Chop sticks or fork and knife? Paper napkins or cloth? Who serves? Leave something for the plate or clean it with bread? Seconds?



After: Stay and chat at the table or move to the living room? Who picks up the table? Who washes the dishes?



There is a lot more you can add, but every decision you take is culturally driven.