10. Ethnic Groups and Food Cultures
Food and language are two most important symbols of a culture. Differences in the tastes of food, like nuanced accents in a language, are often immediately discerned by locals, including even the slightest deviations --- “But this is not ours.” However, with the development of globalization, American/Western food style, such as fast foods have invaded the Asian-Pacific countries, and created a dramatic impact upon the food cultures in these countries. The word “food culture” here is meant to include: main staple, seasoning, culinary methods, dietary taboos, table etiquette, eating habits, food ethics, etc. More recently, in addition to those strong traditional food cultures, many ethnic foods or traditional cuisines also appear competitive in food markets, leading to the development of a very rich, multi-cultural, and heterogeneous food landscape in many countries. The main purpose of this penal is to ask the following questions: what changes would the food culture of a country experience in facing such a rich, multi-cultural, and heterogeneous food landscape? How are the boundaries of the food cultures renegotiated? How do changes in food culture create impacts upon local/regional agricultural production? How do the changes pose challenges to the symbolic systems of the culture? How to put food, culture, and agriculture into a single conceptual framework, and analyze the dynamics among the three elements.
多元族裔與飲食文化
食物與語言是兩種最典型的文化表徵。一個人對食物的味覺，包括對酸甜苦辣的濃度與密度之偏好，就像他/她的語言腔調一樣，穩定而持久，甚至變成他/她身體的一部分，任何輕微異動，都馬上可以察覺。但是，在全球化下，歐美各種強勢的飲食模式，如速食不斷入侵，對亞太地區的飲食文化造成了嚴重的衝擊，這裡的飲食文化包括主食的種類、主要的調味品、烹調的方法、餐桌禮儀、食物倫理等。可是，隨著全球化的深化與擴張，除了強勢的飲食文化外，很多深具少數族裔特色的飲食方式也紛紛出現，每個國家的飲食地景也因此變得非常豐富、多元、異質。這個論壇的主要目的是，在這樣一個豐富、多元、異質的飲食地景中，一個國家原有的飲食文化會經歷如何改變？飲食的文化疆界會如何調整或融匯？飲食習慣的改變又如何回過頭來影響農業的生產？對原有的文化象徵系統又會產生怎樣的衝擊？農業、飲食與文化，如何放在一個架構中來審視？
責任編輯
李丁讚／國立清華大學社會學研究所榮譽退休教授
編輯委員
陳玉箴／國立臺灣師範大學臺灣語文學系副教授
賴守誠／國立中央大學客家語文暨社會科學學系副教授
