Post #68812

2025-12-16 10:15 UTC

For many cultures food is just nutrition, something that you have to do. This doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate good food, but it’s not the same as cultures where there is a lot of importance on both the food and the context of consuming it with others

Replies (5)

@Eq0@literature.cafe 2025-12-16 10:46

Absolutely. And in the less extreme variants, there are cultures for which good food is the base of socialization - you mostly meet up for dinner or similar - and others where good food is the exception, happening for big occasions and parties but not an every day occurrence.

Open ##68848
@Berengaria_of_Navarre@lemmy.world 2025-12-16 11:54

I live in Norway. I can confirm this. Norwegian food

Open ##68989
@SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 2025-12-16 14:57

And you can basically divide these cultures by latitude. Like in Europe the further north you go the less people care about gastronomy. Since these cultures were formed around food scarcity and pure survival, since they had very harsh winters ( before global warming), and the days up north are short in the winter. And before you go “but China and Japan”. Beijing is on the same latitude as Madrid and Tokyo is even further south, so that still tracks.

Open ##69522
@skisnow@lemmy.ca 2025-12-16 15:41

The Chinese for “how do you do” translates as “have you eaten yet?”

Open ##69703
@Windex007@lemmy.world 2025-12-16 16:06

People keep making this broad assertion and then not following up. I’m not saying you’re wrong, but if there are many cultures for whom food is merely nutrition, could you name one? From an anthropological standpoint, I’d be fascinated. Like, this thread is full of jokes about how some cultures have shitty food, but that subjective assessment is very different than the idea that food’s mere purpose is nutrition. It implies it has no ceremonial use. So, of the many, just even tell us one.

Open ##69792