Exploring Cultural Relativism Through Unusual Foods

ATH 111 Intro to Cultural Anthropology 3-2 Journal Applying Cultural Relativism Southern New Hampshire University Jo Anna Gilley Instructor Sashur Henninger March 27, 2024

Would You Eat It? 10 Weird Foods We Dare You to Eat Cultural Norms and Values The video, Would You Eat It? 10 Weird Foods We Dare You to Try, introduced me to different cuisines from around the world. The different food consisted of North America’s Rocky Mountain Oyster to Indonesia’s Kopi Luwak. The food is unique in appearance and prepared in their own unique way. To me, the foods all seemed very strange and far from desirable, but in different cultures, these strange foods are a normal delicacy. I am not completely sure that I would be able to eat any of the foods that were shown but I would at least try. I am very aware and understanding of cultural relativism. Cultural relativism is the understanding that a person’s ideas and actions should be understood in the light of their own culture (MindEdge, Inc, 2019). Cultural Comparison and Relativism Living in North America, in Southeast Texas, we are very fond of eating crawfish. Crawfish, being a crustacean that lives in a mud hole and/or field of water. Indonesian’s drink coffee called Kopi Luwak which is made from defecated coffee cherries that have been fermented inside of the civet’s intestines. When looking at the two cultures, they seem very different but the same, also. There may be some people in Indonesia that would never find themselves eating something that lives in the mud, I, myself, could never bring myself to drinking coffee that had been made from defecated beans. When comparing cultures, the research will bring out things like this that seem weird or horrible to others but are very normal to a certain culture. Each

culture has their norms, just like southern people like to serve gravy and bread with just about every meal, other cultures may look at it as strange and weird. When it comes to different cultural norms, the foods shown in the video are acceptable and delicious to each culture just as my food of choice is. When I put what I learned to use and look at my final film project, The Hunger Games, I can see the differences in culture between the Capitol and the districts. While the people in the districts each anything and everything that they want, the districts are quite as lucky. Katniss and Peeta get chosen for the Games and given tons of food they are not used to eating. Every time it shows a scene where they are sitting down to eat, the table is full of food. But it’s not just the food , after winning the games, they must assimilate to the richer society. They learn to eat the food, dress in the clothing and live in the homes of the richer society. They realize that cultural relativism is important if they want to survive in their new world.

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REFERENCES Chuyen Nghe. (2017). Would You Eat It? 10 Weird Food We Dare You to Try. YouTube. Would You Eat It? 10 Weird Foods We Dare You To Try – YouTube MindEdge, Inc. (2019). Introduction to Cultural Anthropology . MindEdge, Inc.

Module 3 journal

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