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| Title: | Muslims and Meals: The Social and Symbolic Function of Foods in Changing Socio-Economic Environments |
| Author: | Kifleyesus, Abbebe |
| Year: | 2002 |
| Periodical: | Africa: Journal of the International African Institute |
| Volume: | 72 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Pages: | 245-276 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Ethiopia |
| Subjects: | gender relations social structure Argobba food preparation Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Health and Nutrition Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Religion and Witchcraft Ethnic and Race Relations rituals & festivals |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/3556990 |
| Abstract: | This article is about ideas and practices concerning the production, distribution, preparation and consumption of food among the Muslim Argobba of Ethiopia. Food among the Muslim Argobba of Ethiopia is an essential idiom, both for drawing a hierarchy of in-group/out-group distinctions and for expressing relationships within groups. The in-group/out-group relations are typically expressed in terms of what foods are consumed by the Muslim Argobba and their non-Muslim Amhara neighbours, by the Muslim Argobba and their Muslim Oromo and Adal neighbours and indeed by some wealthy trader Argobba families and poor Argobba peasant households. Food preparation and distribution, on the other hand, express relations internal to the group, either in terms of gender within the household, as in who serves what to whom, where and in what quantities, or in informal exchanges, as in establishing social links among men and women. Nowadays fewer and fewer Argobba are producing the food they consume. The article examines how Argobba consumers have become accustomed to foreign foods and new modes of preparation and distribution and how such changes have also altered the ways in which food has expressed social relations in terms of class, ethnic and gender identity. It investigates the relative importance of the social and symbolic function of Muslim meals, and discusses the material life of cooking and cuisine in changing socioeconomic environments. The article is based on fieldwork carried out in 1989-1991 and 1996-1997. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. |
