Sara arranges her food and objects on the countertop. These still-lives symbolically represent her dual-heritage, Italian food over her left shoulder, and Egyptian food over her right. This symbolically unifies both sides of her family in the neutral and communal kitchen space.
We perform our identities in every action and communication, not in an echo chamber but through relationships. Eating symbolically consumes our identity, telling others our beliefs, social and cultural backgrounds, systems, and experiences.
Food can contain the identity of a whole group or nation. Culture is found in differences, creating group solidarity. We project our abstract ideas onto food’s materiality. Society emerges in places we explore our understanding of culture. Cultural food strengthens our ties to ethnicity. Ethnic identity is an important ingredient in self-concept. It orients us, the way we think, how we act, and with whom we identify.
Sara’s, ethnicities unite as her family exchanges culinary wisdom, cultural immersion without the need to travel. They enjoy food as a place to playfully fuse their hybrid identities yet preserve original cultural meanings.
Any family is a mixture of stories defining its sense of self. Family is our most personal community. Families are more mobile and scattered than ever. The immediacy of a family is replaced by a heightened symbolic meaning in rituals reinforcing family unity. Food marks the status of the living, yet, it symbolically keeps ancestry and ancestors active. Each family cook has a personal style and old recipes evoke sense-memories.
Sara, wears her grandmother’s ring to remember her, her mother’s mom, the only grandparent she has met. Her grandmother lived in Egypt. They didn’t share a language, yet their close bond transcended words, “she knew me inside and out [and] I miss her very much. I’m so happy to have something of hers, that way she can always be with me.”
Sara’s, late grandmother wore her ring every day. It is a barrier between her skin and her lived experiences, a biographer. Language, geography, time, and death are overcome when it rests on, Sara’s, hand. It tangibly links them. Jewellery worn repeatedly has sentimental meaning. It says you possess who you are and your personal style. These items have magical, strength-giving properties. Sara now wears the ring daily to hold these meanings close.
Sara’s, intelligent use of colour organization highlights her attention to detail. On top of the ring, turquoise is repeated in her flower, a necklace from her mother, and the elephant bracelet made by a boyfriend.
Sara’s, food, flower, and ring are metaphors for family, beauty, and remembrance. Sara, objectifies beauty, if momentary, where she finds it. Even her choice of a wide smile is a fleeting response to the present.
We perform our identities in every action and communication, not in an echo chamber but through relationships. Eating symbolically consumes our identity, telling others our beliefs, social and cultural backgrounds, systems, and experiences.
Food can contain the identity of a whole group or nation. Culture is found in differences, creating group solidarity. We project our abstract ideas onto food’s materiality. Society emerges in places we explore our understanding of culture. Cultural food strengthens our ties to ethnicity. Ethnic identity is an important ingredient in self-concept. It orients us, the way we think, how we act, and with whom we identify.
Sara’s, ethnicities unite as her family exchanges culinary wisdom, cultural immersion without the need to travel. They enjoy food as a place to playfully fuse their hybrid identities yet preserve original cultural meanings.
Any family is a mixture of stories defining its sense of self. Family is our most personal community. Families are more mobile and scattered than ever. The immediacy of a family is replaced by a heightened symbolic meaning in rituals reinforcing family unity. Food marks the status of the living, yet, it symbolically keeps ancestry and ancestors active. Each family cook has a personal style and old recipes evoke sense-memories.
Sara, wears her grandmother’s ring to remember her, her mother’s mom, the only grandparent she has met. Her grandmother lived in Egypt. They didn’t share a language, yet their close bond transcended words, “she knew me inside and out [and] I miss her very much. I’m so happy to have something of hers, that way she can always be with me.”
Sara’s, late grandmother wore her ring every day. It is a barrier between her skin and her lived experiences, a biographer. Language, geography, time, and death are overcome when it rests on, Sara’s, hand. It tangibly links them. Jewellery worn repeatedly has sentimental meaning. It says you possess who you are and your personal style. These items have magical, strength-giving properties. Sara now wears the ring daily to hold these meanings close.
Sara’s, intelligent use of colour organization highlights her attention to detail. On top of the ring, turquoise is repeated in her flower, a necklace from her mother, and the elephant bracelet made by a boyfriend.
Sara’s, food, flower, and ring are metaphors for family, beauty, and remembrance. Sara, objectifies beauty, if momentary, where she finds it. Even her choice of a wide smile is a fleeting response to the present.