Food and Culture

Autoethnographic food journal and reading reflections
Use complete sentences for each component and revise for writing errors!
Name:
Date:
Major take away
Describe the points of the readings that seemed the most important to you or affected you the most.
The lives of Jola people is centered on rice production, but with rice farming neglected, changes in
rural land use and institutional shifts affect different spheres of life and identity . In chapter 2, the book focuses on Ampa Badji and Nho Keboral, who raise concerns that their children and younger generation abandoned rice farming, even as they realized rice farming was no longer tenable. Jola people integrate rice in various aspects of life, and changes in the rice-based society are reflected in food and eating. Food and identity are closely intertwined, and since rice cultivation is a social phenomenon among the Jola, focusing on food and what people eat, can provide insights on collective identity. Overreliance on rice production has resulted in increased risk of food insecurity, and government policies can improve sustenance.
Eat it! (or not…)
List some of what you ate in the previous few days or perhaps something you witnessed that had a food component (a movie about food, a store you visited, a new restaurant, a friend’s cooking, or your service learning experience at one of food pantries or soup kitchens that partners with St. John’s University, etc.). How did the readings for today change the way you viewed this food or event? Be sure to cite a relevant page number from the reading so you can easily refer to it in class/on the exam.
1) Grains, rice, white w/ pasta & seasonings, cooked
2) Canned baked beans
3) Chicken Quesadillas
The author asks Ampa Badji one of the villagers his job and he states “ His answer was, again, unequivocal: “I am a farmer. I cultivate rice” (48). Cultivating rice is an important to the life of the Jola, that even with diminishing returns and inability of rice to satisfy their hunger, means that the older people were reluctant to stop rice farm...