Cultural analysis / College essay
The dangers of a global food culture
A cultural essay using a historical Harvard dining table to think about abundance, status, globalization, and the changing meanings attached to food.
A photograph of the Resetting the Table exhibition, a shared meal, or an object that conveys food, status, and memory.
A table frozen in time
The essay uses the exhibition’s central table as a device for comparing food culture across generations.
It is impossible to stand amidst this display, permanently frozen in time, and not draw comparisons to how meals are held today, and more broadly, modern food thought and valuation.
Food and status
The historical meal offered abundance, but that abundance was inseparable from hierarchy and exclusion.
This meal served as a mark of luxury, the privilege of the lucky few with the social and economic capital to afford and be welcomed into these elite spaces.
The cost of universality
The essay then turns toward the way global trade expands access while weakening the perceived relationship between a food and its place of origin.
This globalization has resulted in an emerging global culture, in large part to the detriment of how we think about and assign value to food.