Thoughts About Food #1

I decided before we left to do my final project on food (with a lesser emphasis on language), because it seems to me that almost more so than any other aspect of culture, food speaks to who we are as individuals and as a community...how we live, where we've come from, what is important to us...all those things and more.

Food is as basic and essential to our survival as air or water. It is not only sustenance but also communication. We bring food to funerals to say "I care about you and support you; here's some small comfort for a hard time." We make food for our family and friends at gathering to say "I love you and am happy being together with you." When we share our food, we share parts of ourselves.

"Tell me what you eat and I'll tell you who you are.” (Jean Athelme Brillat-Savarin)

Food is the lens through which mainland America views the Yup'ik, so it's the lens through which I want to understand Yup'ik culture (to the best of my limited contact and experience). I feel it ties in so completely with what it means and what it has meant to be Yup'ik that misunderstanding this food culture would be equivalent to misunderstanding them.

Particularly for those living in subsistence cultures, food takes on a central importance. To some extent the environment, activities and schedules of those individuals are decided by the foraging/hunting/fishing seasons...by what has to be put up and preserved...when the salmon run and when the plants are sprouting...it seems to be a great privilege while simultaneously being a huge responsibility.

That's something I don't know very much about, because it's been a long time since my family was required to live off the land. My grandparents hunted, gardened, canned, dried and foraged, but not out of absolute necessity (although that can be argued for coal town survival). It was different for their grandparents and parents, but that's over 100 years in the past of my family. I grew up doing those things with my family, but that's not something I share with many other people of my generation in America, so it's something I'm only used to discussing with elderly individuals or hipster city kids who are all about their local farmer's markets. I think most of my friends find it idiosyncratic (at best) or strange (at worst) that I garden, can, forage and fish. It's definitely not something I rely on for my main food supply, although in the summertime garden produce and fruits are largely what I eat because it's all I can do to keep up with the peppers, tomatoes and various squashes. It's been so weird for me to really think about these things, to come to understand that these skills which are nearly completely recreational for me are something entirely different here in Tuntutuliak...that these things which are a choice for me are not even optional for others...

This is the first time I've ever even thought of canning/gardening/fishing/foraging as a skill. Before it's seemed more along the lines of a hobby or a throwback. To be honest, there are times where it's seemed to me more indicative of my family's past than anything else. Being in Appalachia, this is a sometimes common sign that there is poverty somewhere in your family tree. It was so weird for me to be in a place where this knowledge is valued and respected. I've been having continual conversations with everyone I can here about these things, because it's the first time I've really had these conversations in my life.

(I say "weird" because it brings up a web of complex reactions and emotions I don't quite understand...which feels weird...)

There's definitely something here that I'll have to explore further.