The Semiotics of Gastronomy — Meals and Identity

Abstract

Gastronomy and meals have always played a key role in shaping cultural characteristics, and it is for this very reason that cultural anthropology pays particular attention to these topics. In this paper, we present several analytical dimensions that can be applied to the analysis of food culture, partly from a cultural anthropological perspective and partly from a socio-semiotic perspective. Firstly, we review those aspects of gastro-semiotics that help us to organize foods according to various dichotomies and polarities. We discuss, on the one hand, those aspects that may indicate differences between cultures and subcultures, and on the other those that relate to temporal differences in food consumption and those that are rooted in material differences among foods. We then list the dimensions that, in the form of general status symbols, may also play a role in the analysis of food. In the present paper we also discuss our longitudinal study The Symbols of Hungarianness (1997 and 2021/22), conducted on a nationwide representative sample of 1,000 people, in which we asked about foods and drinks that are characteristic in terms of national identity and that are thus also suitable for presenting certain typical features of Hungarian cuisine.