Food research

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The term food research comes from folklore and is used to research the social and cultural significance of food and drink as well as food in the past and present. For some time now, the term has also been used as a cultural-scientific term for an interdisciplinary approach that includes both cultural history and nutritional sociology. So far it is only used by a few authors. In contrast to this, nutritional research is a branch of nutritional science and deals with nutrition from a health perspective.

history

As early as the early 19th century, folklore research also integrated studies of "folk foods" and drinks into their depictions of "the country and its people". No particular distinctions were made here; Historical recipe collections, household and provisions books , tax and excise lists, as well as invoices or business books served as source material . The main questions asked were the type, volume, preparation and cost of the food.

After the Second World War , it was the Münster ethnologist Günter Wiegelmann and the social historian Hans-Jürgen Teuteberg who introduced the term food research. With the publication Alltags- und Festspeisen , published in 1967 . Change and current position , Wiegelmann pointed out the historical context of eating and drinking culture as well as the cultural and social aspects of eating. In doing so, he took up the already existing research approaches on food ethnology from the English and French-speaking areas.

Since then, folklore and historical food research (food ethnology) in the German-speaking area has undergone strong differentiation and has increasingly developed into an interdisciplinary research that is also contemporary-oriented and empirical. The nutritional sociologist does not focus on food and its processing, such as the history of potatoes or coffee in Europe, but on the social consumption situation ( table arrangement , occasion, custom , ritual ), social status and the different diets ( beer or wine , roast lamb) or offal ) and the regional or international distribution (diffusion) of foods and their popularity. Important contributions come from the Bonn folklorist Gunther Hirschfelder (historical drinking culture ) as well as Hans-Jürgen Teuteberg, Günter Wiegelmann, Uwe Spiekermann , Ulrich Tolksdorf, Alois Wierlacher, Eva Barlösius (sociology of food).

literature

  • Hans J. Teuteberg, Gerhard Neumann, Alois Wierlacher (eds.): Food and cultural identity. European Perspectives, Berlin 1997.
  • Hans J. Teuteberg, Günter Wiegelmann: The change in eating habits under the influence of industrialization. Göttingen 1972.
  • Hans J. Teuteberg, Günter Wiegelmann: Our daily fare. History and regional character. (= Studies on the History of Everyday Life. Volume 6). Münster 1986.
  • Ulrich Tolksdorf: Food research. In: Rolf W. Brednich (Hrsg.): Grundriss der Volkskunde. Introduction to the research fields of European ethnology. 2nd Edition. Berlin 1994, pp. 229-242.
  • Ulrich Tolksdorf: Structuralist food research. Attempt a general approach. In: Ethnologia Europaea. Volume 9, 1976, pp. 64-85.