Hamre 1

Ridge Hamre
UWRT 1102
Ms. Otis
9/4/14
Response #2
E.M. Anderson writes in his chapter on food as a social marker about many aspects of
food and the use of it to communicate to others. He says that at a deeper level, food may
become a real part of ones identity(125). Enrique Salmon writes in his book, Eating the
Landscape, about plants and their relationship with himself, I understood them to be relatives
and living beings with emotions and lives of their own. I learned that they were part of my life as
well and that I should always care for them. In short, my family led me into the traditional
ecological knowledge of the Raramuri(2). For Salmon food and plants are a part of his personal
identity that links him to his family, community, and the culture of his ancestors.
Anderson emphasizes solidarity in his writing, eating together means sharing and
participating(125) and also when he says, the whole purpose of a feast is usually to bring
people together and affirm their solidarity(117). Food unites people under the commonalities
they share through communicative participation of all involved. Salmon shows this solidarity in
his writing when he says food was an essential ingredient at all our family gatherings(4). The
meal itself was not the only source of social comradery. Salmon talks about the time spent in
preparation of the meal such as the tamale-making parties where the female members of the
family would gather, drink margaritas, laugh, make sordid remarks about the men in the family,
and simply have fun. By the end of the tamale-making fiesta, the laughter was loud and
raucous(7).

Hamre 2
Anderson notes the other main message is separation(125). Food can cause people to
come together but also can set people apart from one another based on class, region of origin, or
the competition of making the most delectable tamales of all time like in Salmons writing
recalling his life as a child. Salmon noticed the desire to have the best tamale recipe, there was
this underlying competition surrounding tamales that was pursued by the tamale chefs in the
family(6). Even among close family and friends there is an innate characteristic to separate
oneself with some sort of superiority.
Salmon confirms Andersons statement Eating is usually a social matter(124). He tells
how his family would be drawn together by recipe sharing, Recipes were shared during
celebrations and whenever family came together. They are a form of knowledge reproduction
and social exchange. They gave everyone something to talk and gossip about, to share, and to be
proud of(7). His community of family and friends was united by food not just by making and
eating it but also by talking about it and sharing a piece of inheritance with others. However,
Salmon also says that without the sharing of recipes, the family community begins to dissolve.
The tamale-making parties have vanished from our family(7). People start to move apart when
they do not have the time to spend in togetherness.
The majority of Salmons story about his relationship to food can be described by
Anderson everywhere, food is associated with home, family, and security(125). Salmon gets to
the point that the way he gets his food has changed and so has his enjoyment of that same food,
my identity and culture as a Mexican is reaffirmed whenever I eat tamales, but not the unique
community with whom I grew up and from where my understanding of my identity and its
connection to a landscape emerged(8). Buying tamales from street vendors or door to door
salesmen is not the same as putting time and effort into the tamale. The tamale still tastes good

Hamre 3
but the feeling of coming together as a family to make tamales from start to the table puts the
consumer in a better mood so that he or she can enjoy eating even more.