Do People Agree on What Foods are Prestigious? Evidence of a Single, Shared Cultural Model of Food in Urban Ethiopia and Rural Brazil

ABSTRACT

To what extent do people agree on the meaning of foods, and does this vary by socioeconomic status, demographics, or household type? Addressing this question is critical for testing hypotheses about the relationship between food insecurity, food meaning, and mental well-being because it speaks directly to the social implications of food behaviors. In this study, we test for a shared cultural model of food meaning in two diverse settings: urban Ethiopia and rural Brazil. Using freelist and pile sort data from 63 respondents in Ethiopia and 62 from Brazil, we show strong consensus on the prestige value of various key food items in each context. Further, consensus varies little across household composition, food security status, and age and gender. This suggests that, in these two settings, consumption of widely available foods is an act that has both biological and social consequences.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural consensus
• social meaning of food
• food security
• Africa
• South America

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation [BCS-1560458].