Compare TWO different approaches to the study of food, and discuss Essay

Compare TWO different approaches to the study of food, and discuss what you find attractive or unhelpful about them - Essay Example Furthermore, an underlying framework cannot remain constant since it is susceptible of transformation under external stimuli. Both structuralism and post-structuralism tend to provide a theoretical framework that can help in understanding how cultures are affected by their food and cooking practices but post-structuralism provides a relatively flexible approach that accepts human influence and effects of historic events on culture. In order to understand the nature and behaviour of food with the help of structuralism, it is important to analyze the framework of this approach. Structuralism is an inspired phenomena hailing from Gestalt psychology. Gestalt’s theory attempts to find out a rationale ground of how human mind works and derives patterns out of random or unobvious events. This approach further explains that events, individuals or objects having same attributes tend to form an alliance and stay together. Similarly, structuralism is an approach through which human behav iour can be analyzed with the help of different frame of references networked together. This network of relationships helps in identifying the actual position of a norm, ritual or an object in human life. Through this framework, early linguists and anthropologists tend to identify the signs showing common indications. Therefore, structuralism became synonymous with semiology. These semiotics or doctrines of semiology helped the literary thinkers to deduct common patterns from folk tales that helped in understanding relations of cultures to each other and their further evolution along with rationales of various norms and traditions. Although this approach was a result of literary research performed by Ferdinand de Saussure and Vladimir Propp however it was given a broader definition in 1960s by Claude Levi-Strauss. Levi-Strauss used this approach to analyze human patterns of kinship and myths. This research was further extended by various others such as Mary Douglas. Levi-Strauss per formed his further research to identify the reasons for existence of similar myths present in different cultures. He explained that no myth has a value in its singular form and in order to have a meaning; it is supposed to have a certain place in myth’s network or structure. Hence, myths exists universally and they are source of resolutions to social conflicts. Along with myths, rituals and traditions, food and activities related to it play a vital role in understanding relationships existing between cultures. Levi-Strauss (1966, 1970) helped in identifying common patterns among different cultures and segregated the manner of culinary art of cooking in three fundamental categories i.e. boiling, roasting and steaming. These fundamental cooking principles indicated that through norms and methods adopted by a group of people, a meaning is produced in a culture which is reproduced and evolved through other peripheral practices. Activities as diverse as food preparations and exist ence of millions of recipes concluded that there were some common factors underlying in these cultures and they indicated a particular pattern of kinship that is known to different groups and individuals existing in a society, operating at unconscious level

Feminism and Kate Chopin's The Storm Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Feminism and Kate Chopin's The Storm - Essay Example Louis, Missouri, all of whom were women of determination and intellect. This probably pointed her towards the path of feminism. Chopin lived and wrote her impressive repertoire of short stories in the second half of the nineteenth century, when the still patriarchal society revolved around the firmly rooted tenet that the ultimate goal of a fulfilled woman’s life was to be the ideal wife and mother and to adhere to the glorified virtues of submission and sacrifice. The feminist movement was very much in its’ nascent stages and centered round the demand for equal rights for women in the legal, political and educational spheres. Even before these issues could be resolved, Chopin’s stories delved into the complex threads of a woman’s life, including love, marriage, sex, women’s alcoholism, motherhood and autonomy. She was â€Å"a pioneer in her own time, in her portrayal of women’s desires for independence and control of their own sexualityâ₠¬  (Emily Toth, cited in Kate Chopin, n.d.). The concept of freedom for women, let alone their freedom to explore their own sexuality, was far beyond the comprehension of that age. Chopin wrote ‘The Storm,’ in 1898 but, perhaps anticipating a ‘storm’ of protest and condemnation, the story was published only after her death. In this portrayal of a woman’s extramarital affair, beautifully orchestrated to match the cadences of the storm raging outside, Chopin boldly asserts a woman’s freedom to explore and delight in her own sexuality, to participate in the sexual act as an equal partner and to fearlessly adhere to the same standards of sexual morality as a man. ‘The Storm’ begins its’ depiction of its’ protagonist, Calixta, as a woman who conforms to the mother and wife stereotype of that period. Her life, confined within the four walls of her house, is apparently quite satisfactorily filled with domestic chores like sewing and the laundry. She