The challenged palate: An introduction to sensory anthropology
To say that we experience the world primarily through our senses would be to state the obvious. The fact that we can see, hear, taste, smell and touch puts us in a pull position in the race towards survival — it is our senses that provide us safe passage through the Amazon rainforests or Piccadilly Circus during rush hours. But sensing the world is just the first stage of making sense of it.
Extra topping
Tamale, northern Ghana, end of the dry season. I’m sitting in a small chop bar, a rather makeshift dining place someone recommended to me. It’s hot and humid, I can feel droplets of sweat gathering above my lips as I wriggle in a hot plastic chair. I came by to eat lunch. It’s only the second week of my research on cultural meanings of taste and so far my experience with food is very positive. I rather like it, even if it’s completely different to what I’ve known so far and oftentimes way too spicy. So when a lady comes up to take my order, I confidently ask for banku, cooked maize and manioc flour, with groundnut soup. I have already tasted and liked both. When asked what kind of meat I want to have with it (goat, cow, bushmeat), I pass, earning myself an incredulous look. Other clients are already enjoying their meals, dipping pieces of banku and fufu (manioc and plantains pounded into dough balls) in thin sauces. My meal arrives. There is banku, there’s soup but garnished with something I did not expect to see: I definitely can tell it was an animal, but I have no idea which part of it (pieces look hairy). “It’s intestines,” explains the waitress and wishes me to enjoy. So much for “no meat please.” I sigh and hesitantly dig in…
Eating my way through
I’m an anthropologist and a foodie, but it took until starting my PhD when I could combine both, the passion and the profession. My path has been winding from personal interest in the history of my home, Polish cuisine, through anthropological perspectives on tradition, authenticity and identity connected to food, to finally the socioeconomic aspect of food production, which has been the topic of my master thesis. In my doctoral research, I decided to look at the inherent quality of food, that is the taste, in its specific cultural context and what kind of values and meaning are hidden behind the everyday bread (quite literally).
Ghanaian food to the fore
I chose northern Ghana to become my research field, as the country boasts its own culinary traditions though still representing a wider category of West African cuisine. What is more, due to the influx of international volunteers and workers, Ghana is witnessing an increased taste exchange: local food is transformed to cater non-African tastebuds, while western food appears to be grabbed by locals, even in faraway places. Cooking, eating, and tasting acquires then a sort of „glocal” character — globally known dishes, such as pizza, gain local character and meaning.
Anthropology takes on the sensory
Anthropology, in general, is a discipline focused on understanding how societies work, looking for differences and similarities between social systems and human relations. Sensory anthropology, however, a rather fresh twig to the tree of this discipline, is trying to look into sensorial practices of various societies — practices such as rituals, meals, concerts, medical examinations — and see how senses gain symbolic value. For instance, a foul smell might be a token of low social status or an important link to the spiritual world. There are multitudes of sensorial hierarchies, having its roots in economic, historical, environmental and many other factors (in the jungle hearing might be of prime importance whereas in a Michelin star granting office it might be taste).
Tastes matter
Some sensorial experiences are key to understand complex mechanisms or behaviors. It is only recently though that anthropologists started to acknowledge that our corporeal senses, such as taste, smell and touch, can also convey cultural meaning. In this view, sensorial anthropology has been a movement towards the deposition of vision, which Western societies deemed as the most important sense in the whole sense-making process. We have Kant to blame for it — it was he who first associated vision with enlightenment, thought and objective knowledge.
The challenged palate
In my project, I’m tackling one of those corporeal senses, namely the sense of taste. I quickly realized it’s a great conversation starter, regardless of the cultural context. “What’s your favorite food” is a question that opens hearts and plates. What I did not predict was how both methodologically and personally demanding this research would be. Anthropology has a wide toolkit of qualitative research methods, however, not many of them have been designed to study sensorial experiences. How to observe smells? How to record tastes? How to finally translate bodily experience into text? Secondly, working with taste requires you not only to observe how and what people eat, but to actually participate. The pragmatic activity of fueling your body with nutrients becomes a field for autoanalysis, autoethnography. Why do I choose to eat this and not that? Why do people claim this is a delicacy when I can hardly swallow it?
Plates to come
Doing sensorial anthropology is a journey not only across the palates but also upstream your personal tastes and distastes. Luckily though, the first step to accommodate my body to Ghanaian food is done. During the next chapter of my research, which starts this month and will last until July, I have a few topics I intend to focus on. I want to investigate emerging food trends such as veganism and vegetarianism, in relation to traditional protein-rich diet. I am also planning to talk to „taste professionals” such as chefs, and find out, how their language is especially sensitive to the experience of taste. Last, but not least, my goal is to look closer at the generational differences in taste preferences. And most importantly, eat my bodyweight in fufu.
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