Sharing the Meal: Food Consumption and Family Identity

Abstract

Purpose – In this chapter, we seek to explore the collective responsibilities undertaken by the family as a whole in maintaining familial bonds through meal consumption. We draw on work which examines the role of gift giving (Ruskola, 2005), sharing (Belk, 2010) and sacrifice (Miller, 1998) in consumption. We take an original approach which does not look at the family meal in isolation but rather focuses on the patterning of meals and the relationships between them.

Methodology – The ethnographic study draws on interviews with 18 families and follows up mealtime observations with 15 families.

Findings – The analysis reveals a mealtime patterning involving collective participation in saving (in the form of consuming ordinary and thrifty meals during the week) and spending (in consuming extraordinary meals at weekends). Even if in the women and mothers in the household tend to sacrifice themselves more than other family members, the consumption of thrifty or ordinary meals implies a process of sacrifice involving the entire family. In viewing the meal as gift, we also observe a process of reciprocity in operation with family members obliged to both share in, and contribute to, the meals that have been cooked for them.

Social implication – Our analysis reveals discordances between the aspirations of family members (which are arguably largely based on cultural ideals), and their everyday experiences of family mealtimes.

Originality/Value – The chapter show how these micro experiences of family mealtimes have implications for a macro understanding of the idealised and culturally loaded construct of the family meal.

Citation

Cappellini, B. and Parsons, E. (2012), "Sharing the Meal: Food Consumption and Family Identity", Belk, R.W., Askegaard, S. and Scott, L. (Ed.) Research in Consumer Behavior (Research in Consumer Behavior, Vol. 14), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 109-128. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0885-2111(2012)0000014010