Food, Drink and Identity in Europe

Wendy L.H. Leynse

Abstract

While place-based food habits play an important role in many parts of
Europe, this article argues that knowledge of food origins and pro-
duction methods is especially important to many French consumers,
and that children are often socialized to value 'place' in their eating
habits from a young age. Although the socialization process takes
many forms, this analysis provides an ethnographic case study of one
particular mode of learning about food habits and place which I refer
to as 'journeys through ingestible topography.' During ethnographic
fieldwork in the Loire Valley, I observed French children — along
with their parents and teachers — as they made several of these 'jour-
neys,' in which they gained a sense of place by moving through geo-
graphic spaces, meeting food producers, obtaining first-hand knowl-
edge of food production, and anchoring their memories with on-site
tastings. In this process, they were socialized to become informed and
'situated' eaters — situating, or constructing, their identities in terms of
place.

Whereas French food habits have long highlighted local production, regional dishes (Csergo 1996), and geographic specificities (Braudel 1986; Trubeck 2005), the reasons for this have varied over time — as

¹ Material for this article is based on my ethnographic fieldwork on child socializa-
tion and food habits in France (dissertation in progress). Research was made possible
by a Bourse Chateaubriand from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a Gregory
Uscher Research Grant from the French chapter of the American Institute of Wine
and Food.

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