What I have found interesting in this module is the symbolism of food. This has been a key theme that has connected each speaker’s lecture.
In Dr. Hirini Kaa’s lecture he stressed the importance of food and how it can symbolise our identity. In this lecture he discussed Ngai Tahu and their practice of harvesting tītī, muttonbirds, and its importance of maintaining an identity in a pakeha world. As Kai Tahu elder Sir Tipene O’Regan commented ‘getting my tītī . . . that was being Ngai Tahu to me’.1 Thus highlighting the symbolic nature of food and how it can be a part of our identity.
Another form of symbolism within food is in the eucharist, its importance to followers of Christ is clear; in partaking they are one with Christ. As said in Corinthians 10: 14-30: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”2 This symbolises the spirituality of food as it transcends material form.
An interesting crossover point between these two lectures was the term Whakamoemiti, a Māori word that describes the spirituality of cannibalism, as Dr. Kaa put: ‘it is the ultimate destruction of your enemy both physically and spiritually.’ Merging the material and spiritual form and even changing our perceptions of food.
Thank you for reading my reflection on symbolism and food. How is food symbolic for you?
I love the idea of food as more than just something physiological – because, as you said, it can be a symbol that represents so much more than just fixing hunger. One point from Dr Hirini Kaa that truly resonated with me, and can add to your ideas of food spirituality, was the idea of a ‘soul food’. To describe ‘soul food’ Kaa used the example from the movie, Ratatouille, where Remy (the rat) ate cheese with a strawberry, and colourful fireworks burst inside his head as he was reminded of his love for food which ultimately made up his identity.
Likewise, your point on the symbolism behind cannibalistic acts at Mautauri Bay is also really interesting; how the practice of eating this ‘food’ was perceived to be such a powerful act and ‘form of spiritual terror’ – not just for sustenance. Food can come to symbolize anything for anyone.
I think that the symbolism of food originates from it’s key role in the formation of society and in survival. It makes sense for an object which we need to cooperate in order to create on a large enough scale to to satisfy our community, to be closely tied to the myths and ideas which hold society together. Food will always have a symbolic function because all key material objects that interlink into our social processes need to unify us in order to survive. This idea links in with Lacan’s psychoanalytical theory which separates how we think about the world into “the Real” “the Imaginary” and “the Symbolic.” In order for us to engage in the world or “the Real” we must first go through the imaginary and the symbolic as we are social animals. The way we define objects is not based of what we immediately see but rather how our community has presented and introduced those objects toward us. Of course alternatively societal ideas and definitions had to originate somewhere which as Althusser would argue places the key origin of definitions of objects on a material rather than idealistic basis.