Food and Culture: World Cuisine (Essay Sample)

Discussion Week 8: World Cuisine
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Discussion Week 8: World Cuisine
Question 1
The European colonialism and the American political and military hegemony have had a significant influence on indigenous cultures, and some of these cultures have adopted new foods or food ways as a result. In Latin America, there has been a significant change in floodways as a result of colonialism. The Europeans introduced wheat and pork to their localities and are now part of the modern Latin American culinary (Carney & Rosomoff, 2008). Locally, the indigenous Indian communities, that were present in North America before the formation of the USA, have adopted Western cuisines and cookery such as fried foods that were not in their culture (Carney & Rosomoff, 2008).
Question 2
There are claims across the globe from activists of cultural identity that American food is overcrowding local joints owing to the ability of American food multinational to undercut local producers on price. A good example is the Mexican food crisis in 2007 in which American subsidies were accused of concentrating on corn for ethanol production and not food (Bello, 2008). That phenomenon led to a shortage of corn used locally as food and a concomitant increase in the prices of the commodity (Bello, 2008).
Question 3
I would choose the Swahili coast because it has indigenous people with unique culture, and their current culture including food has been influenced by colonialism.
Question 4
International fusion cuisine is an example of how the world is developing into a global village unlike in the past where distinct cultures and practices including cookery were unique to a given people. There are two opposing debates on this issue as some hail it while culturists claim that it causes the loss of cultural identity. According to the hegemony theory, the lack of dominant nation contributes to an unstable international system. In the current world, the possibility of having one nation that controls the rest of the world is diminishing as a resu