Cooking and Dining in Times of War and Peace: Changing Contexts and Modes of Food Production, Preparation and Consumption in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Abstract
The topic of food and consumption constitutes to be a very popular and fertile area of interest in the field of social anthropology. Not only it is descriptions of life characteristics of diverse groups in variety of areas in the world , but it also became a powerful source of inspiration for formulation of some of the influential theoretical-methodological branches such as cultural materialism or structuralism.
This distinctive position of food and consumption within the discipline of social anthropology both reflects and at the same time confirms the importance of this activity in the context of human social life. This certainly stems out of the perpetual necessity to consume nutrition in order to nourish the body (assure survival) of human organism and enable its reproduction.
As Judith Farquhar notes: 'Indeed, the mantra 'You are what you eat' continues to be invoked in studies ranging across the human sciences to remind us that food makes human form - it directly produces bodies and lives, kin groups and communities, economic systems and ideologies, while being produced in its turn by these formations' (Farquhar, 2006: 146). Yet, it is necessary to ask, what happens with this fundamental relations between the social actor and his/hers "everyday bread" under the conditions of extreme starvation and material scarcity? Are these arguments applicable in the context of post-genocide community in Srebrenica? The aim of this conference presentation is to introduce the research locality and the topic of my dissertation project under the same title Cooking and Dining in Times of War and Peace: Changing Contexts and Modes of Food Production, Preparation and Consumption in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Thus, this presentation attempts to introduce a thick "web" of contexts of my field-research in Srebrenica and suggest particular theoretical and methodological suggestions, that could enable me to grasp such complex issue.