At work, at home, in school, at church, and last but not least in
nourishment, acceptance of authority together with the
discipline of self-denial were at work. That literacy, through
its own structural characteristics (hierarchy, authority,
standardization) accentuated all these peculiarities should at
this time be evident. On special occasions, accounted for in the
overall efficiency of effort, nourishment became celebration. It
was integrated in the calendar of events through which authority
was acknowledged: Sabbath, religious holidays, and political
celebrations were motives for a better, or at least different,
menu. Other days were meant to raise the awareness of self-denial
(fish on Friday, for instance).
The cook did not necessarily become a literate person, but he or
she was a product of the literate environment of practical
experiences of pre-industrial and industrial societies. The
tools and the culture of spices, ingredients, matching food and
dishes, of expressing social status in the dinnerware set out,
and the meal, i.e., the structure of the entire statement which
a meal constitutes were all subjected to literacy. Labor
division made the cook necessary, while simultaneously
generating an industrial culture of food. In the equation of the
labor market in industrial society, with literacy as its
underlying structure, eating equals maintenance of productive
and reproductive power.
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