Changed Food Dimensions in the 21st Century: Tracing the Emerging Frontiers of Ethnographic Research on Food

Abstract

The core element of food as material culture that differentiates the social and social lives of people and communities has been present in social hierarchies of class position and power. Anthropologists consider food and food behaviours as instruments for understanding other cultures and civilizations in the context of global and geographical breadth, hence studies on community food have taken a major role in the study of anthropology. Ethnography has always taken a comprehensive and empathic approach to research, based on the actual experiences of the people being researched. Commensality has long piqued the curiosity of anthropologists as a source and manifestation of group identities. Analyzing the presence and mannerisms of collectivities is another technique to investigate sociality. The changing landscape of food supply and consumption in the twenty-first century, particularly during the Covid-19 Lockdown epidemic, seems to have transformed global feeding and eating habits.