Papers by Emily Weiskopf-Ball
Foodways blog about identity, culture, and traditions.
Cuizine: The Journal of Canadian Food Cultures, 2015
Cuizine: The Journal of Canadian Food Cultures, 2013
Despite the recent academic attention community cookbooks have finally been granted, little has b... more Despite the recent academic attention community cookbooks have finally been granted, little has been said about compiled family cookbooks. Even works such as Janet Theophano's Eat My Words, Andrea Eidinger’s "Gefilte Fish and Roast Duck with Orange Slices": A Treasure for My Daughter and the Creation of a Jewish Cultural Orthodoxy in Postwar Montreal” and Marie Drews’ examination of In Memory's Kitchen, are about works by, and for, an entire community rather than for family. Furthermore, though gender critics have long documented the imbalance of food-related work in the home by showing that women have always been the primary food makers, one cannot deny that the makeup of modern families has changed and that men and children are becoming more active in the kitchen. Drawing on past and current literature to analyse a family cookbook I made and gave to my cousin for her wedding, this essay draws academic attention to family cookbooks and family food practices. While...
M/C Journal
Introduction In October of 2004, La Presse asked its Quebecois reading audience a very simple que... more Introduction In October of 2004, La Presse asked its Quebecois reading audience a very simple question: “What is your favourite cookbook and why?” As Marie Marquis reports in her essay “The Cookbooks Quebecers Prefer: More Than Just Recipes,” “two weeks later, 363 e-mail responses had been received” (214). From the answers, it was clear that despite the increase in television cooking shows, Internet cooking sites, and YouTube how-to videos, cookbooks were not only still being used, but that people had strong allegiances to their favourite ones. Marquis’s essay provides concrete evidence that cookbooks are not meaningless objects. Rather, her use of relevant quotations from the survey proves that they are associated with strong memories and have been used to create bonds between individuals and across generations. Moreover, these quotations reveal that individuals use cookbooks to construct personal narratives that they share with others. In her philosophical analysis of foodmaking a...
Language is more than words. Within language is embedded a multitude of social and cultural value... more Language is more than words. Within language is embedded a multitude of social and cultural values. According to Lacan, language is the way we determine who we are and the way we create our identity. When the privilege of language is abused, as it has been in colonized countries, the “native” suddenly finds not only herself or himself unable to communicate, but also that her or his language becomes a barrier to survival. In Dream on Monkey Mountain by Derek Walcott, The Lion and the Jewel by Wole Soyinka, and Stones in His Pockets by Marie Jones, the protagonist, a representative for her or his people, must challenge the language of the colonial centre to redefine her or his marginalized group. Although very different in form, all three plays present the reestablishment of indigenous language as a strategy to re-appropriate cultural identity. In fact, all three authors use the characters’ indigenous verbal and non-verbal “words” to return to a time before colonization, when their la...
Questions about cultural identity and allegiance are complicated. What makes a person French, Fre... more Questions about cultural identity and allegiance are complicated. What makes a person French, French-Canadian or Franco-Ontarian? What is the difference between these various labels? How do demographics, gender, and age impact the ways in which cultural allegiance is created, maintained, or discarded? What defines a person's membership in a cultural group? Is it one's ability to speak the language? To make and/or eat cultural foods? If one of these fails to be present, can the person still be a part of the group? In our multicultural country, and especially in rural communities in Northern Ontario where Francophones find themselves to be part of a minority, such questions do not have simple answers. Studying cultural retention in such communities necessitates paying attention to more than just who is speaking French and/or to who is an activist for French rights. It also requires understanding how individual attitudes and behaviours are like and/or unlike those of others and of the larger group. Foodways are one of the specific cultural practices that can tell us about the group. Indeed, traditional foods have been shown to be very political expressions of personal values and opinions. What power does French-Canadian food have over those who make it? What does it tell us about those who claim allegiance to this cultural group? This interdisciplinary case study of Astorville, Ontario, relates to the fields of food studies, cultural studies, history, gender studies, material culture studies, performance studies, and autoethnography. By studying foodways, which are closely connected to heritage, language, religious practices, and rituals, this project seeks to understand how minority groups resist and/or acquiesce to societal pressures to conform to the culture of the majority. Knowing that modernisation and urbanisation have changed the lifestyle of once agricultural communities, that women now participate in the workforce, and that an individual's personal history is an important factor in determining how one subscribes to cultural norms, this is an important time to understand the cultural evolution taking place iv in communities, like Astorville, Ontario, where the French population has gone from a majority to a minority since it was established.
Questions about cultural identity and allegiance are complicated. What makes a person French, Fre... more Questions about cultural identity and allegiance are complicated. What makes a person French, French-Canadian or Franco-Ontarian? What is the difference between these various labels? How do demographics, gender, and age impact the ways in which cultural allegiance is created, maintained, or discarded? What defines a person’s membership in a cultural group? Is it one’s ability to speak the language? To make and/or eat cultural foods? If one of these fails to be present, can the person still be a part of the group? In our multicultural country, and especially in rural communities in Northern Ontario where Francophones find themselves to be part of a minority, such questions do not have simple answers. Studying cultural retention in such communities necessitates paying attention to more than just who is speaking French and/or to who is an activist for French rights. It also requires understanding how individual attitudes and behaviours are like and/or unlike those of others and of the larger group. Foodways are one of the specific cultural practices that can tell us about the group. Indeed, traditional foods have been shown to be very political expressions of personal values and opinions. What power does French-Canadian food have over those who make it? What does it tell us about those who claim allegiance to this cultural group?
This interdisciplinary case study of Astorville, Ontario, relates to the fields of food studies, cultural studies, history, gender studies, material culture studies, performance studies, and autoethnography. By studying foodways, which are closely connected to heritage, language, religious practices, and rituals, this project seeks to understand how minority groups resist and/or acquiesce to societal pressures to conform to the culture of the majority. Knowing that modernisation and urbanisation have changed the lifestyle of once agricultural communities, that women now participate in the workforce, and that an individual’s personal history is an important factor in determining how one subscribes to cultural norms, this is an important time to understand the cultural evolution taking place in communities, like Astorville, Ontario, where the French population has gone from a majority to a minority since it was established.
CuiZine: The Journal of Canadian Food Cultures / Cuizine : revue des cultures culinaires au Canada, Dec 2013
M/C Journal, Jun 26, 2013
Athabasca University Digital Thesis and Project Room, Feb 15, 2012
In the introduction to Food and Culture: A Reader, Carole Counihan elaborates on the growing acad... more In the introduction to Food and Culture: A Reader, Carole Counihan elaborates on the growing academic interest in writing about food. From psychology to ethnography and cookbooks to photography, food has infiltrated almost every academic discipline.
Journal of Integrated Studies, 2011
Language is more than words. Within language is embedded a multitude of social and cultural value... more Language is more than words. Within language is embedded a multitude of social and cultural values. According to Lacan, language is the way we determine who we are and the way we create our identity. When the privilege of language is abused, as it has been in colonized countries, the “native” suddenly finds not only herself or himself unable to communicate, but also that her or his language becomes a barrier to survival. In Dream on Monkey Mountain by Derek Walcott, The Lion and the Jewel by Wole Soyinka, and Stones in His Pockets by Marie Jones, the protagonist, a representative for her or his people, must challenge the language of the colonial centre to redefine her or his marginalized group. Although very different in form, all three plays present the reestablishment of indigenous language as a strategy to re-appropriate cultural identity. In fact, all three authors use the characters’ indigenous verbal and non-verbal “words” to return to a time before colonization, when their language was the language of the centre and when they had a clearer understanding of who they were.
Talks by Emily Weiskopf-Ball
Cookbooks are a cultural product that reflect their time period. They are a product in evolution ... more Cookbooks are a cultural product that reflect their time period. They are a product in evolution as they borrow from past food habits and styles to modernize favourite recipes.
Food is more than a way to obtain life-sustaining vitamins and minerals. The food we chose to mak... more Food is more than a way to obtain life-sustaining vitamins and minerals. The food we chose to make, the techniques we employ to make them, and the foods we abandon over the course of our lifetime tell larger stories about who we are as individuals. Because traditional foods generally require special preparation, cost more, and are only consumed at certain times of the year, they are especially important means through which to understand a group or community’s social and cultural attitudes and values. The period from 1940 to 1980 saw a tremendous shift in Franco-Ontarian foodways. Urbanization and industrialisation not only caused people to move out of rural communities to larger cities but it also decreased their reliance on homemade and homegrown foods. Veterans, who brought new tastes and flavours home from overseas, sometimes forced familiar foods off the menu in favour of exotic fare. Furthermore, in 1962 Vatican II changed the influence that the Catholic Church had on its followers by relaxing food restrictions. Combined, the technological, cultural, and religious changes impacted the foods Franco-Ontarians made when it came time to celebrate together. While the disappearance of items such as blood sausage and head cheese are not necessarily a reason to lament, I argue in this autoethnographic exploration of my family’s evolving, traditional foodways that the survival of certain culturally representative foods does ultimately reveal that Franco-Ontarians often consciously and unconsciously identify with their Franco-Ontarian heritage when they make food for themselves and others.
The foods our grandparents and parents often consider traditional cannot be authentically recreat... more The foods our grandparents and parents often consider traditional cannot be authentically recreated today for a number of reasons. For example, the recipes themselves are frequently lost when older family members pass away. Also, cooking tools have improved dramatically during the past half-century thereby altering a dish’s taste and texture. Sometimes it is a combination of missing techniques and tools that hinder production of an item as modern cooks do not have the required skills or equipment. Similarly, corporate production of foodstuff, year-round availability of fresh produce in our grocery stores, and diet fads have altered the way we produce, choose, and consume food. Consequently, these societal and technological transformations have influenced the foods we have chosen to stop making. While the disappearance of items like blood sausage and head cheese may not seem like a reason to sound an alarm, we must recognize that such decisions are clearly related to our society's general disregard of the environment and our dependence on modern scientific and technological advancement. This presentation explores the relationship between disappearing traditional foods and society's changing cultural attitudes by analysing three generations of one francophone Catholic family's traditional foods in northeastern Ontario
Dans les derniers cinq ans, plusieurs chercheurs et académiques ont dirigés leurs attentions à l’... more Dans les derniers cinq ans, plusieurs chercheurs et académiques ont dirigés leurs attentions à l’étude de la nourriture dans notre société. Au Canada, par exemple, la publication de What's to Eat Canada? Entrées in Canadian Food History par Nathalie Cook (2009) et de Edible Histories, Cultural Politics: Towards a Canadian Food History par Franca Iacovetta, Marlene Epp, and Valerie J. Korinek (2012) ne sont que deux exemples de textes interdisciplinaires qui étudient la question de l’identité par rapport à la nourriture. Ces publications et ces recherches démontrent que les individus s’identifient à un groupe par la nourriture qu’ils ou elles consomment. Cependant, peu ont étudié la question de la nourriture traditionnelle franco-ontarienne. En étudiant les changements dans les mets traditionnels d’une famille franco-ontarienne, cette présentation démontre que, au cours des trois dernières générations, plusieurs mets ne font plus partie de notre répertoire culinaire. Ces disparitions indiquent clairement un changement fondamental de notre façon de vivre et de voir le monde. La modernisation des électroménagers, notre désire d’essayer de nouveaux mets exotiques et différents ainsi que notre besoin de travailler hors de la maison font que plusieurs mets, outils et techniques traditionnels changent au point qu’on risque de les perdent à jamais. Cette étude illustre l’importance de porter attention à nos mets traditionnels, car ils sont le pouls par lesquels nous pouvons mesurer notre lien culturel.
Gender critics have long documented the imbalance of food-related work in the home. This inequity... more Gender critics have long documented the imbalance of food-related work in the home. This inequity is visible in community cookbooks, which have long been a forum for women, by women as well as in professionally published cookbooks that address a primarily female audience. In reality, however, foodmaking practices are much more complex than these works suggest. Today, men and children claim their own right to not only cook, but to cook in their own way. This sharing of space creates competition and forces us to reconsider traditional gender roles. Unlike published cookbooks, which have predominantly female authorial voices and generally address women, family cookbooks are an authentic mixture of female, male, and children's voices. Drawing on past and current academic literature to analyse some of my family's cookbooks, this presentation draws academic attention to family food practices. While the cookbooks I analyse are still predominantly feminine, the many male and child voices included in these collections, voices that are usually excluded from such works, prove that, when given a chance, these often silenced groups not only impact a family's food habits but also alter our understanding of feminine and masculine roles.
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Papers by Emily Weiskopf-Ball
This interdisciplinary case study of Astorville, Ontario, relates to the fields of food studies, cultural studies, history, gender studies, material culture studies, performance studies, and autoethnography. By studying foodways, which are closely connected to heritage, language, religious practices, and rituals, this project seeks to understand how minority groups resist and/or acquiesce to societal pressures to conform to the culture of the majority. Knowing that modernisation and urbanisation have changed the lifestyle of once agricultural communities, that women now participate in the workforce, and that an individual’s personal history is an important factor in determining how one subscribes to cultural norms, this is an important time to understand the cultural evolution taking place in communities, like Astorville, Ontario, where the French population has gone from a majority to a minority since it was established.
Talks by Emily Weiskopf-Ball
This interdisciplinary case study of Astorville, Ontario, relates to the fields of food studies, cultural studies, history, gender studies, material culture studies, performance studies, and autoethnography. By studying foodways, which are closely connected to heritage, language, religious practices, and rituals, this project seeks to understand how minority groups resist and/or acquiesce to societal pressures to conform to the culture of the majority. Knowing that modernisation and urbanisation have changed the lifestyle of once agricultural communities, that women now participate in the workforce, and that an individual’s personal history is an important factor in determining how one subscribes to cultural norms, this is an important time to understand the cultural evolution taking place in communities, like Astorville, Ontario, where the French population has gone from a majority to a minority since it was established.