"Gimme a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer": Food as Cultural Performance in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Issue 4 (14th July 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Harvey, Daina Cheyenne
• Is Part Of: Symbolic interaction. Volume 40:Issue 4(2017)
• Page Start: 498
• Page End: 522
• Publication Date: 2017-07-14
• Subjects: foodways -- performance -- Hurricane Katrina -- New Orleans -- social disruption; Symbolic interactionism -- Periodicals; Interactionnisme symbolique -- Périodiques; 302
• DOI: 10.1002/symb.318
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0195-6086

Abstract

Abstract : In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the federal levee failures, hundreds of thousands of volunteers went to New Orleans to help rebuild. Food was quickly used as a way to welcome volunteers, to compensate them for their hard work, to celebrate progress in rebuilding community, and to interact with others. In time, however, the giving and consuming of food was renegotiated. Volunteers coming to New Orleans expected meals representative of New Orleans's foodways. This article looks at the cultural performance of food in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In particular, I analyze the symbolic exchanges of food in what I call performances of reciprocity and performances of solidarity. This study adds to the burgeoning work in symbolic interaction on food, especially as it pertains to progressive spaces of cultural politics.