Abstract
In this presentation, I explore the ways, in which the matters of food are linked to notions of violence. The topic of food is a very popular and fertile area of interest in social anthropology and production, preparation and consumption of food constitute one of the most important human activities from time immemorial.
This certainly stems out of the fact, that the primary function of food consumption is the nourishment of the body, therefore, assurance of the survival (see Couningham 1999, Farquar 2006, Lupton 1996). As Farquhar notes: '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).
It is precisely in this sense, that you are what you eat (also Farquhar, 2006). However, these ideas become problematic, when food is overall absent.
The food deficiency is till greater or lesser extent articulated and experienced as violence in several different ways: 1) "Non-violent" acts of partial or entire refusal of food consumption, e.g. vegetarianism amongst the Jains or PETA supporters. 2) Hunger strikes of a protest character that serve as a political tool of negotiation e.g. Mahatma Gandhi or IRA political prisoners in the beginning of 1980's. 3) Complex macro-structural violent acts consisting of: A) forced consumption of unwanted foods e.g. forced consumption of meat amongst Hindus in the 19th century colonial India or B) deprival of access to nutrition to larger populations as in the case of Srebrenica or other war conflicts.
To summarize: this presentation discusses how violence can be approached through the topic of food, and also on a more general level, what happens to the relation between the social actor and his/hers "everyday bread" under the conditions of starvation and material scarcity.