Chapter 1 considers culture as a product of communication. The central problem
is to understand how an array of influencing factors such as food supply, technology
and physical and intellectual environment are represented, stored and shared as 'food
culture'. It considers mechanisms by which culture might be transmitted from one
location to another including the relevance of historical literature and Louis Hartz's
notion of Australia as a 'cultural fragment' cast off from the Old World. Chapter 2
shows that the Australian literature represents a discourse in which information about
various aspects of feeding was gathered from local and overseas sources and circulated
for instruction, entertainment and use. The discourse and the means of conducting it
were products of their age. Public participation was evident in the correspondence
columns of weekly newspapers and in 'contributory' cookery books. The discourse
drew on various themes that were prominent in other Western discourses and reflected
social and moral values of the times. It evidenced beliefs that the manner of a society's
feeding demonstrates the extent of its' civilisation and that refinement of food and
feeding contributes to the improvement of society. It also reflected nationalist sentiment
and demonstrated some attempts to develop a distinctive Australian cuisine. Chapter 3
supports these claims with detailed analysis of recipes published in a sample of journals
and cookery books. Chapter 4 describes five instances which illustrate in more depth the
influence of print media in culture development. The first two show deliberate use of
print media to reform cookery practice. The third shows the role of print in cookery
education, suggesting an alternative mechanism by which cookery in Australia retained
its British character. The fourth tests the idea that the transmission of food and science
cultural influences from the Old World to the New followed broadly similar paths and
questions the origins of the domestic science movement. The fifth examines commercial
influences exerted through print media and notes that food production, processing and
distribution enterprise was to become increasingly influential as Australia (and other
countries) turned to industrial feeding. The thesis concludes with some reflections on
the processes of culture formation and the role of mass communications. It suggests that
food culture is both an expression of conceptions of character and identity and a
formative influence on them, that the engine of cultural change has been industrial
progress and, finally, that the communication system which supports and enriches food
culture may also tend to undermine it.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/218756 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Creators | Bannerman, Colin, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. School of Creative Communication & Culture Studies |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Colin Bannerman |
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