Eating Together: Food Friendship and Inequality

About this book

An insightful map of the landscape of social meals Eating Together: Food Friendship and Inequality argues that the ways in which Americans eat together play a central role in social life in the United States. Delving into a wide range of research Alice P. Julier analyzes etiquette and entertaining books from the past century and conducts interviews and observations of dozens of hosts and guests at dinner parties potlucks and buffets. She finds that when people invite friends neighbors or family members to share meals within their households social inequalities involving race economics and gender reveal themselves in interesting ways: relationships are defined boundaries of intimacy or distance are set and people find themselves either excluded or included.