Cultural Change of Sugar Consumption in New England

In this paper, I argue that Sidney Mintz and Marcell Mauss examine cultural change by comparing the past customs of a certain group with people’s present customs. More specifically, Mintz studies history and people’s eating habits before and after the consumption of sugar to see the cultural changes in taste and culinary practices. Likewise, Mauss studies people and their everyday habits to see the similarities amongst the culture and see what cultural change influences them to do a specific thing. To support my argument, I will focus on the last three chapters of the book, “Consumption,” “Power,” and “Eating and Being,” because they help demonstrate the differences between New England without sugar and New England after sugar.

Then, I will compare the way Mauss made his claim with how Mintz did to show that they are both examining cultural change. However, I will briefly touch upon the first two chapters of the book, 'Food, Sociality, and Sugar' and 'Production,” to give context about sugar’s origin. 'Food, Sociality, and Sugar' and 'Production' In the first chapter of the book, Mintz claims that “food choices and eating habits reveal distinctions of age, sex, status, culture, and even occupation,” because he believes that sugar consumption is a social matter and not a biological matter. (Mintz 8). Although everyone eats food, and some people overlook the type of food they eat, food can teach us unique things about certain groups.

In the second chapter of the book, Mintz recalls the mercantilist system to further explain the spread of sugar. Through cheap forced labor, countries were producing sugar and trading goods amongst each other. Mint writes: “The linkage between Caribbean slaves and European free laborers was a linkage of production and hence also of consumption…” (Mintz 71). In essence, the people who were harvesting sugar were also consuming it. Nonetheless, it’s important to note how sugar contributed to a thriving economy. By 1890, sugar had reached its production peak and had entered the world market (Mintz 92).

Since then, not many things have changed about food and production. Although slavery is no longer present in the United States, some people are working long minimum wage shifts, only to have a consumerist lifestyle in their free time. They consume food and gadgets that are advertised by huge corporations, consumed by the elite, or the rest. For example, Starbucks coffee and Boba Tea. Although the drink makes my stomach hurt and I’m a Nutritional Science major, I find myself consuming this sugary drink when I’m around my friends who drink it. Do they drink it because they like or because it’s part of the Berkeley culture?

The drink has become so popular that you can find memes about Boba in the UC Berkeley Memes For for Edgy Teens Facebook group. 'Consumption' Sugar went from being an item of the rich to an item that everyone recognized and consumed. Overall, over time the attitude towards sugar passed through several stages: at first, it was treated as medicine, later turned into a spice and condiment; there was a time when people treated it as a decorative material and a preservative (Mintz 58). As the stages progressed, the working-class became more familiar with sugar. Sugar was used in medicine, spices, jams, tea, coffee, fruit drinks, frozen desserts, etc., but it was first used as a spice by the Europeans (Mintz 101). Originally, sugar was used as a spice because the Europeans ate the same food constantly and wanted a different taste. After sugar, Europeans no longer had a monotonous diet.

The wealthy began to consume a lot of sugar, more specifically the refined sugar. Unlike the elite, the working class began to incorporate sugar into their diet for quick meals and energy to work the whole day. Sugar was associated with tea, coffee, and chocolate because you can add sugar to these bitter food items (Mintz 135). Having control over the intensity of the bitterness helped make sugar so popular amongst the working class. Very similar to sugar, these items went from being a luxury to being a necessity. These three types of food drastically changed the way people were eating and behaving by providing energy. The poor were using sugar to “supplement the consumption of complex carbohydrates (Mintz 147). Sugar was no longer a luxury, but a means of survival.

As more people became introduced to sugar, there was a change in the structure of England’s working structure. Due to the high demand for sugar, there was less leisure time for the workers and more productivity. To make up for the hard work and long days, the working class would consume sugar in the forms of tea and coffee in their breaks and free time. Since people had less free time, they resorted to frozen foods and eating out. 'Power' Mintz examines the relationship people have with sugar’s power by using “inside” and “outside” meanings. The “inside” meanings were the intensification, extensification and out the “outside” meanings were the big picture of who is being dominated (Mintz 187). The “intensification” process depends on the different uses of sugar. The “extensification” process was described by the use of sugar in wedding cakes. Not only was sugar food but it was “attached to a special event and ceremonial as part of it (Mintz 187).” Although sugar eventually became popular among all social classes, it still has a special meaning since it’s found in food items that are used on special occasions. For example, birthday cakes, pies, and other desserts. These food items are often consumed in the presence of a good companion or after a victory. Initially, sugar was only consumed by the elite class, but then it became a commodity and the working class added it to their diet (Mintz 188).

As it became more popular amongst the working class, sugar began to lose its power. However, sugar remains a powerful symbol, as it is consumed during festivities. Furthermore, the people that control the production of sugar dominate all the people who consume it and their culinary practices. Mintz shows that sugar is impacting the daily life practices (culture) and rituals of eating in our contemporary. Sugar and sweetness “…preference was applied to personality, to generous acts, to music, to poetry” (Mintz 191). Today, the word “sweet” is used to describe generous people and is found in the lyrics of many poems and songs. Today, sugar continues to be consumed at extremely high rates and can be attributed to obesity and diabetes rates. 'Eating and Being' The consumption of sugar now connotes modernity and industrialized. Refined sugar thus became a symbol of the modern and industrial (Mintz 234). To further extend his argument, Mintz uses examples of fast-food, frozen foods, and advertisements to see how sugar affects the consumption of fat. He also shows how sugar has impacted the eating rituals for kin groups (Mintz 246). He focuses on the eating patterns and how the meals have lost meaning because of people’s high paced setting. Similarly, media has affected eating patterns.

Because of capitalism, fast-food industries invest so much in advertisement and producing new products that will keep people coming. I worked at Kentucky Fried Chicken for about two and a half years. As employees, we know when a new food item is coming out. We usually have it on the menu before the commercials air. As soon as the commercials air, the popularity of the product increases tremendously. I must confess that the sizes of the burgers are advertised much bigger than they are and the customers get less than what they paid for. When we serve the potato wedges, our manager makes us place a potato wedge horizontally, on the bottom of the container so it creates a false bottom. Regardless, people keep on coming back to this specific location. People walk into the restaurant and take photos with the picture of the colonel that we have in the lobby. Additionally, our location recently has decided to take the grilled chicken off the menu—our healthiest meat option. This just shows how people disregard health options and are more controlled by how a certain thing tastes. Furthermore, this shows how management is driven by profit. The fast-food industry also shows how eating patterns are affected by the usage of the drive-thru. As employees working in the drive-thru, we must take their orders and pack them within three minutes. People seem to always have places to be. Mintz and Mauss

Finally, very similar to Mintz, Mauss, the French anthropologist, and sociologist discusses how cultural change influences bodies, languages, and habits. In “Techniques of the Body,” Marcel Mauss focuses on the term ‘habitus.’ Mauss defines this word as being predisposed reactions learned because of society’s pressure (Mauss 73). Habitus can be used to describe body positioning, language patterns, and patterns. Mauss also uses the words “total-man” and “technique” to study people's actions. He defines the total man as being part of the “biological, psychological, and sociological” (Mauss 67). Mauss uses this term to tell his audience that in a way he is talking about himself, too, when referring to habitus. Because people reflect the larger society they live in, Mauss is talking about the cultural changes. Finally, he states that techniques are the changes in the body that are effective and traditional (Mauss 68).

Over time, the ability of the body to position itself in a specific way is determined by frequency. People position themselves according to location and culture. An example is how people position themselves in public transportation. Depending on the location, people stand or sit closer to one another. Mauss claims there are major groups in which we can talk about techniques of the body: sexual, age, efficiency, and transmission (Mauss 73-75). For each category, many different examples of change can be examined. An example is how different genders sit differently. From television shows, we can see that men are more likely to spread their legs while women are more likely to cross their legs. This is a common pattern among females and males. Another example is how different methods of speaking change according to age. Likewise, language is affected by region.