Contrast of Greek and Aboriginal Diets

2880 Words12 Pages
Student: Andrea Trubody. Student number: 240519. Subject: NMDS121 (Assignment 1) Word Count: 1650 Food choices are dynamic. They respond to many events and experiences of the people of any culture on both a personal and national/cultural level. The identity of a culture is inextricably linked with food and is impacted by religious beliefs and ethnic practices as well as demographics such as geography, soil type and national events (Civitello 2011, p viii). Mennell (2008, p 246) stated that ….changes in the food people eat and the way they cook and enjoy it appear to serve as a highly sensitive marker for much broader social, political and economic changes in societies. In this study the food choices of both the Greek culture and the Australian aboriginal culture (both pre and post colonization) will be compared and contrasted using the above criteria to determine how their diets have evolved. Pre-colonization aborigines populated the entire Australian continent with settlements from Bathurst Island to Tasmania and Dampier to Brisbane including the interior Amata. The population was split into 250 nations. The greatest population density was in the southern and eastern regions, the River Murray valley in particular (for population estimates see Appendix). A traditional aboriginal diet consisted of naturally occurring plant and animal foods. To the aborigine, food had a meaning; animals and plants were at one with people and are linked to tribes totemically. The laws that governed aboriginal society were strict and included many rites and observances. Also food choices were, according to Maher (1999,p. 230), ‘intertwined with many aspects of aboriginal life such as the land, kinship obligations and religion’. Many laws are taboos against eating certain meats eg young boys commencing initiation or during
Open Document