Smells and Bells

Hand print of a bacteria culture. Link is to common germs however, I'm using it to connect to the Saberi section on human cultures After reading the Saberi piece, one of the most interesting concepts that arose was that human cultures and the cultures of our own biology: an interesting dualism I wouldn't have ever thought of. The premise of the article itself is interesting: the intersection of where religion and biology meet.The fact that the bacteria involved with making cheese can be found on some people's skin is so unheard of. It makes me think more about the culture of microbes.  Over the winter break I read a book on the significance of microbes and bacteria in our lives and it supports the concept of a human culture's culture, and actually takes it a step further. Each individual has a unique microbial makeup inside and out of our bodies, from birth, if naturally delivered we receive our mother's microbes preparing us for life. Another interesti...

In the article Cultures and Cultures: Fermented Foods as Culinary 'Shibboleths' by Jonathan Brumber-Kraus and Betsy Dexter Dyer, the biology and religious cultural contexts for the presence of shibboleths in food is explored. The article defines shibboleths as a food that distinguishes one culture from another. These foods generally involve a fermentation component. For this reason the culture of the food has a particularly strong biological role in its development. Two of the three biological reasons for shibboleths explained in the article are: " 1. The original fermenting communities of microbes were (and many still are) no more than the indigenous microbes of a particular region and of its human population. Microbes from local soils and waters confer a characteristic ‘terroir’ by tumbling into open buckets of milk and vats of grape juice. The indigenous microbiota dwelling in and on humans produce not only familiar body odors and  flavors but also those same nua...

          The reading written by JBK and Professor Dyer discusses how cultures are divided by the microbes in a particular region as seen in their “traditional” foods. A majority of these traditional foods are in reality created by the fermentation process due to the local microbes: cheese, wine, beer.   However, these culinary cultural boundaries were able to form due to the isolated natures of population. Nowadays we have a very consumeristic globalized community. We have developed a culture of fast food because we lead fast lives; we no longer have the time to spend cooking our   A chef, Jamie Oliver, has made it his life’s mission to educate America on what has happened to our food and how it has led to incredibly high rates of obesity and heart disease. These two health problems are the leading cause of death in the US and it is caused by the food that we eat and feed to our children.   His wish is “for everyone to ...