Individualism vs. Traditionalism: Foodways in the US and Europe

For a recent project, the passionate French food sociologist, Claude Fischler, set out to compare American and European foodways.

The findings of Fischler's research project are published his newest book, Manger: Français, Européens et Américains face à l'alimentation. Fischler's work, based on research that included thousands of people from different countries, highlights the fundamental difference between American and European alimentary models: individualism vs. traditionalism.

Fischler's project included populations from the US, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. People's attitudes towards food were characterized in different categories: health, pleasure, choice, cost and bodily perceptions. While there are many points of divergence between the US and Europe in each of these categories, Fischler found that they begin with fundamentally different definitions of food. For Americans, food is defined by its function as nourishment, but at the same time plays a role in the personal and intimate aspects of people's lives. Eating in America is characterized by freedom and individual responsibility. This means that people are only free to make their own choices, but doing so is perceived as an important form of self expression or personal identity.

Contrary to the American model, France's definition is based more on tradition than individual freedom. For the French, nourishment is defined in terms of conviviality.  The notion of pleasure is directly related to the experience of sharing a meal with others. Food is important not only for its function in sustaining the body, but in its function of bringing people together. That more than half of the French population has lunch at home with their families is testament to the importance of nutriment not only as a necessity, but as an important social and familial occurrence.

Yet again, Fischler succeeds at characterizing the fundamental differences between foodways in different countries, resulting in a better understanding of cultural differences.