Advice for cultural advocates: Don’t get ballistic when your “truth” is confronted with facts

Population data of Pampanga from the 2020 Census. The image shows that many households that comprise the province, which may be equivalent to the number of food stories each family of these households posesses.

Like any other intangible cultural heritage , food is an open highway. This means that unique generational practices in foodways may exist within a particular place and time, but that doesn’t mean they’re not open to changes and alterations, especially if the transmission of practice is affected by environmental, social, and economic factors , not to mention migration and the intermingling of different ethnolonigusitic groups. In assessing the evolution and changes, let’s trust the data.

Even UNESCO states in one of its articles on inventorying, the cataloging of intangible cultural heritage, that in the case of food practices as an element, regular inventories need to be conducted to ensure the viability of the intangible heritage in order to document changes. Change is always inevitable.

It is through change that societies adapt and progress, and the realm of food practices is no exception. As societies evolve, so do their culinary traditions, influenced by various factors such as globalization, urbanization, and technological advancements. These changes can be seen in the way people prepare, consume, and even think about food. However, it is crucial to approach these changes with a balanced perspective, acknowledging the importance of preserving and documenting the intangible cultural heritage that is deeply rooted in food practices.

In Candaba, Pampanga, rice fermentation is a very common method. Many people commented on how they refer to this kind of food or which they either name buru or tagilo, when I uploaded this picture. I mentioned that some places really have their own name for this, and some of people I know in the industry tripped out, but I kept calm and said that nuances can occur and should be accepted as part of the dynamics of foodways.

Therefore, rather than canceling cultural workers just because we can’t do what they can do, let’s base our assessment on data and further our research to explore the topic rather than spontaneously combusting, going ballistic when faced with new information that might contradict our prior beliefs about practices about food. Writing about and cataloging food are human-centered methods of recording culture, particularly if it involves foodways.

Documenting does not entail comparing the foodways of the present with those of earlier generations to determine who seems to be the winner. This not a competition. That is not how it works.

All the changes that unravel foodways are part of their cultural space and history. This is how it should be.

Writing about cuisine, especially about modern practice, is not doing desk research. You must travel and interact with people using highly developed transportation, communication, recording, and photography tools.

There are more than 600,000 households in Pampanga alone, as seen in the image. Choose which of these families you want to write about by picking up your pen.