Neophilia, Neophobia and Turkey
Currently, cultural distinctions between populations are being less important by means of globalization. In the article “Hate/Love for Foreign Food: Neophilia, Neophobia and Globalization” by Richard Wilk, Mint explains that people’s manners of local and foreign foods comprise some kind of dualism. Sometimes ethnic cuisine and eating habits can come from a historical basis and strict cultural assumptions, and at times they can be instantly variable (qtd. in Wilk 5). Both neophilia (love of foreign) and neophobia (fear to foreign) exist in Turkey in terms of food because of people’s cultural background which varies region to region. Turks from the Western Anatolia tend to be neophilics because of their cultural
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The region is influenced by European and Greek culture and more connected to modern world if it is compared with the Eastern Turkey. Cultural capital is mostly provided to western people if it is compared to the eastern ones due to urbanization and industrialization. As Wilk states in his article, the basis of provided cultural capital draws urban-dwellers to be more inclined to foreign goods and cuisine (7). This circumstance also reflects the efforts of being extraordinary and distinctive by the people who are aware of their cultural capital. For this reason, today’s understanding of food neophilia resembles the situation examined by the author about the complexity perception of the past populations (7).
The life style of western Turkish working people is the other core factor that procures food neophilia in Western Turkey. Culturally, western working class goes through a monotone and an industrialized daily life. A proletarian may work even 80 hours in a week with just a day off. Eating in an ethnic restaurant offers these people a kind of diversity and a source of happiness to spice their unsatisfactory, moderate life without any loss of identity as Wilk introduced in the article (7). Consequently, western people tend to look for new tastes which is the definition of food
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Strict cultural norms of eastern dwellers make it harder the adoption of new tastes to daily life. For instance, pork is an immeasurable taboo for whole Eastern Anatolia, and either a big part of west on the ground of Sharia laws. There are even sayings like “selling snails in a Muslim neighborhood” which means doing quite inappropriate things at inappropriate places and indicates the food neophobia in Turkey. Because of this understanding, easterners approach doubtfully to unknown and exogenous