Stereotypes are a real time-saver...:-P

These articles (especially the portions dealing with classification systems and prototypes) seem to fit well with our current topic of thought, language and food. I remember in high school that some of my friends of Italian descent would consistently refer to marinara sauce (at least as I called it) as gravy. This seemed remarkably strange to me...in fact it still does. It was as if they had said that they put "doorknob" on pasta, or some other ridiculous word for the occasion. Of course, in my internal representation, the gravy prototype is something you would put on turkey. My friends, obviously, had quite a different categorization set in play.

Similarly, the word meat for me represents some form of red meat/mammalian flesh, such as a steak. Poultry and fowl are quite different. However, many still refer to chicken flesh with the distinction of "white meat" and "dark meat." Obviously, their concept of meat encompasses a wider variety of options than does mine, even if we still share the same prototype of a steak.

The other day I had some sort of chicken/vegetable soup, no doubt a regular occurrence for many, but for me a rather odd development as I rarely eat it (except for miso soup). I began to notice how little broth was in the soup. To me, it was almost another word at that point: a stew. It's interesting how an item can switch categories depending upon the characteristics one uses to define it. And much like Labov found that people's perceptions of a receptacle change depending upon what's contained within, it seems that the action we use to ingest the food might also play a role in how we distinguish it. For example, if I place soup broth in a mug and drink it, does that make it a (disgusting) beverage? If not, is that just a cultural presupposition causing the disagreement?

Ultimately, I think the most interesting question is whether or not the words we use to define something end up changing our taste experience of it. Are tastes purely objective? Does "gravy" taste the same as my familiar "sauce," or will the different lexical representation alter my sensations? Would people be less disgusted by cow brains if I told them it was "French tuna"? The Australian tribe discussed in the Bonvillain article had an uncanny sense of direction and space reinforced by their language. What gets enforced with ours?