Abstract
This Independent Study explores the restaurant foodscape in the rural city of Wessex, Ohio and examines how two different sets of restaurants in this foodscape identify themselves as emblematic of the city. Restaurants opened in Wessex over the last ten years that have been selected for inclusion on Wessex Food Tours comprise the first set of restaurants examined. These restaurants are a curated set of local businesses that Wessex Food Tours presents to visitors as representative of a rejuvenated, contemporary Wessex. The other set of restaurants examined are those restaurants that have existed in Wessex for over 50 years, but are not included on the food tours. While not included on the food tours, these older restaurants are deeply embedded in the city’s history and remain a quintessential component in the city’s restaurant foodscape. This study investigates how the older restaurants and tour restaurants both attest to be representative of Wessex through the foods served and the dining spaces created. In order to understand how each set of restaurants envisions themselves as illustrative of Wessex’s food culture, I conducted participant observation on the Wessex Food Tours and at the older restaurants. Additionally, I conducted nine formal interviews with representatives from both sets of restaurants and the owner and manager of Wessex Food Tours. Lastly, I completed content analysis of menus from both sets of restaurants. Employing a symbolic anthropological perspective, I found that food culture in Wessex is a multivocal and polysemic dominant symbol surrounded by a spectrum of referents. Both sets of restaurants manipulate these referents, such as heritage, home, nostalgia, family, local, and community, in their production of Wessex food culture.
Advisor
Frese, Pamela
Department
Sociology and Anthropology
Recommended Citation
Carlson, Clare T., "From Fried Bologna Sandwich to Butternut Squash Prosciutto Flatbread: Examining Food Culture as a Multivocal Dominant Symbol in the Wessex, Ohio Restaurant Foodscape" (2016). Senior Independent Study Theses. Paper 7165.
https://openworks.wooster.edu/independentstudy/7165
Disciplines
Social and Cultural Anthropology
Publication Date
2016
Degree Granted
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type
Senior Independent Study Thesis Exemplar
Included in
© Copyright 2016 Clare T. Carlson