What Tomatoes Can Teach Us About Culture, and Our Own Identities
We have certain unquestionable fixations that are accepted as gospel truths, almost through the entirety of our lives. They form fixed parts of our identities. We usually accept the national boundaries we were born within, we abide by a time zone, we adopt a certain way of being, living, eating, speaking, often defined by the uniquely distinct conditions that our context created. We let stories and myths, that forge a connection stretching millennia, be moulded to the times we live in.
Culture, and our interpretation of our it encompasses, and goes beyond what is described above. Culture is a vibe, a feeling distinctly felt when one is a part of or an observer of a particular culture. Culture is what makes behaviors acceptable or unacceptable within the confines of its context. Try throwing a Carnival party on the streets of New Delhi or playing Holi in Sao Paulo!
Culture, especially our own, is something we often deem fixed – something that anchors us, in our own behaviors and identity. It gives us a sense of ownership and belonging, at the same time. Political forces have always tried to define accepted tenets of macro-culture. As the world gets more divided into micro subcultures online, this reclaiming of macro-cultures is happening again, the stories and myths that have stretched millennia being moulded to what can be deemed Indian, American or European culture.
The macro-cultures we accept are the tune we essentially choose or are doomed to dance to. As humans, conflicts have essentially been pillared in a preservation or dominance of one’s culture over another. This plays out to this day regularly in the world. Thus, culture, especially macro-cultures are deemed so immovable that there are literal wars over it.
But what if culture isn’t as fixed as we accept it to be?
What really is American, Indian, European, Chinese or any other culture? If we look at culture through the lens of some fundamental proxies, like food, clothing, language etc and understand how that came about, we can think about culture in a more scientific, evolving and practical manner, enabling us to learn from not just the stories that define cultures, but from the story of its being. We are all taught to take pride in those stories and myths. However, a deeper interpretation and understanding of how culture manifests is groundbreaking – to understand your own story and identity, through the context that framed you.
Food and culture
Let’s talk about a proxy through which the story of culture can be studied – food. Food is synonymous with culture. It is the only art form that enchants every sense, and as humans, we are obsessed with it. Often, our food defines us, as individuals and as groups. It is usually the first association we make with a particular culture. Whenever I meet a stranger from another part of the world, upon learning I’m Indian, they either describe their love or fear for curry. I am the same, for most food I recognize. If I meet someone from a country whose food I don’t recognize, I’ll usually ask them to tell me about their food as a conversation starter.
A tendency amongst Indians, is to judge Indian food abroad as ‘made for White people’ or if the food really is ‘Indian-Indian’. Restaurants are classified and new ways of rating Indian food, based on the demographic it serves, are formulated. In New York City, my friends and I have a rule of usually not going to Indian places with over 4 stars, as they may cater too much to the Western palette. We obsess over the authenticity of our food, as our food, passed through generations, links us to our history, culture and story. And, this desire for authentic cultural connection is exacerbated when you leave the physical context of your own culture.
But, what even is Indian food? Food and ingredients in India truly change every 200 kilometers or so. India is a vast country with the diversity of 7 climatic zones within it, with food and culture being very local. In the last 5 decades or so, consumerism and capitalism has made food and culture a tad bit more homogenous. For eg. There were many local grains like jowar, bajra that were used extensively regionally. However, today, wheat forms the grain for most people. There has been such standardization across ingredients too but Indian food is so diverse that there still truly is nothing like ‘Indian food’.
What the West thinks of as ‘Indian food’ is actually a small cross-section of North Indian food, popular around Delhi and Punjab. However, South, Central, Northeast & North India eat very differently, and states within these large regions also have immense diversity in their food. Most of this diversity is driven by geography and economics – with people in South & East India eating more rice than their continental counterparts in North India, who eat wheat. This is simply because wheat grows well in the continental North India and rice grows well in the fertile, wet river valleys of South & East India.
What we can learn from the tomato, and its journey to being claimed as ‘Indian’
One ingredient that now forms the foundation of cooking in India, and is accepted as essential to curry, is the humble tomato. It now forms the base for most curries, sauces and chutneys in India, regardless of geography. However, tomatoes were brought to India by the Portuguese, as late as the 16th century. Moreover, food historians agree that the tomato only became prominent in India in the last 100 years or so, maintaining relative obscurity for over three centuries. India is now the second largest producer of tomatoes in the world.
Tomatoes itself originated in modern-day Peru in the 8th century and were brought to Europe by Spanish conquistadors after the capture of Mexico City in 1521. It was rapidly adopted across Southern Europe while Spanish colonizers spread them to the Caribbean, Philippines and other parts of Asia.
The British brought about the large-scale adoption of the tomato in India, like many other modern things accepted as fixed tenets of ‘Indian culture’. Tomatoes had become a staple in Britain by the 1700s, and officers preferred its flavor to the spicier alternatives that were in use in India. Additionally, European demand for tomatoes made its farming in India commercially viable for the Brits. Historical accounts suggest that until the 19th century, tomato farming in India was purely to satisfy European demand.
With more commercial farming and availability, the versatility and cost-effectiveness of the tomato shone through for the locals too. Moreover, the large British presence meant culinary flavors evolved to suit their tastes, and tomato became a more pronounced ingredient in Indian cooking, replacing many other curry bases like yoghurt, kokum, lime, tamarind, nuts and other local ingredients.
Thus, something as fixed as the tomato in Indian cuisine is less than 100 years old, and was imposed on Indians by a combination of colonial greed, preferences and economics. So, is culture or parts of culture we feel the need to preserve and protect really fixed? Can culture itself be fixed, stationary, stagnant? It can’t, as culture, and the many things that influence what we perceive as culture, have always been evolutionary, moulded by economics, circumstance and geography. It isn’t something one person or political force can ever control.
What you can learn from the story of culture
As an individual, thinking of culture as evolutionary can help you break free from behaviors that might make you feel stuck, even when you’ve accepted them as a part of your identity. You might be have mental patterns that don’t serve you, but you have an unquestioning association of those with your story and the story of your people. That forms an unconscious basis of belonging to a certain group – India, your family, your state, your company etc. I’m sure you have cultural, regional, familial traditions that may not make sense to others but it helps you truly belong to that group. There are probably some that don’t make sense to you too!
So, culture, its manifestations, its stories, are all eventually meant to help you belong, and to an extent, conform. While that is positive, thinking of culture as fixed, doesn’t help you evolve to your own circumstance – like your culture did. Thinking of culture as an ever evolving confluence of geography, history (situations) and economics helps you think of your own sense of belonging as evolutionary, influenced by the same forces. This is especially helpful as an immigrant stuck between two contrasting cultures.
So, next time, you’re doing something blindly because that is what people in your group do, think about the tomato and its journey, to becoming a part of so many cultures, yet remaining true to being a tomato. Learn from all the good tomatoes brought to different cultures, and all the good cultures brought to the tomato. However, learn that the tomato itself is still just a tomato, no matter where the tomato grew up.
Take the good from the tomato, evolve it to what makes sense to your current life and context. Be like that tomato, ready to evolve, integrate and reject certain ideas you thought were fixed, while preserving what makes you, you!
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