Arbitrary Formalities

Everybody speaks a little differently, but you can make generalizations and lump the way many people speak into one group—call it a dialect. And all dialects are able to convey the full range of human experiences among its speakers. Dialects are abundant, but if one particular dialect gets the right opportunities to be used for formal occasions, it might be called a language. There is a bit of linguistics humor that acknowledges this: “A language is a dialect with an army and a navy.”

All foodways are intertwined with culture and technique in a feedback loop: at once both influenced and influential. And all foodways have at their core the capacity to nourish human communities. I might suggest that a cuisine is a foodway with a cookbook and a PR manager.