The Taste of Home
Elia Petridou
Abstract
This chapter explains the home as practice and a combination of processes through which its inhabitants acquire a sense of history and identity. Conceptualizations of home will be explored away from the physical structures of the house but not necessarily away from its material world. The parallel between the semantics of food and home suggests that they both become meaningful (tasteful) through the process (journey) of maturing. In both cases, of primary importance for the creation of meaning is a sense of historical process and continuity. The Greek taste is a frequently mentioned term in the students' vocabulary. Most often, reference to 'taste' is made in opposition to the 'tastelessness' of the local 'English' food. Liana's experience of the 'English' supermarket included also a number of observations on the fruit and vegetables sections. Most comments focused on food artificiality, which was experienced as a divide between nice appearance and lack of taste.