Intra-Household Food Sharing in a Selected Semi Urban Area in Matale District: A Case Study

Abstract

Food is one of the basic needs of human beings. According to the biological approach food can be defined as a combination of organic and inorganic elements which need to nurture the human body; also, food is a cause variable of hungry because hunger is fulfilled by food. When we consider the food consumption in a sociological approach, it is revealed that people get food not only to fill up the hungry but also to fulfill various social needs. It is a appropriate field for researches. The culture formulated based on selecting, preparing, eating and sharing foods, is called a food culture. Food culture is associated with customs and values which are established by the Sinhala community. But due to the commercialization and urbanization of the modern society some cultural factors linked, has made many changes in food behavior. As one aspects of the food behaviour, Intra-household food sharing is important to study. Intra-household food sharing can be defined as the way which people share foods within household. There are many courses that affect for formulation and function of Intra-household food sharing; such as gender and Educational background of the housewives. In Sri Lanka, the semi urban sector which possesses both urban and rural characteristics is vastly expanded including most of the geographical territories. The major objective of this research was to identify the patterns of food sharing within households. Other two specific objectives were to identify factors which effect to Intra-Household Food Sharing in selected semi urban area and to identify fallouts of existing ways of sharing food within households. The ethnographic research methodology was applied basically based on ten case studies in Aluvuhare Grama Niladaree Division of Matale District of Central Province and observations were used as a research instrument to protect the reliability and validity of data. Since food behaviour can be considered as latent function observations had been affected to maintain the reliability of data. Accordingly, basics facts as gender, education, class relations and axiom of amity, Csste etc had been identified as causes which affects for Intra-Household Food Sharing in selected semi urban area. Especially gender played major role in this content with related to the education level of the house wife and the influence of the ancestral family. As fallouts gender discriminations and some health issues etc. had been identified. In this component caste had been identified as a significant fact as people belongs to castes which considered as high castes attempt to follow traditional practices in sharing foods with in the household such as ‘mudhun batha’