Abstract:
I argue that the preparation and consumption of food at the scale of the home plays a significant role in the gendered cultural identity formation of Indo-Guyanese-Canadian young adults between the ages of 18 to 24 who live in Toronto's inner suburb of Malvern. Eating Indo-Guyanese cuisine in the home socializes Indo-Caribbean youth into Guyanese culture and draws them closer to the West Indian community. I contend that consuming cultural cuisine is important to youth because it allows them to form transnational connections with their parents' culture and prevents assimilation into Canadian society. Thirteen of the fifteen respondents developed hybrid identities, one self-identified as Canadian and one followed the decultured pathway of acculturation. This thesis argues that place and space play a critical role in the relationship between food consumption and ethnic identity formation. The home and the kitchen are sites where young people create an ethnic sense of self. Ethnic grocery stores and Canadian chain supermarkets are additional spaces of identity formation. I argue that parents' and extended family are sources of cultural culinary information while friends are sources of Canadian and/or Indo-Guyanese food knowledge. Religion teaches the second-generation about cultural foodways and draws them closer to the West Indian community. Contrarily, Ontario public schools, television and the Internet are food knowledge pathways to other cultural foodways including Canadian cuisine.
