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Unit VII Material
Culture: The Stuff of Life
Lesson
5 Louisiana Regional Foodways
In November, we start grinding canes. I start
making syrup as soon as I get the juice. Squeezing the canes is not the
problem. The problem is to cook the syrup, you're in trouble from then on.
I cook as much as six hours for one pot of syrup.
--Edwin Normand, Avoyelles Parish
Grade
Levels
4-8
Curriculum
Areas
English Language Arts, Social
Studies
Purpose
of Lesson
Students improve research
techniques to locating, selecting, and synthesizing information from
a variety of texts, media, references, and Internet resources
to acquire knowledge of regional foodways traditions throughout
Louisiana from the past and present. They learn that geography
and regional culture influence foodways and they extend the exploration
of context and foodways.
Lesson
Objectives/Louisiana Content Standards Benchmarks, and Foundation
Skills
1. Students locate, select, and synthesize information
from a variety of texts, media, references, and technological
sources to acquire knowledge of foodways traditions throughout
the state.
ELA-1-M3 Reading, comprehending, and responding
to written, spoken, and visual texts in extended passages. (1,
3, 4)
ELA-5-M2 Locating and evaluating information
sources (e.g., print materials, databases, CD-ROM references,
Internet information, electronic reference works, community and
government data, television and radio resources, audio and visual
materials). (1, 3, 4, 5)
ELA-5-M3 Locating, gathering, and selecting
information using graphic organizers, outlining, note taking,
summarizing, interviewing, and surveying to produce documented
texts and graphics. (1, 3, 4)
ELA-7-M1 Using comprehension strategies (e.g.,
sequencing, predicting, drawing conclusions, comparing and contrasting,
making inferences, determining main ideas, summarizing, recognizing
literary devices, paraphrasing) in contexts. (1, 2, 4)
ELA-7-M4 Distinguishing fact from opinion
and probability, skimming and scanning for facts, determining
cause and effect, inductive and deductive reasoning, generating
inquiry, and making connections with real-life situations across
texts. (1, 2, 4, 5)
2. Students connect geography with foodways.
G-1A-E2 Locating and interpreting geographic
features and places on maps and globe. (1, 2, 3, 4)
G-1A-E3 Constructing maps, graphs, charts,
and diagrams to describe geographical information and to solve
problems. (1, 3, 4)
G-1B-E2 Identifying and describing the human
characteristics of places, including population distributions
and culture. (1, 3, 4)
G-1B-E4 Defining and differentiating regions
by using physical characteristics, such as climate and land forms,
and by using human characteristics, such as economic activity
and language. (1, 3, 4)
3. Students learn from family members and others
in the community through researching the context in which food
traditions are created, communicated, and adapted in their communities
and statewide.
ELA-7-M2 Problem solving by using reasoning
skills, life experiences, accumulated knowledge, and relevant
available information. (1, 2, 4)
G-1C-E4 Identifying and comparing the cultural
characteristics of different regions and people. (1, 2, 3, 4
G-1D-E2 Describing how humans adapt to variations
in the physical environment. (1, 2, 3, 4)
G-1A-M3 Organizing and displaying information
about the location of geographic features and places by using
mental mapping skills. (1, 2, 3, 4)
H-1A-E2 Recognizing that people in different
times and places view the world differently. (1, 3, 4)
H-1A-E3 Identifying and using primary and
secondary historical sources to learn about the past;
H-1D-M1 Describing the contributions of
people, events, movements, and ideas that have been significant
in the history of Louisiana. (1, 3, 4)
H-1A-H3 Interpreting and evaluating the
historical evidence presented in primary and secondary sources.
(1, 2, 3, 4)
ELA-5-M3 Locating, gathering, and selecting
information using graphic organizers, outlining, note taking,
summarizing, interviewing, and surveying to produce documented
texts and graphics. (1, 3, 4)
Time Required
2-5 class periods
Materials
State and local maps, colored
pencils, drawing paper. If your students will be doing fieldwork,
you may need digital or 35mm cameras, video recorders, tape
recorders, or notepads and pencils. Print out and duplicate any
worksheets or rubrics that you will be using as well as appropriate
fieldwork forms from Unit II Classroom Applications of Fieldwork Basics.
Technology
Connections
Internet Resources
The Creole State Exhibit
Louisiana
Folk Regions Map: Three Major Subregions
Louisiana
Folklife Articles
All-Day
Singing and Dinner on the Ground
Customs, Traditions, and Folklore of a Rural,
Southern Italian-American Community
From Custom
to Coffee Cake: The Commodification of the Louisiana King Cake
From Evangeline
Hot Sauce to Cajun Ice: Signs of Ethnicity in South Louisiana
Louisiana
Cooking: A Way of Life
Louisiana's
Food Traditions: An Insider's Guide
The Piney
Woods, excerpt from Folklife in the Florida Parishes
Creole State Exhibit. See also
Making Tamales in Northwestern Louisiana
Adaptation Strategies
Louisiana
Department of Economic Development
Louisiana
Department of Agriculture: Summary of Agricultural Resources
Louisiana
2001 Agriculture Summary: State and Parish Totals
Market
Bulletin,
Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry
Market Bulletin for March 30, 1918
Acrobat
Reader
Askjeeves
Yahooligans
Creativity and Resistance: Maroon Cultures in the Americas, Foodways section
Wisconsin Folks
Student Worksheets
Foodways Internet Search Worksheet
Constructing a Cultural Map
Agricultural Products Worksheet
Assessment Tools
Louisiana Voices Venn Diagrams,
Blank
Foodways Conclusions Worksheet, Page 1, Page
2
Software
AppleWorks Drawing; Acrobat
Reader (can be downloaded free)
Evaluation
Tools/Opportunities
Process
1. Foodways Internet Search Worksheet,
Page 1 - completed
2. Louisiana foodways maps
3. Venn diagrams
Summative
1. Foodways Internet Search Worksheet,
Page 2
2. Foodways
Conclusions Worksheet
Products
1. Louisiana foodways maps
2. Audio or video recordings
3. Venn diagrams
4. Visual displays of Piney
Woods terminology
5. Louisiana foodways essays
6. Downloaded Louisiana
Market Bulletin files
Background
Information for the Teacher
The following is an excerpt
from C. Paige Gutierrez's "Introduction to Louisiana Traditional
Foodways" in Louisiana Folklife: A Guide to the State,
edited by Nicholas R. Spitzer, Louisiana Office of Cultural Development,
1985, p. 151.
Along with music, food
is perhaps the most pervasive symbol of Louisiana's traditional
heritage. Its local use to describe Louisiana culture and values
ranges from the ribald expression "Gumbo, Go-Go, and Do
Do" to allegedly describe Cajun lifestyle, to Jimmie Davis's
sacred song of hearth and home, "Suppertime;" and of
course there is the Hank Williams classic "Jambalaya."
Yet the transition from traditional subsistence foodways in the
swamps of South Louisiana and the wooded northen hills has barely
been examined in all the romanticization of Louisiana's food
traditions. While living off the land is still a powerful symbol
in Louisiana, the reality of local food sources, or the mingled
African, Spanish, French, English or Indian methods of using
them, is only beginning to be understood in ways that go beyond
traditional nutrition studies or the all-pervasive regional cookbooks.
It is fascinating to note on the latter subject, in a state struggling
with literacy, that, next to the Bible, a cookbook is often the
most revered text.
The term foodways, as
it is now used by writers in various disciplines, has a broad
definition. The study of foodways may include the production,
distribution, preparation, preservation, serving, and eating of
food, as well as the social, symbolic, psychological, and behavioral
aspects of food. Food serves as nourishment, but specific foods
and food habits are part of our social, technological, economic,
religious, aesthetic, and communicative systems. Thus food has
meaning beyond that of mere survival, making its significance
in human life both varied and complex.
Like other folkways, cooking
and related food events vary from region to region, from group
to group, and from practitioner to practitioner, but within a
discernible folk community, a distinct aesthetic governing foods
is present. And, like other folk practices, foodways do not exist
in isolation; they influence and are influenced by other factors
of their cultural setting.
To Prepare
Consider what foodways you
consider traditional to your region of Louisiana. Review the
Louisiana Folklife Articles listed in Technology Connections
above. Print out and bookmark those you plan to use. Think about
the relationship between local foodways and waterways, agriculture,
land use of your region. Accumulate local and state maps, pictures,
postcards, and articles on Louisiana foodways. The online Louisiana Folk Regions Map:
Three Major Subregions will be useful. Print out or bookmark
The Piney Woods
for 8th graders. If students will be doing Internet research,
determine whether they need instruction in this skill before
beginning the lesson. The Askjeeves
search engine allows students to type in questions, and Yahooligans allows the selection
of "Boolean phrase" for the search, therefore both
are simple enough for beginners to use. If using Venn
diagrams, Venn
Diagram shows how to use them for comparisons.
4th Grade
Activities
1. With a map of the state
delineating regions and parishes that indicate waterways, swamps,
farmland, and so on, have students locate their community or
parish on the map. Ask them to identify the rivers, lakes, and
other waterways. Identify farmland, grazing land, and parks.
By talking with family members and others in the community, students
must answer the questions below. To extend the research to a
larger portion of the state, divide the class into groups and
assign each a region or several parishes. Ask students to look
at the Louisiana Folk
Regions Map: Three Major Subregions. Print and duplicate
the Foodways Internet
Search Worksheet for students to record what they find.
The worksheet could also be used for non-Internet research by
skipping the lines where URLs are recorded. If students have
had no experience with search engines, they may need a lesson
before beginning this activity. However both search engines listed
on the worksheet accept full phrases or sentences or questions,
making it simple for beginners.
2. Compile results on a large
map or on individual student maps. Students may work individually
or in teams to design a map, including a legend and a compass
rose, which could involve a graphic relating to Louisiana foodways.
Students may also research to publish accompanying essays and
drawings.
Technology Option: Students
could adapt the Constructing
a Cultural Map activity from Unit
IV Lesson 1 to make a large map showing Louisianan foodways.
The large printed map can be posted on the wall or bulletin board,
and further findings can be pinned to the map, or strings can
be attached from the map to reports, pictures, and regalia mounted
on the board around the map.
3. Identify a food producer
or distributor to visit the classroom. Brainstorm questions for
students to ask so they may learn how the person learned a skill,
worst experience, funniest experience, scientific and mathematical
concerns, and environmental or geographic issues. They may record
the visit on audio or video tape or take notes. See Unit II Lesson 3.
4. Print and duplicate the
Foodways Conclusions
Worksheet - Page 1. Ask students to choose a region of the state
and fill in the blanks on page 1 with facts that they have learned
through the activities in this lesson. For the last line, they
must think about the three facts together to come to a
conclusion. Have students work in small groups to explain and
justify their conclusions. Then ask all students to choose one
conclusion presented in their group and write why they do or
don't agree on Foodways Conclusions
Worksheet - Page 2 of the worksheet.
4th Grade
Explorations and Extensions
1. Share pictures, postcards,
and articles on foods indigenous to the state. Examples include
Creole tomatoes, crawfish, catfish, crab, sugar cane, yams, mirliton,
oranges, strawberries, corn, butterbeans, sausages, peaches,
pecans, beer, poultry, and so on. Research and label which town,
parish, or region each item would be found on your maps.
Technology Option: Access
the Louisiana
2001 Agriculture Summary: State and Parish Totals Web
page. Select parishes from the list and find the agricultural
products produced there. Add these to the maps.
2. If engaged in a regional
culture exchange with students in another part of the state (see
Unit IV Mapping the State),
compare regional food production results in Venn
diagrams, charts, or short essays.
8th Grade Activities
1. Ask students to read the
selection by Joy Jackson about foodways of The
Piney Woods orally or silently. Use Adaptation Strategies to adapt this adult-oriented resource to your students' reading level, if necessary. The objective is for
students to design and construct a visual display to include
key concepts and terminology from this reading. Instruct students
to design a picture or series of pictures that will explain the
main ideas presented in this reading. The goal is not the artwork
but a better understanding of the material. After drawing pictures
to remember what they read, students should explain the illustrations
to the class or in small groups. On a map identify the three
Piney Woods parishes described: Tangipahoa, St. Helena, and Washington
parishes.
2. Ask students to write
a short essay relaying what they have learned about Louisiana
regional and family foodways; what they now think the term foodways
includes; foods specific to each region of the state: North Louisiana,
South Louisiana, New Orleans; and discoveries about their own
food traditions. They can learn more about the three major folk
regions in Unit IV Lesson
1.
3. Have students download
the most recent Market Bulletin from the Louisiana Department of Agriculture
webpage by following their directions on the Agricultural
Products Worksheet. They will need Acrobat
Reader to open it. Read the farm products that are for sale,
noting towns where they are sold. They should then find the towns
on a Louisiana map and decide which regions they are in. Have
them complete the charts for each of the regions, listing several
different items for sale and the towns where they are sold. When
the charts are complete, students may write statements that generalize
about the foods sold in each region by completing this sentence:
In the __________________ region, ______. _____, _______, ________,
and _________ are being offered for sale. That leads me to believe
that __________________________.
Students may want to also
download the Market Bulletin for March 30, 1918, and make
charts for that year, then compare the two to determine changes
and trends in Louisiana foodways.
4. Adapt online articles about Louisiana food traditions using Adaptation Strategies listed in Technology Connections above, Louisiana Folklife Articles -- Material Culture/Crafts and Foodways.
8th Grade
Explorations and Extensions
1. Read more about Louisiana
foodways in the Louisiana Folklife Articles listed in the Technology
Connections above and in the school and public libraries as well
as cookbooks (see Lesson Resources). Divide into three teams
to research each region of the state: North Louisiana, South
Louisiana, and New Orleans. Identify these regions on the Louisiana Folk Regions Map:
Three Major Subregions. Combine results on a large map
of the state illustrated with drawings, pictures, and images
from the Creole State Exhibit. See also
Making Tamales in Northwestern Louisiana. Teachers, if you want students to use these resources and they are written above their reading level, use Adaptation Strategies to build lessons around them. See also A Common Pot: Creole Cooking on Cane River (see below).
2. Compare Louisiana foodways
with food traditions of another state or another part of the
world in an essay or portfolio. You may use the Foodways
Internet Search Worksheet for searches in other states
or countries by using only the Search Engine URLs.
Wisconsin Folks features pasties (a meat/potato fried pie), cheesemaking, and using
foods indigenous to Wisconsin. To see the African influence on Louisiana foods, compare Louisiana and Maroon foodways throughout the Americas with the
Foodways section of
Creativity and Resistance: Maroon Cultures in the Americas, a Smithsonian exhibit.
Unit VII
Lesson 5 Resources
- Bienvenu, Marcelle. Who's Your Mama,
Are Catholic, and Can You Make a Roux?: A Cajun/Creole Family Album Cookbook.
Times of Acadiana Press, Inc., Lafayette.
Includes stories and family photos organized by the seasons, $21.95.
- Blank, Les. Yum, Yum,
Yum: A Taste of Cajun and Creole Cooking. Flower Films, 1990.
Great Louisiana cooks spin their wisdom while they demonstrate
how to make (and eat) scrumptious dishes like crab and shrimp
crepes, dirty rice, frog legs, okra étouffée with
shrimp, beef tongue, goo courtbouillon, boudin, and candied yams.
Available from Flower
Films, 10341 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito, CA 94530, 510/525-0942
- Cajun Men Cook: Recipes,
Stories, and Food Experiences from Louisiana Cajun Country.
Beaver Club of Louisiana, 1994.
Walter S. McIlhenny Community Cookbook Hall of Fame.
- Cane River Cuisine. Service League of Natchitoches,
1974. Walter S. McIlhenny Community Cookbook Hall of Fame book.
- The Cotton Country Collection. Junior Charity League of Monroe,
1972. Includes both North and South Louisiana traditional recipes.
- Edge, John T. The Southern Belly:
The Ultimate Food Lover's Companion to the South. Hill Street Press, 2000.
- Fontenot, Mary Alice. Lunch
Louisiana Style. Nutrition Education Training Program, State
Department of Education, reprinted in 1995. This practical guide
went to all libraries in the state and copies are available on
request, Box 94064, Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9064. A glossary defines
and gives correct pronunciation of many Louisiana food terms,
and an overview summarizes regional foodways well. Lessons include
family recipes, class tasting parties, food story prompts, and
spice smelling. A 30-minute companion video gives historical
look at various groups' contributions to Louisiana foodways.
Video is available through the Louisiana
Department of Education Resource Center Audio/Visual Lending
Library, Nutrition Education and Training (NET) Program.
From the menu, select "Cultural Foods."
- Gaudet, Marcia. "The
New Orleans King Cake in Southwest Louisiana," Mid-America
Folklore, Fall 1989, pp. 114-121.
- Gustes, Jr., Roy F. The
100 Greatest New Orleans Creole Recipes. Pelican Publishing,
1998.
- Gutierrez, C. Page.
Cajun Foodways. 1992. University
Press of Mississippi. Order from the Press, 3825 Ridgewood
Rd., Jackson, MS 39211, 800/737-7788.
- Jambalaya: A Collection
of Cajun and Creole Favorites from the Junior League of New Orleans. 1983. A Walter S. McIlhenny Community
Cookbook Hall of Fame book.
- Kirlin, Katherine S. and
Thomas M. Kirlin. Smithsonian Folklife Cookbook, Smithsonian
Institution Press, 1991. Find recipes from North and South Louisiana
and around the country as well.
- Louisiana Cookin'. A
magazine that features food traditions throughout Louisiana.
Published six times a year, $15/year subscription, 129 S. Cortez
St., New Orleans, LA 70119, 888/884-4114, 504/482-3914, subscriptions@louisianacookin.com
- Louisiana Office of Tourism. Spirit of Independence: The St. Joseph Day Celebration.
This free 38-page booklet includes an explanation of the tradition
and recipes of foods traditionally placed on the altar. For a
copy, contact Sharon Calcote, Heritage Tourism Program, Office
of Tourism, PO Box 94291, Baton Rouge, LA 70804, 225/342-8142,
- McCaffery, Kevin (prod.). A Common Pot: Creole Cooking on Cane River. Video, 30 minutes. Filmed by Neil Alexander.
- Mitcham, Howard. Creole
Gumbo and All that Jazz: New Orleans Seafood Cookbook. Pelican
Publishing Co., 1978.
- Recipes and Reminiscences
of New Orleans. Parents
Club of Ursuline Academy, 1971. A Walter S. McIlhenny Community
Cookbook Hall of Fame book.
- River Road Recipes III:
A Healthy Collection.
The Junior League of Baton Rouge, 1994. This volume includes
the traditional recipe from Volumes I and II and adds a more
healthy version. It also includes helpful hints from the cooks
and some stories about the recipes. A Walter S. McIlhenny Community
Cookbook Hall of Fame book.
- Schweid, Richard. Hot
Peppers: The Story of Cajuns and Caspicum, revised edition,
University of North Carolina Press, 1999. $15.95.
- Smith, Andy, compiler. Louisiana
Proud Collection of Home Cooking. Louisiana Proud, 1991.
Divides the state into five sections and includes recipes from
276 towns with sketches of local buildings. Louisiana Proud
Collection of Sweet Things is another collection by the same
author.
- Snyder, Luella and Steve
Knudsen. Of Sugar Cane and Syrup. Perspective Film, 1977.
A 15-minute documentary focusing on the Stribling family as they
make sugar cane for their own use. Available for loan through
the State Library of Louisiana and for purchase either Perspective
Film or Coronet Film and Video, a Simon and Schuster Company,
420 Academy Drive, Northbrook, IL 60062.
- Sunstein, Bonnie and Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater. FieldWorking: Reading and Writing Research.
Prentice Hall, 2002. Valuable teacher resource with lessons for
reading, writing, fieldwork, and teaching students to "read"
landscape and culture. website has a community bulletin board for teachers and opportunites to share class projects online.*
- Touchstone, Billie L. Redneck
Country Cooking. Everett Companies, Bossier City, LA., 1988.
- Tell Me More: A Cookbook
Spiced with Cajun Traditions and Food Memories. Junior League of Lafayette, 1993.
Includes sketches by artist Floyd Sonnier.
- Wilson, Charles, et al. The
Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. UNC Press, 1989. This large,
accessible volume covers hundreds of topics, including many on
foodways, useful for older students and teachers, available in
many public libraries, 1,656 pages, $69.95.
For additional resources, check the Louisiana Folklife Bibliography. If you would like a list of resources that only relate to this unit, select "Only Material Culture I Crafts I Foodways."
*These resources are available from the CARTS Catalog, 800/333-5982, or online.
Unit VII Outline
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