Pinakbet

A commercialized pinakbet.

Food is undoubtedly an indispensable human need for nobody can survive without eating.  However, the value of food to human beings transcends beyond nutritional sustenance.  It also serves as historical record of environmental struggles and social contestations.  As contended by Liburd (2003), food is “… deeply rooted in (human) history and culture.”  Farb and Armelagos (1980) added that the “… humans’ basic need to eat cannot be separated from symbols and metaphors of status, gift-giving, feasting, social and kin relations, and sacred rituals.”  In addition, Leeds-Hurwitz (1993) likewise argued that “… food serves as an indicator of social identity, from region to ethnicity, from class to age or gender”

            Food products—such as dishes and cuisines—demonstrate the people’s transaction to the challenges of their physical and social environments.  The ingredients and materials used in cooking are not only reflections of the available resources in the environment but also reveal creative human technology to perpetuate human survival.  Likewise, the availability of food resources—or the sources of knowledge, ingredients and materials for cooking—determine some aspects of culture, including the distribution of political power and influence and the migration of people.  The elite or the ruling class, for example, have better access to food resources because of political powers and economic advantages. 

Today, the ruling class even wields influence to make the weaker class believe on the inferiority of their palate.  This “palate inferiorization” is evidenced by classifying cuisines and dishes as “exotic” should it not have been produced nor commonly consumed by the ruling class.  The subversion of the weaker class’ culture is perpetuated by continuing colonial consciousness of the weaker class and pervading neo-colonialism that is sponsored by modern globalization under the guise of cultural exchange.  On the other hand, some so-called “exotic cuisines” that appeal to the tastes and socio-economic interests of the ruling class and colonial powers are expropriated and re-introduced in their new forms.  Hence, it is not surprising to find “exotic cuisines and dishes” in the ruling class’ spaces—first class restaurants and hotels—cooked in ways catering to the palate of the elite costumers.  Nonetheless, these modifications and alterations are parodies of the cuisines and dishes that they intend to re-present.  This is even compounded by an interminable process of cultural oppression that progressively obliterates the history of the creators of the cuisine and dishes.         

Like all other local cuisines, the pinakbet is both an enduring symbol of the Ilokanos’ palate and a consequence of the creative response of the Ilokanos to the challenges of their semi-arid land.  The artifacts of the pinakbet—that is, cooking technology, the combination or mixtures of ingredients, and the utilization of materials in cooking—present cultural integration that were developed from the Ilokanos’ struggle and contestation with their physical and social environment. 

The" cherry" tomatoes used in traditional pinakbet.

Across time and space, there have been changes on the combinations and mixtures of ingredients, alterations on the materials and equipment used in cooking, and the variations in the procedure in cooking the pinakbet.  These phenomena on the pinkabet demonstrate cultural adaptation and social transactions and contestations that gradually undermine the history of the Ilokanos as a nation.  That is, a closer look reveal a social hegemonization or the imposition of the ruling or dominant class on the social life of the masses without overtly coercing the latter (Williams, 1985). 

How the social hegemonization of the pinakbet did happen?  What are the implications of pinakbet’s social hegemonization to the history of the Ilokanos?  What social realities are reflected in the social hegemonization of pinakbet?  The answers to these questions led to the formulation of the paper entitled: "Hegeminzation of Pinakbet"