Changes in Turkish Eating and Drinking Culture in the Current Process

Abstract

Eating and drinking is the most basic requirement of human beings to survive. Human beings, who have turned from collecting to hunting and then agriculture in the historical process from the humanoids to the present, have made efforts to provide what is necessary to be able to live. This effort caused him to use tools and allowed him to develop his mind and body. In the process, by taking the fire under his control, he dominated the environment in which he lived, changed his environment while changing himself, and used the fire to provide security as well as warming and enlightenment. Cooking of food has increased the variety, as well as providing hygiene and healthiness in eating and drinking, and has saved people both new tastes in eating and drinking and time. The landforms of the environment they live in, the climate, the presence of plants and animals, water resources have been effective in shaping their eating and drinking. During the process, each community, and then each nation, has created their own unique food and drinking culture within the framework of these conditions. Of course, each nation has various relations with other nations around them (war, trade, migration, etc.) as a result, changes have been experienced in the food and drinking culture. In the process, there are positive and negative changes in Turkish food and drink culture due to factors such as developments in technology, communication opportunities without borders, a globalized world, the dominance of consumer culture, where everything is turned into a commodity to be bought and sold. In this context, the study will also examine the fact that traditional Turkish food culture has changed in parallel with political, economic and social changes in Turkey after 1980, on the one hand, food has been removed from its cultural context and turned into a commodity of the culture industry/consumer culture, on the other hand, globalization and technological developments can enrich Turkish food culture or allow the discovery of different tastes.