Othering and Spam:

There are a couple of points to be made about the connection between othering and Spam, particularly in reference to the mainland of the USA and the Hawaiian Islands. The first is “outward” othering. During the Second World War the Hawaiian Islands were a very important strategic base from which the war in the Pacific was supplied. The people of the Hawaiian Islands didn’t have much in the way of foodstuffs, regardless of how much was being shipped further east, so the US government inundated the region with Spam. Hawaiians were given the “cheap” meat.

Hawaiians co-opted the cheap foodstuff and made it a part of their local culture in much the same way that Bolivians wear the hats of their oppressors. Now there are a lot of dishes that are made with Spam, not the least of which is the Spam musubi. The saying is that Spam musubi will make your hair shiny. It never really worked for me.

Now they say that you can not be a true Hawaiian if you don’t eat Spam. I think this illustrates the point that something can only be considered “cultural” as far as it is co-opted from an “other”. Tomatoes came from the Americas and noodles from China, but spaghetti is considered Italian food. There is no chop suey in Asia.

When a people identify themselves by what they eat, they almost always identify something from somewhere else. Ethnically I am Irish, but the Irish food, potatoes, comes from the Americas. When I remember Ireland the food that comes to mind is the fish and chip guy’s deep fried everything after the pubs closed, and the chipper was from Viet Nam.

Join the cultural revolution, and dig in!