From Deficit to Dieting: Day-to-Day Eating Practices in Soviet and post-Soviet Jokes and Anecdotes
Acknowledgments
This article was prepared with the support of the Russian Foundation four Humanitiesgrant number 14 – 03 – 00710
How to Cite
Zarubina N.N. 2015. From Deficit to Dieting: Day-to-Day Eating Practices in Soviet and post-Soviet Jokes and Anecdotes — Sociologicheskaja nauka i social’naja praktika. No. 2. P. 130-148.
Abstract
This article reviews the transformation of dietary practices through the prism of their portrayal in jokes and anecdotes, which are regarded as a specific genre within the culture of popular laughter. The qualitative analysis of 205 Soviet and 150 contemporary jokes and anecdotes allows us to single out several basic topical groups, determining the typical issues that Russians faced during the Soviet era and are facing in modern times. While analyzing anecdotes from the sociological point of view, we can reveal people’s direct perception of various social realia and their typical responses to difficulties. That said, jokes and anecdotes do not draw a clear and unbiased picture of social reality, and demand a complex interpretation. The topical groups of Soviet jokes expose a critical attitude towards the centralized distribution system, which imposed limitations on food resources. This system gave various social and professional groups and economic regions unequal access to food, which was embodied in the phenomenon of deficit. The population adapted to this unequal access and deficit by creating unofficial networks of mutual favors (“I scratch your back, you scratch mine”), which, long with the notorious queues, became a popular source of jokes. As the market economy began to emerge in the post-Soviet period, the uneven distribution of food resources became an economic issue. Consequently, most food-related jokes are now centered on high prices, the quality of products and services, and the transformation of gender roles while preparing and consuming meals. Jokes also reveal that one of the key problems faced by Russians today is the contradiction between the traditional food habits, which is mainly oriented on sating one’s hunger, and the imperative demand to be slender or even thin. If an individual chooses a responsible approach to meeting the standards of physical appearance, their eating habits are largely regulated by a diet, which is one of the main subjects ridiculed in modern jokes.
Keywords:
everyday life, feeding practices, institutional transformations, the culture of humor, anecdote, habit supply
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Butenko I. A. Iz istoriji “chernogo iumora”. [From the history of the “black humor”]. J. Sotsiologicheskie issledovanija. 1994. № 5. – s. 148 – 153.
Butenko I. A. Jumor kak predmet sotsiologiji? [Humor as the subject of sociology?]. J. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniia. 1997. № 5. – s. 135 – 140.
Voz’mitel’ A. A. Kachestvo zhizni v doperestroechnoj i poreformennoj Rossiji. [Quality of life in pre-perestroika and post-reform Russia]. J. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniia. 2013. № 2. – s. 25 – 32.
Gol’man E. A. Novoe ponimanije zdorov’ija v politike i povsednevnosti: istoki, aktual’nye napravlenija problematizatsii. [A new understanding of health policy and everyday life: the origins, current trends problematization]. J. Zhurnal issledovanii sotsial’noj politiki. 2014. Tom 12. № 4. – s. 509 – 522.
Dmitriev A. V. Sotsiologija jumora. Ocherki. [Sociology of humor. Essays]. M.: RAN, 1996. – 214 s.
Zarubina N. N. Smekhovaja kul’tura kak faktor tolerantnosti k novym sotsial’nym gruppam v rossiiskom obshchestve. [Culture of laughter as a factor of tolerance to new social groups in Russian society]. J. Obshchestvennye nauki i sovremennost’. 2006. № 5. – s. 155 – 166.
Zarubina N. N. Praktiki pitaniia kak marker i faktor sotsial’nogo neravenstva v Rossii: istorija i sovremennost’. [Feeding practices as a marker and a factor of social inequality in Russia: Past and Present]. J. Istoricheskaia psikhologiia i sotsiologiia istorii. 2014. № 2. – s. 46 – 62.
Zubanova L. B. Russkij natsional’nyj kharakter v iumoristicheskoj samoprezentatsii (sotsiologicheskij analiz anekdotov). [Russian national character in a humorous self (sociological analysis of anecdotes)]. J. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniia. 2012. № 10. – s. 78 – 87.
Kozyreva P. M., Safronova A. M., Starovojtov M. L. Analiz fakticheskogo pitanija i pishchevogo statusa razlichnykh grupp naselenija. [The analysis of dietary intake and nutritional status of different groups]. J. Vestnik Rossijskogo monitoringa ekonomicheskogo polozhenija i zdorov’ja naselenija NIU VShE (RLMS-HSE). Vyp. 4. M.: Nats. issled. un-t «Vysshaia shkola ekonomiki», 2014. – s. 131 – 165.
Kondrat’eva T. S. Kormit’ i pravit’. O vlasti v Rossii XVI-XX vv. [Feed and rule. About power in Russia XVI-XX centuries]. M.: ROSSPEN, 2006. – 208 s.
Kravchenko S. A. Stanoviashchaiasja slozhnaja sotsial’naja real’nost’: problemy novykh uiazvimostej. [The Becoming Complex Social Reality: Problems of New Vulnerabilities]. J. Sotsiologicheskie issledovanija. 2013. № 5. pp. 3 – 12.
Kravchenko S. A. Sotsiokul’turnaja dinamika edy. [The socio-cultural dynamics of food]. M.: MGIMO-Universitet, 2014. – 198 s.
Kravchenko S. A. Riski i vyzovy edy: neobkhodimost’ gumanisticheskoi biopolitiki. [Risks and challenges of food: the need for humanistic biopolitics]. J. Sotsiologicheskaia nauka i sotsial’naia praktika. 2015. № 1. – s. 133 – 149.
Krupets Ia., Nartova N. «Khudoi znachit normal’nyi»: upravlenie telom v srede gorodskoj molodezhi. [“Slim mean normal”: management body among urban youth]. J. Zhurnal issledovanij sotsial’noj politiki. 2014. Tom 12. № 4. – s. 523 – 538.
Mel’nichenko M. Sovetskij anekdot. Ukazatel’ siuzhetov. [Soviet anecdote. Pointer stories]. M.: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2014. – 1104 s.
Orlov I. B. Sovetskaja povsednevnost’. Istoricheskij i sotsiologicheskij aspekty stanovlenija. [Soviet everyday life. Historical and sociological aspects of the formation]. M.: GU VShE, 2010. – 317 s.
Osokina E. Proshchal’naja oda sovetskoj ocheredi. [Farewell ode to the Soviet line]. J. Neprikosnovennyi zapas, 2005. № 5 (43). [Elektronnyj resurs]. URL: http://magazines. russ.ru/nz/2005/43/oso10.html (data obraschenija: 07.05.2015).
Pokhlebkin V. V. Moja kukhnia i moje menju. [My cooking and my menu]. M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2004. — 39 s.
Prodovol’stvennaya bezopasnost’ Rossii 2013. [Food safety of Russia in 2013]. [Elektronnyy resurs]. Voprosik! URL: http://voprosik.net/prodovolstvennayabezopasnost-rossii-2013/ (data obrashcheniya: 27.05.2015).
Prodovol’stvennaia programma SSSR na period do 1990 g. i mery po ee realizatsii. Materialy majskogo Plenuma TsK KPSS 1982 goda. [Food Program of the USSR for the period up to 1990 and measures for its implementation. Proceedings of the May Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee in 1982]. [Elektronnyj resurs]. URL: http://dshinin.ru/Upload_ Books3/Books/2012/04/22/201204220957031.pdf (data obraschenija: 08.04.2015).
Sokhan’ I. V. Osobennosti russkoj gastronomicheskoj kul’tury. [Features of the gastronomic culture in Russia]. J. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, serija «Filosofiia, sotsiologiia, politologiia», 2011. № 347. – S. 61 – 68.
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Zarubina, N. N. (2015) ’From Deficit to Dieting: Day-to-Day Eating Practices in Soviet and post-Soviet Jokes and Anecdotes’, Sociologicheskaja nauka i social’naja praktika, (2), pp. 130-148. Available at: https://www.socnp.ru/index.php/snsp/article/view/3126 (Accessed: 18May2024).
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