Metonymns

"The family meal and dinner table are potent symbols even metonymns (a substitute for) of the family itself. "

Deborah Lupton - Food, the Body and the Self London Sage 1996


The family meal is a practice through which we produce and reproduce human culture and through which we recogniser ourselves as belonging to a culture. The family meal can be defined in a broader way here than the Sunday lunch, so as not to exclude any part of society for financial or other reasons. For the middle class woman the family meal may symbolise love and care, whereas for the poor woman putting a meal on the table is more likely to be an assertion of survival.