Repeated associations

A food tradition becomes a marker of regional identity when people repeatedly associate its dishes and practices with a place and use that association to describe themselves or others. Mohini Mehta’s 2018 sociology thesis offers a Punjabi example. Its repository summary describes research on displaced Punjabi women’s cooking and rehabilitation in Delhi after Partition. Food appears in this project as an activity through which refugee identities and domestic roles changed, not merely as a preserved menu.[1]

Mehta argues that a cuisine developed through displacement and resettlement later became recognisable as quintessentially Punjabi, with a wider national and international presence. That is the study’s argument, rather than a claim that every family ate identically. It directs attention to recreation, innovation, nostalgia and economic circumstances. A regional association can therefore become stronger while recipes and settings change; it need not depend on a tradition remaining sealed off from neighbouring people.[1]

Cookbooks and selection

Arjun Appadurai’s 1988 article on national cuisine explains another part of this process. In the inspected opening extract, he describes cookbooks as tools for transmitting culinary knowledge, standardising kitchen practices and publicising traditions. A published collection selects and arranges dishes for readers. The methodological implication is that its regional label is itself evidence of representation, alongside whatever information it provides about ingredients and preparation.[2]

Appadurai also places cookbooks within household budgets, markets, domestic expectations and social hierarchy. Those conditions matter when assessing which practices can become a public image of a region. An accessible printed recipe may represent the resources and preferences of a particular readership. Its prominence should not automatically be treated as a survey of every rural household, religious community or economic setting within Punjab.[2]

Whose regional identity?

Mehta foregrounds women’s agency and changing gender relations within migrant families. This distinguishes a cuisine’s public image from the work of preparing it. A regional history should retain those circumstances of teaching and cooking instead of crediting an impersonal tradition with every change.[1]

The answer thus concerns a process, not a single birthday for a cuisine. Appadurai’s account of standardisation suggests asking who selected a representative repertoire, for which audience and in which publication. A regional label can organise shared belonging while still leaving room for different household practices. Recognising that selection helps explain the identity without turning one menu into an obligatory definition of being Punjabi.[2]

Sources & notes

Source records include access dates and, where known, limits on what was examined. Checks used AI assistance; independent human or specialist review has not been completed.

  1. Mohini Mehta / Central European University, Sociology MA. The Vessel, The Wife and The Wagon: Studying Gender, Migration and Resettlement in the Displaced Punjabi Community Through a Culinary Lens ↗scholarly thesis repository abstract · Source date: 2018 · Locator: Thesis title page and abstract, as indexed; institutional repository record. Accessed 2026-11-05.The indexed title page and abstract were rechecked in the web reader on 5 November 2026. The old PDF address returned HTML rather than a PDF in a local GET, and the current handle could not be retrieved by the web reader in this check. The full thesis and its interviews were not independently examined; access may vary.Return to Repeated associations, paragraph 1 ↑Return to Repeated associations, paragraph 2 ↑Return to Whose regional identity?, paragraph 1 ↑
  2. Arjun Appadurai / Comparative Studies in Society and History. How to Make a National Cuisine: Cookbooks in Contemporary India ↗scholarly article extract · Source date: 1988-01 · Locator: Actual publisher opening Extract and original issue information,30(1), January 1988, pp.3–24. Accessed 2026-11-01.Actual extract inspected on publisher page; full article not claimed read. Online migration date 3 June 2009 is distinguished from original 1988 publication. Application to regional cookbook representation is an explicit methodological inference. All DOI/JSTOR/mirror forms are the same work.Return to Cookbooks and selection, paragraph 1 ↑Return to Cookbooks and selection, paragraph 2 ↑Return to Whose regional identity?, paragraph 2 ↑
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Record PH-JOU-0027 · English edition · human review not performed