Summary Grilled Chicken in the Network of Cultural Meanings. Innovations and transformations in Czech diet in the second half of the 20th century and in the early 21st century

• Authors: Doušek Roman

Title variants

CS

Grilovaná kuřata v síti kulturních významů. Inovace a proměny v české stravě ve druhé polovině 20. století a na začátku 21. století

• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

EN

The study follows the introduction of grilled chicken into Czech diet since the 1960s. The author considers the meanings, attributed to this dish at the social and individual levels, to be crucial. The political regime included the dish in the desired fast and public catering, whose positivity resulted from the consumers’ time savings. In general, it understood the poultry meat and the spread of its consummation as positive from the point of view of consumerism and modernization. Economic troubles of the Czechoslovak agriculture in producing the commodity long caused the dish to have a meaning of a festive meal at the individual level, and it also was understood as a practical and healthy dish. The political change in 1989 did not bring up a radical turn in the significance. The gradual decrease in poultry meat price, and the competition from other forms of fast and street foods led to the stagnation in the sale of grilled chicken only after the year 2000. These were no longer understood as an exceptional dish, and, on the contrary, they gained a significance of a cheap dish. Also the health benefits of the poultry meat began to be questioned. The symbolic tie to Andrej Babiš, the current Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, based on his entrepreneur activities, has only deepened the transformation in the dish meaning.

Keywords

EN

Food change; cultural meaning; culture and politics; grilled chicken; Czech Republic; Brno

• Publisher: The National Institute of Folk Culture
• Journal: Národopisná revue (Journal of Ethnology)
• Year: 2019
• Volume: 29
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 213 - 224

Contributors

author

Doušek Roman