Day 11 - Eating Hands
I know how to eat using my hands (in lieu of utensils) as it's common in both Saudi and Maranao cultures, but I don't do it often now that I'm "not home." For some reason, it feels to me like such an intimate thing to do, only in the presence of family and friends around whom one is comfortable, but also, because it's just a bit more convenient and less messy to use utensils.
Here in Malaysia, people eat with their hands, normally when having traditional food, no matter their social status or the event. I love the confidence with which this is done, and wish I wasn't so messy at it so I could do the same.
There was always that little part of Maranao culture that sneered at people who ate with their hands or didn't know how to eat with utensils. It's never serious, this sneering, but it's there, this underlying accusation that you are uncultured, uneducated, uncivilized because you eat with your hands. It's always "cuter" to make fun of a Maranao who didn't know how to eat using their hands, because Oh, they must have grown up privileged, people say and wave it off. And privilege is cute.
Here in Malaysia, people eat with their hands, normally when having traditional food, no matter their social status or the event. I love the confidence with which this is done, and wish I wasn't so messy at it so I could do the same.
There was always that little part of Maranao culture that sneered at people who ate with their hands or didn't know how to eat with utensils. It's never serious, this sneering, but it's there, this underlying accusation that you are uncultured, uneducated, uncivilized because you eat with your hands. It's always "cuter" to make fun of a Maranao who didn't know how to eat using their hands, because Oh, they must have grown up privileged, people say and wave it off. And privilege is cute.
~END~
This post is part of a series of photos and stories very creatively called
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