02/06/20: Contrasting Marxist and Durkheimian

A food that would be considered a totem in my life would be beans because my tia constantly would always have beans whenever I went to her house . No matter what day it was every week she would make fresh beans twice a week and everyone knew they where located in the fridge in a big light blue container . It always represented a sense of belonging because she said that my grandma when she was kid she remembered no matter what she always had beans made at home because it was an easy food to make dinner with depending on what they wanted. She described to me how they weren’t just beans but could be there for nachos , bowl of beans, burritos and whatever we wanted to make incorporating them. The Marxist perspective would see the labor of making beans because I know my tia would never open a can and warm them but rather she would always make them fresh and everyone knew once she threw out the rest of the old beans the next day we would see the silver big pot sitting and boiling beans on the back left burner. It created the relationship because as a kid I was attached to beans which sounds weird but like it was a home feeling whenever I went to he house and even today me and my cousins always look forward to her beans. Whether they were made with bacon so they had a different taste or she would go in a separate pan and mash them with a fork and add a bunch of cheese to make them refried and they are our favorite. I think I would see how much she enjoyed making these when I pulled back the curtain because she was relieved to know there’s food in the house for the kids to eat because when we had beans we had accessibility of choice of what we wanted to eat for dinner.