Peasants and Bourgeois

 

Breckon Lawlar

Cultural Geography

3/16/21

In Eaters and the Eaten by John Berger, he talks about the social difference between classes and how they view food and meals. He talks about two different classes, the bourgeois, which would be the upper class or the rich and the peasants or the working class. 

Berger mentions that the time the two classes eat is different, the bourgeois eat in the evening and the peasants eat mid day. The bourgeois eat in the evening because they have the time and the money to eat whenever they want . It is a way of showing off their money and being a part of that societal class. The peasants eat mid day because they need to work. Eating in their eyes is surviving rather than a luxury. They need to work so that they can eat. While the bourgeois eat because they don’t need to work as much. 

Both of these societal classes contribute to consumerism in different ways. The bourgeois held lots of parties  with which needed to be catered. Therefore they contributed to  consumerism by buying food and supplying various things needed for their parties. The peasants contributed to consumerism in a completely different way; they ate the foods that were cheaper because it was the only thing they could afford. They didn’t need anything fancy like the bourgeois because the only thing they were concerned about was surviving.