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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am interested in knowing whether this is a cultural thing among some white people. We are not white and our families keep feeding and feeding and feeding us and their guests.  It would be devestatingly rude for someone to be hungry in their homes.

However, I do tell my own young kids “last call” at dinner time only, because otherwise they suddenly decide they are hungry at bedtime as a stalling technique.[/quote]

Some white people maybe.  My mom will make ten times the amount of food needed for any type of guest.  The biggest problem with being her guest is trying to leave without being overfull.  [/quote]

Should we start discussing some other issues as "cultural" things, like that would make it OK? You may be interested to know the demographics of the vast majority of people I've met who are on time, drive well, speak English properly, and "trust banks." [/quote]

DP -- I get your point, and I don't think it is a race issue, but food is an area around which there are a lot of cultural "norms."  I agree that strict policies around food are the result of personal issues (OCD, disordered eating, etc), but I do think there are some cultures that highly value hospitality and strongly associate food with that, and for which it would be unacceptable to not provide abundant and frequent refreshments.  In other words, all kinds of people can have these tendencies, but there are some cultures that so strongly frown upon it that it's repressed, and others for which other cultural norms (privacy, frugality) may encourage, or at least no inhibit, such behavior.[/quote]

Again, I'm waiting to hear what CULTURES you are referring to. "White" is not a culture, or so was claimed earlier.[/quote]

I was not the previous poster, and I didn't say any race was a "culture."  I avoided specifying a culture, because I knew that, as soon as I did, someone would come up with a anecdote that "disproves" it.  I'm sure such anecdote will be true.  As I said, there are individuals with these tendencies everywhere.  However, there are places where social pressure inhibits, even if it doesn't completely prevent, such behavior.

However, since you're so determined, I say that it seems to me that "southern" cultures, whether in the US or Europe, for example, tend to put more focus on an [u]over abundance[/u] of food as part of hospitality (not just food itself, which I think all cultures see as an essential part of hospitality).  I wonder if its some remnant of times when being in a warmer climate made access to food easier and more consistent?  It makes sense that if you're living on the frontier in Minnesota or a Nordic country with a very short growing season, that there would be a premium placed on avoiding food waste.

I also think there is a socioeconomic element.  This made me think of Tom Wolfe and his "social x-rays."   He says something along the line of "The only people who can be that thin are people who have absolutely no doubt about where their next meal is coming from."  There can be a snobbery around not eating. Someone said the other day that "You should never trust someone who eats at cocktail parties."  It is a thing among certain classes.  (On the other hand, I find that these people tend to drink a lot of alcohol instead).  [/quote]

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