In the chapter from Eat the City by Robin Shulman, sugar is brought to the forefront of food culture, and specifically many ways in which sugar and the sugar industry has affected Puerto Rican society. That “sugar-culture” is highlighted in part by the slang sayings people from that society might have used, incorporating food and industry into their speech (172-173). Food, especially when it is so prominent as sugar was to Puerto Ricans, has a way of permeating many more aspects of society than just the dinner table or the kitchen. Food sticks its nose into industry, social status, and even speech. Where does food get this ability to enter into so many aspects of society? Why do people bring food into so many areas of culture, many of which, at least on the surface, seem to not have much to do with food at all?

The article on the Lenape seems to put Lenape culture before European influence on a pedestal, with the European’s painted as haughty and almost bent on destroying Lenape culture, either intentionally or unintentionally. Though it is true that European colonization was destructive to the pre-existing Lenape culture, and that Europeans looked down on the Lenape, could the article’s attempt to downplay many positive aspects of European society in comparison to Lenape society be in some ways, a skewed response to previous notions that European society was “better” than Lenape society?