How Our Dinner Plates Reflect Diversity, Yet Unite Humanity

Food is a great equalizer. Around the planet, we all share the common bond of having to sustain and feed our bodies.

Today, we’ll take a look at cultures around the world through the food that binds us.

National Geographic Photographer Matthieu Paley has traveled around the world photographing and documenting cultures that still eat in traditional fashions, uninfluenced by the advent of the supermarket.

His work looks at the evolution of diet, culture, and environment with fascinating and compelling photography. His photos remind us all of our common threads of connection.

In a series of talks at Nat Geo Live, Paley spoke about his global adventure. Today, we have curated for you a few excerpts from his talk exploring the food cultures of societies around the planet.

To begin, we head to a remote region in northern Afghanistan. Here, the Kyrgyz community makes a life on a high, barren, plateau living off of a high-altitude nomadic diet.

Food of the Bolivian jungle…

From Afghanistan, we head to Bolivia. Here, in the deep jungle, we get a glimpse of the Tsimane way of life, that of a hunter, forager, and farmer.

Now we look to a place far from the barren plateau the Kyrgyz call home. Here, the relationship between the Tsimane and their environment provides yet another unique glimpse into our universal connection over food…

Subsistence farming in Pakistan…

Next up, we travel to Northern Pakistan where the Burusho people survive on subsistence agriculture even at high altitude.

A taste of the sea in Borneo…

Finally, we take a look at the oceanic diet through the culture of the Bajau people of Borneo.

National Geographic, and all of the things they are doing and promoting, are just fantastic. The four above videos don’t even scratch the surface when it comes to all of their incredible content. Go check them out and show them some love when you’re done here!

Connecting over a meal…

Take a moment to reflect on the universality of the proverbial dinner table across the globe.

We are no different from anybody else when it comes to sharing the commonality of something as basic as food.

We all what the same for ourselves, to live healthy, happy lives, so why are we so adamantly fighting about the best way to do that?

Perhaps if we took the time to more deeply appreciate the essence of a life well lived, we could recognize that same intention in the people we consider to be in diametric opposition to us.

How much is our narrative of the “other” constructed by forces outside of our own firsthand experience? Connection and conversation are our greatest tools in learning to combat bigotry, fear, and hatred. And I can think of no better way to begin those conversations and make those connections than over food.

Stay beautiful & keep laughing!

-Liesl

“Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.” – Victor Borge

This article was originally published on July 30, 2016.

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