Situated Food Poisoning: A Study of Eating Practice in Indonesian Pesantren

Pesantren are religious-based boarding school systems in Indonesia, where shared living is embedded in their social norms. Everyday routines at these school communities, such as in students’ collective daily meals and eating, is part of moral teachings. Using food poisoning cases in Indonesian pesantren as a specific case, this research analyzes eating as social practice, as an alternative approach besides the individual and behavioristic models. Reflecting the idea that “eating is a compounded practice”, eating as a practice is an assemblage of norms, social structures, and food materials arranged in a particular space and time, linked to mealtimes, rituals, food preparation, and also the consequences and implications of the eating practice itself. In pesantren, several food issues are linked to communal practices and lack of hygiene. From analysis of two popular online news websites in Indonesia, this research depicts how online news stories can explore contextual and societal dynamics of reports of epidemiological outbreaks.

My findings from food poisoning stories mention how ideas of modesty, compliance, and communality are common features of eating in daily meals in pesantren – which are associated with the moral learning in daily pesantren regulations. In addition, santri also have their autonomy and participation in eating arrangements as adolescents. All of those meanings are performed by various other practices, such as food purchasing, cooking methods, and shared meal servings. Hence, eating practice in pesantren also incorporates parental roles and social engagements with community outside the pesantren. This thesis also explains the entanglement of materials with the meanings and performances as eating practice configurations in pesantren, which can be observed through how pesantren organize their kitchen, schedules, and food collection utensils for students. To conclude, food poisoning stories unfold the eating practice in pesantren as intertwining elements of shared understandings, which facilitated by multiple performances and vast range of materials, occasions, and food contents.