Eckman (and maybe Mead) and Darwin all brought up the idea of "cultural contamination." I will just flat out admit that I have a maybe irrational aversion to that concept. To say that something is contaminating or can be contaminated is to suggest the possibility of purity, and I think the idea of cultural purity is delusional and inappropriate especially for our time (which is to say I find Darwin more forgiveable than Ekman). Furthermore, "contamination" connotates an invasive and
potentially dangerous alterity.
I had a professor who used cannibalism as a metaphor of how we consume and intake the cultural other and how the eaten become part of us, thus obliterating the distinction between us and them. With that in mind I wonder what Freud would say about these faces.
(notice also that when it's "too close to home," food faces are not cute any more and actually kind of gross.)
(for some very gruesome "advanced readings" see
which features life-like body parts-- face, gut, limbs-- made of bread in a bakery in Thailand.
for Japanese Cannibal feast that features a life-sized pinata women filled with red-sauce covered food.)
I remember my mom (from Japan) used to tell me to eat all the rice pieces because each piece has seven gods in it. I always wondered if it's "nice" to eat these gods (and also how many gods are in the bowl-full of rice).
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