Cuisine, Health and Table Manners: Food Boundaries and Forms of Distinction among Primary School Children

Using data gathered during ethnographic fieldwork in two primary school canteens, this article investigates how pupils from different social origins perform and embody social class through food knowledge and demeanour. I employ Bourdieu’s concept of habitus to highlight three main oppositions concerning children’s relationship with food, which are rooted in the social and material environment of their families. Their gastronomic horizons (wide versus narrow), their awareness of the links between nutrients and health (specific versus general) and their embodiment of table manners (etiquette versus ludic) unveil how children’s dispositions are simultaneously structured by familial endowments and actively at work in the construction of social divisions.