When Salt Turns Bitter and the Tablecloth Must Be Blue. On Food in Autism

Abstrakt

The article presented herein forms a part of the broad and rich trend of anthropological research on corporeality. The detailed problem undertaken by the author is the issue of eating disorders evinced by people with autism. Food is understood here as a broad and diverse set of practices, reactions and forms of behaviour. The topic is discussed from the perspective of an anthropologist, with reference to concrete examples derived from several sources, i.e. selected biographical/autobiographical reports concerning the question of living with autism, materials collected during field research conducted since 2013 in the “Jaś i Małgosia” Foundation in Łódź and the author’s personal contacts with people with autism spectrum disorders. The reflections focus on the influence of the senses on the autists’ consumption practices, considering that autists certainly overstep the limits of the culture of food consumption accepted in their community, undermine the normative order of this culture and develop their own eating-related forms of behaviour and rituals, which are often undesirable from the point of view of the community in general.