the types of dumpsters the divers were frequenting. Maybe that could explain why the divers
reported that they consumed a greater intake of fruits and vegetables this way (Black 2007). For
then what enters is the stigmata of dirtiness and perceived disregard for consuming ‘blemished’
food items, is what sticks the modern act of rubbish resourcing. So, it becomes a self-othering
behavior which forges a new market identity for divers who dive out of necessity or unforced.
One such example of self-othering is the assignation of a punk identity of the body, “Being punk
is a way of critiquing privileges and challenging social hierarchies” (Clark 2004:19). Punk
identities tend to be inspired by anarchism, in reaction to hegemonic market structures; this
identity carries to food as a social actor as well, but this point will be further elaborated in the
next section.
Regarding divers who dive as political statements, Barnard’s (2011) article on freeganism
in New York gleans that Most of the participants are ‘choosing’ [keyword] to dive; then you
have the homeless groups diving out of necessity. I think this distinction is important because it
shows that many of the divers in this article are acting from a point of privilege; privilege3 being
that backpack chock full of provisions/advantages not necessarily in the hold of other’s
possession. Particularly in Barnard’s paper, the point is made that such diving occurred in groups
of twenty or so people, wherein diving outings served more as tutorial for newcomers (Barnard
2011:428). Divers are supposed to be ideal-based and propelled by the engagement of social
tactics. These tactics kind of become a way to subvert the proverbial “man”4. Divers are being
actors who have their focus on their identity. Diving specifically as a practice is supposed to be
the modus for performing this difference (Shantz 2005). It is expressive in function (for how it
can be seen as creating visibility outside of the community since diving is still considered to be
something on the fringe).
Mostly consumerist/politically-inclined ideas of mass consumption are critiqued as the
idea of the theoretical, making diving the practice. So, scavenging and DIY culture are on and
about an actionable alternative to social relationships involved in procuring foods. Purchase
power forms the logics of power in organizing around a gift economy (Mauss 1954). This sort of
ideology is employed via the actual diving: gifts sans utility (Shantz 2005) and gifts having
utility wherein the diving gift’s identity is thrown out the moment it is defined as garbage, until it
is re-utilized (from diving). This changes how garbage is viewed; garbage, trash, and waste
having the usual negative connotations of ‘don’t associate those words with food’. Mauss can
frame this steering as a useful way of distributing food by needs. This distribution projects itself
in recognition as the social bracketing surrounding garbage. Recognition (Povinelli 2011:76-77)
being the very employment of garbage gaining value as it is used as a product.
Capitalist societies are organized around the surplus. The means of obtaining the surplus
are mostly unattainable (Graeber 2007). This shifts the surplus into a commodity that only those
with the means can acquire. The anarchist bent on this idea is freeganism (and dumpster-diving)
become a way to crumple with and undermine the very system whose products they consume.
‘Dumpstering’ concerns itself with the broader impacts of the environmental ecology
surrounding access to resources (namely food). They hold the view that consumerism is wasteful
and redistribution is necessary to meet human needs wholly (Barnard 2011).
3
This definition is being taken from Peggy McIntosh’s 1988 paper breaking down white privilege. And though I do
not discuss much how race/ethnicity is factored in diving, I found its basic definition to be apt for the purposes of
this paper.
4
A slang term referring to authority/government.
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