Notice, that as instructor, I get to preempt the claim to neutral, technical expertise. I get to assert my authority as the holder and upholder of principles of universalisms, while the challenge to my assertion is said to be political. In the university, the Study of Music is called Musicology. We start usually with Gregorian Chants, and move on through history chronologically up through Palestrina, the Baroque period, followed by the classical, then romantic, 12-tone scale of Webern, then on to Stravinsky, Bartok, Cage, and so on. Forty years ago, UCLA pioneered a new field, Ethnomusicology.
Food is just food.
It is what we eat all the time. Let's take Native-American studies. Some of you have been reading of the fight over Ethnic Studies that has taken place on this campus for the last few months. One of my colleagues in the Political Science department wrote an op-ed piece in the local newspaper a few weeks ago, and virtually dismissed the fight as one that was all or merely about ethnic politics. However, until we come to understand that he was both El Pirata AND Sir Francis Drake, until we see our collective histories through many lenses the temptation of a single authoritative voice is powerful.