Further, through the structural sequence of the meal, the visual pattern of the food acquired an increasing dominance. Each community study used a common general methodological framework while pursuing a somewhat different research emphasis. The study of the Oglala Sioux emphasized the ceremonial use of food and the symbolic separation of Sioux food and American food. In the following discussion, I will describe the analytical categories used to evaluate each of these components of the framework and then use one community study to illustrate the relative significance of different kinds of data. In any community, it is necessary to explore the temporal cycles of activity that underlie the differentiation of eating occasions.
Meals punctuate temporal activity and ritual cycles in all cultures.
In American urban industrial life, there are several overlapping cycles. Days and weeks are patterned by work and leisure, with leisure activity usually occurring around the weekend. Seasonal variations in work activities are punctuated by the patterning of calendrical holidays - both ritual and secular feasts. The patterning of these cycles in local interacting communities varies greatly in the United States. All communities had daily, weekly, seasonal, and annual cycles of ordinary and feast occasions, and although some were patterned by the national culture, each local cycle was different.