At the Revis family household in North Carolina, bags of chips and cans of Coca-Cola overflow onto every available square inch of counter space. There are cartons of McDonald's French fries and plastic trays of fried chicken. Two teenage sons hold grease-stained boxes of pizza.

In another picture, a family of nine in Tingo, Ecuador, sits around a week's worth of their groceries: rice, potatoes and plantains.

"Food and eating is about so much more than just getting your nutrition," said Erin Younger, associate director of exhibits at the Burke Museum. "It's about being a proper member of society, about learning how to survive, and enjoyment. It's so elemental to culture."

The Burke recently premiered its most recent traveling show, "Hungry Planet," featuring photographs depicting eating habits and food choices the world over. Based on the best-selling book by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio, it's joined by the accompanying exhibit "Salish Bounty," an exploration of traditional Native American cuisine from the Coast Salish community.

The show places viewers in a global context by qualifying the eating habits of 10 countries, among them the United States, India and Germany. Each photo depicts a family in their own living space, framed by rows of food. A nearby plaque details the contents and cost of a week's worth of groceries.

"It's a conversation-starter, for sure," said museum representative Ruth Pelz.

Nutritional, economic and cultural disparities are illustrated by the juxtaposition of photographs. Younger gives the example of one Chinese household, not showcased in the exhibit, but featured in Menzel's book. The family of four from Beijing includes a grandmother, a teenage son and two working parents on the cusp of the upper middle class. New sources of income have introduced them to outside markets, and with it, fast food and its habits. Their picture shows a kitchen table dominated mostly by fruits and vegetables. But in one corner, packages of KFC hamburgers are stacked pyramid-style.

"It's such an interesting contrast," said Younger. "You can see that there's tension within the family and between generations."

Curators wanted to ground the exhibit locally, and so balanced the "Hungry Planet" images with a display of foods indigenous to the Coast Salish people of the region.

"The lands and waters here have fed these people forever," said Peter Lape, curator of archaeology at the Burke.

In a collaborative project with local tribes, Lape tried to make sense of the growing rates of diabetes among Native Americans by compiling a list of traditional ingredients.

That list rounded out to 300 items, a number he compares to the average American diet of just 12 dietary staples.

"Coast Salish cuisine survived the darkest days," said Lape. "When this place was invaded by my ancestors and the waters were polluted, when people were forced onto reservations — through all that the cuisine survived."

The exhibit takes visitors through three broadly defined time periods, culminating in a collection of local ingredients, like bear jerky, rose hips, biscuitroot and herring. Lape hopes that seeing the former bounty of this region will help visitors view themselves as natives of this land and encourage them to invest in its future.

"If we build a relationship with these lands and these waters like (the Salish) people did, it will ultimately benefit us," he said. "We have a lot to learn from them."

During the exhibit's stint at the Burke, the museum will host weekly tastings and discussions. A partnership with PCC Natural Markets will also allow for a series of talks about everything from culinary spices to food archaeology.

"As the world is globalizing there are important forces at play to help people retain their sense of culture. And food is one of the most basic ways. When people immigrate, they bring their foods with them," said Younger. "That speaks to how important it is."

Celina Kareiva: 206-384-8904 or ckareiva@seattletimes.com