Food, Taste, and Culture

Catalog description

This course is an in-depth anthropological examination of food and taste from a cultural politics perspective puts what we eat and why at the center of debate and analysis. The course is based in ethnographically rich case studies that explore the cultural, economic, and social processes related to food production and consumption, as well as how taste and disgust are socially constructed. Some questions that are explored in this course include: how have anthropologists studied food and taste; what theoretical perspectives have guided anthropological research on food and taste; why are some foods elevated to be markers of ethnic or national identity; why do some foods go global; what are the processes behind food gaining World Heritage status; and how is food and the cultivation of taste linked to equity, health, and social justice? Food and taste are inter-linked and part of complex cultural processes that take on different meanings, depending on their local, regional, national, and transnational contexts. These meanings and the ways they are accepted or contested can help us better understand relations of power, social class differences, and even global inequities that food consumption and production can create in local communities and everyday lives. Only one version of A ANT 447/547 may be taken for credit. Prerequisite(s): junior or senior standing.