Anthropology of Food

Catalog description

Class Hours: 3 Lab/Discussion: 0 Credits: 3 Prerequisite: None Corequisite: None Restriction: None Description: Focuses on the influences of biology, culture, political economy, and history on what and how peoples of the world eat. Readings, lectures, films, and projects link the dietary implications of foraging, crop domestication, state formation, and industrial capitalism to food choices, health, and food policy. Examines various sociocultural practices relating to the uses of food in marking social difference, maintaining social relationships, and dealing with cultural constructions of health, illness, and the body. Considers the influence of the agricultural revolution, colonization, and globalization on the transforma­tion of food meanings, practices, and availability.