Food, Culture, and Politics

Catalog description

"You are what you eat." We have all heard this truism in one form or another. A more productive approach follows the French gastronome Brillat-Savarin's famous statement, "Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are." We are how we eat, how we think about what we eat, and how we procure the foods that we eat. Food relates intimately to who we are as individuals and members of families and broader communities, and as a species. What can analysis of food teach us about the construction of meaning, order, and values in our lives? How do patterns in the production, distribution, and consumption of food promote social categorizations such as gender, ethnicity, religion, education, race, status, and class? How do scholars research local foodways in the context of global changes in systems of food production? What is the future of food in a world marked by increasing socio-economic inequalities and the threat of climate change? How we approach the question of what to eat therefore serves as a vehicle for understanding the construction of meaning and the contradictions of our adaptations to changing natural and social environments.