Biocultural Perspectives on Food and Nutrition

Catalog description

This course acquaints students with the field of nutritional anthropology, including its various methods and areas of focus. The overall perspective in this course is a biocultural one. Students gain an appreciation for the evolutionary and ecological bases of human diets, as well as for how culture and society affect food choice, availability, and preparation. We examine the relationship between diet and disease and the role of belief and of political and economic forces in shaping human foodways, and we explore the ways in which anthropological knowledge can be applied to address nutrition problems in the contemporary world.