Anthropology of Food

Catalog description

Cross-cultural practices and beliefs about the production, consumption, and distribution of food vary widely. This course examines food in a historical, social, and cultural context, focusing on the topics such as subsistence patterns and cultural patterns of food preparation and consumption; contemporary diets and the increasing prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease; cultural practices that restrict food intake or dictate food taboos; the globalization and "McDonaldization" of food; and others. The goal of the course is to provide students with theoretical and methodological tools to analyze food as a symbolic, political, and cultural artifact in today's world. Offered Occasionally.