Food touches everything important to people: it marks social difference and strengthens social bonds. Common to all people, it can signify very different things from table to table. Food and Culture takes a global look at the social, symbolic, and political-economic role of food. The stellar contributors to this reader examine some of the meanings of food and eating across cultures, with particular attention to how men and women define themselves differently throu… More >>
I assigned this text almost unseen as a course book because it included so many of the classic essays which one might have ended up xeroxing. The students found the book very useful. I would have liked a more historical focus but that’s because of my own training. I will assign the book again.
Rating: 4 / 5
Rarely does one edited volume do such a good job of covering the essential essays about a topic. Counihan and Van Esterik do just that in their well-wrought _Food and Culture_. They skillfully offer food in an anthropological and historical perspective, giving attention to feminist, structuralist, semiotic, and other approaches. The essays themselves are effectively trimmed down by the editors, and the resulting book is consistently rewarding.
The book is weak on vegetarianism, meat as meaning, post-structuralism, and fast food, and could use a bit of help on “ethnic” uses of food. The addition of Doris Witt, Eric Schlosser, and Judith Farquhar would be helpful. It also lacks Peter Singer’s new classic, “The Singer Solution to World Poverty.” A second edition with these modifications would be welcome!
This book can rival, supplant, or supplement most any professor’s undergraduate reading packet on the anthropology of food. Truly well-done. Probably a staple meal on campuses for years to come.
Rating: 5 / 5
Food and culture are examined in 28 essays by noted anthropologists and other social scientists in this uneven but valuable survey.
Reading some of the academese is like treading molasses, but the collection is redeemed by such gems as Brumberg’s examination of the Victorian roots of anorexia nervosa, Sobo’s study of the social meanings of obesity in Jamaica, and Harris’ “The Abominable Pig”. Other writers explore such issues as breast-feeding, “industrial food”, and hunger.
Very interesting and worthwhile for those interested in the deeper meanings of food and eating.
(The numerical rating above is an ineradicable feature of this page. This reviewer does nor employ numerical ratings.)
Rating: 5 / 5