Readings

Required Texts

There are three books required for class.

Buy at Amazon[G&E] Gewertz, Deborah, and Frederick Errington. Cheap Meat: Flap Food Nations in the Pacific Islands. University of California Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780520260924. [Preview with Google Books]

Buy at Amazon [Striffler] Striffler, Steve. Chicken: The Dangerous Transformation of America's Favorite Food. Yale University Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780300095296.

Buy at Amazon Poppendieck, Janet. Free for All: Fixing School Food in America (California Studies in Food and Culture). University of California Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780520243705. [Preview with Google Books]

SES # TOPICS READINGS
1 Introduction to food and culture: what's the relationship? Brillat-Savarin, Jean-Anthelme. "Aphorisms." 1825.
Aperitif
2 Food paradoxes and dilemmas, I

Pollan, Michael. "Our National Eating Disorder." New York Times Magazine, October, 17, 2004.

Mead, Margaret. "The Changing Significance of Food." American Scientist 58, no. 2 (1970): 176–81. Reprinted in Food and Culture: A Reader. 1st ed. (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF)

Buy at Amazon Fisher, M. F. K. "How to Distribute Your Virtue." In How to Cook a Wolf. Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1942. ISBN: 9780865473362.

Bittman, Mark. "A Food Manifesto for the Future," The New York Times, February 1, 2011.

3 Food paradoxes and dilemmas, II

Buy at Amazon Levenstein, Harvey. "Paradoxes of Plenty." In Paradox of Plenty: A Social History of Eating in Modern America, Revised Edition (California Studies in Food and Culture). University of California Press, 2003, pp. 237–55. ISBN: 9780520234406. [Preview with Google Books]

 [G&E] pp. 1-71

4 Food and Power

Buy at Amazon Mintz, Sidney. "Food and its Relationship to Concepts of Power." In Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom: Excursions into Eating, Culture, and the Past. Beacon Press, 1997, pp. 17–32. ISBN: 9780807046296.

[G&E] pp. 72-147

5 Food and Labor

start reading [Striffler]

Supplemental readings for Ses #5 and 6:

6 Recitation finish reading [Striffler]
7 Research Watch: Buffet
The Meal: What Makes Good Food Good?
8 Good food is culturally authentic

Buy at Amazon Dash, Julie. "Rice Culture." In Through the Kitchen Window: Women Explore the Intimate Meanings of Food and Cooking. Edited by Arlene Voski Avakian. Diane Publisher Company, 1997, pp. 19–23. ISBN: 9780756791216.

Buy at Amazon Beoku-Betts, Josephine. "We Got Our Way of Cooking Things: Women, Food, and Preservation of Cultural Identity Among the Gullah." In Food in the USA. Edited by Carole Counihan. Routledge, 2002, pp. 277–94. ISBN: 9780415932325.

Heldke, Lisa. ""Let's Eat Chinese!" Reflections on Cultural Food Colonialism." Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture 1, no. 2 (2001): 76–9.

Josephson, Paul. "Technology and Culture." The Ocean's Hot Dog: The Development of the Fish Stick 49, no. 1 (2008): 41–61.

Watch: The Meaning of Food (a PBS short)

9 Recitation

Narayan, Uma. "Eating Cultures: Incorporation, Identity and Indian Food." Social Identities 1, no. 1 (1995): 63–86.

Wilk, Richard. ""Real Belizean Food": Building Local Identity in the Transnational Caribbean." American Anthropologist 101, no. 2 (1999): 244–55.

Kugel, Seth. "World Food Without Leaving the Neighborhood," The New York Times, February 24, 2008.

10 Good food tastes good

Buy at Amazon Brillat-Savarin, Jean-Anthelme. The Physiology of Taste. CreateSpace, 2011, pp. 29–49. ISBN: 9781466268524. [Preview with Google Books] (Download from Project Gutenberg)

Buy at Amazon Lehrer, Jonah. "Auguste Escoffier: The Essence of Taste." In Proust was a Neuroscientist. Houghton Mifflin, 2007, pp. 53–74. ISBN: 9780618620104. [Preview with Google Books]

Buy at Amazon Peynaud, Emile. "Tasting Problems and Errors of Perception." In The Taste Culture Reader: Experiencing Food and Drink (Sensory Formations). Edited by Carolyn Korsmeyer. Berg Publishers, 2005, pp. 272–8. ISBN: 9781845200619.

Khatchadourian, Raffi. "The Taste Makers: The Secret World of the Flavor Factory." The New Yorker, November 23, 2009.

11 Taste education

Shapin, Steven. "Hedonistic Fruit Bombs." London Review of Books 27, no. 3 (2005): 30–2.

Terrio, Susan J. "Crafting Grand Cru Chocolates in Contemporary France." American Anthropologist 98, no. 1 (1996): 67–79.

Roseberry, William. "The Rise of Yuppie Coffees and the Reimagination of Class in the United States." American Anthropologist 98, no. 4 (1996): 762–75. (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF)

Moskin, Julia. "Dark May Be King, but Milk Chocolate Makes a Move," The New York Times, February 13, 2008.

Feiler, Bruce. "Corrections: Everything We Thought We Knew About the Science of Taste is Wrong." Gourmet Magazine, July, 2008.

Watch: John Cleese's Wine for the Confused
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiBWHHqK7W8

12 Good food reminds you of your mother (or homeland or childhood… or somewhere you've never been)

Buy at Amazon Proust, Marcel. "The Madeleine." From Swann's Way. Translated by Lydia Davis. Viking Adult, 2003. ISBN: 9780670032457. [Preview with Google Books

Buy at Amazon Fisher, M. F. K. The Gastronomical Me. Duell Sloan and Pearce, 1943, pp. 3–35.

Buy at Amazon Katrak, Ketu H. "Food and Belonging: At 'Home' and in 'Alien-Kitchens.'" In Through the Kitchen Window Women Explore the Intimate Meanings of Food and Cooking. Edited by Arlene Voski Avakian. Berg Publishers, 2005, pp. 263–75. ISBN: 9781845203252.

Buy at Amazon Seremetakis, C. Nadia. "The Breast of Aphrodite." In Taste Culture Reader: Experiencing Food and Drink (Sensory Formations). Berg Publishers, 2005, pp. 297–303. ISBN: 9781845200619.

Buy at Amazon Silva, Cara de. Introduction to In Memory's Kitchen: A Legacy from the Women of Terezín, plus sample recipes. Jason Aronson, 1996, pp. xxv–xliii and 3–13. ISBN: 9781568219028.

13 Recitation: discuss food memories

Sutton, David. "Whole Foods: Revitalization through Everyday Synesthetic Experience." Anthropology and Humanism 25, no. 2 (2000): 120-30. (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF - 1.9MB)

Batuman, Elif. "The Memory Kitchen: A Chef Recovers the Foods that Turkey Forgot." The New Yorker, April 19, 2010, pp. 56–69.

Allison, Dorothy. "Panacea," The New York Times, October 28, 2007.

Holtzman, Jon. "Remembering Bad Cooks: Sensuality, Memory, Personhood." Senses and Society 5, no. 2 (2010): 235–43.

14 Good food is clean and pure

Buy at Amazon Douglas, Mary. Deciphering a Meal. In Implicit Meanings: Mary Douglas: Collected Works, Volume 5. Routledge, 2002. ISBN: 9780415291088. [Preview with Google Books]

Buy at Amazon Harris, Marvin. "The Abdominal Pig." In Good to Eat: Riddles of Food and Culture. Simon & Schuster, 1985.

15 Recitation

Rouse, Carolyn, and Janet Hoskins. "Purity, Soul Food, and Sunni Islam: Explorations at the Intersection of Consumption and Resistance." Cultural Anthropology 19, no. 2 (2004): 226–49.

Buy at Amazon Gillette, Maris Boyd. "Children's Food and Islamic Dietary Restrictions in Xi'an." In Feeding China's Little Emperors: Food, Children, and Social Change. Edited by Jun Jing. Stanford University Press, 2000, pp. 71–93 and plus Appendix. ISBN: 9780804731331.

16 Good food produces and maintains relationships

Conklin, Beth A. ""Thus Are Our Bodies, Thus Was Our Custom": Mortuary Cannibalism in an Amazonian Society." American Ethnologist 22, no. 1 (1995): 75–101.

Markens, S., C. H. Browner, et al. "Feeding the Fetus: On Interrogating the Notion of Maternal-Fetal Conflict." Feminist Studies 23, no. 2 (1997): 351–72.

Appadurai, Arjun. "Gastro-Politics in Hindu South Asia." American Ethnologist 8, no. 3 (1981): 494–511.

Later in the term, "Thus Are Our Bodies, Thus Was Our Custom" was replaced with:

Buy at Amazon Anna Meigs. "Food as a Cultural Construction." In Food and Culture: A Reader. Edited by Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik. Routledge, 1997, pp. 95–106. ISBN: 9780415917094. 

17 Recitation

Buy at Amazon DeVault, Marjorie. "Conflict and Deference." In Feeding the Family: The Social Organization of Caring as Gendered Work (Women in Culture and Society). University Of Chicago Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780226143590.

Buy at Amazon Counihan, Carole. "Food Rules in the United States: Individualism, Control, and Hierarchy." In The Anthropology of Food and Body: Gender, Meaning and Power. Routledge, 1999, pp. 113–28. ISBN: 9780415921930.

Murphy, Kate. "I Love You, But You Love Meat," The New York Times, February 13, 2008.

18 Good food is good for you

Scrinis, Gyorgy. "On the Ideology of Nutritionism." Gastronomica 8, no. 1 (2008): 39–48.

Buy at Amazon Poppendieck, Janet. Free for All: Fixing School Food in America (California Studies in Food and Culture). University of California Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780520243705. [Preview with Google Books]

Moss, Michael. "On Inherent Contradiction Within the USDA," The New York Times, November 6, 2010.

19 Recitation

Buy at Amazon Poppendieck, Janet. Free for All: Fixing School Food in America (California Studies in Food and Culture). University of California Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780520243705. [Preview with Google Books]

Allison, Anne. "Japanese Mothers and Obentōs: The Lunch-Box as Ideological State Apparatus." Anthropological Quarterly 64, no. 4 (1991): 195–208.

Martin, Andrew. "Dietary Guidelines Urge Less Soda and Smaller Meals," The New York Times, January 31, 2011.

20 Good food is handmade

Paxson, Heather. Artisan Cheese: Valuing Craft in Post-Pastoral America.

Chapters from draft manuscript.

21 Good food is sustainably produced

Kloppenberg, J., Hendrickson, J., et al. "Coming In to the Foodshed." Agriculture and Human Values 13, no. 1 (1996): 1–10.

Bowen, Sarah, and Ana Valenzuela Zapata. "Geographical Indications, Terroir, and Socioeconomic and Ecological Sustainability: The Case of Tequila." Journal of Rural Studies 25, no. 1 (2009): 108–19.

Clark, Dylan. "The Raw and the Rotten: Punk Cuisine." Ethnology 43, no. 1 (2004): 411–22. Reprinted in FC.

22 Recitation: good food is traditional

Cavanaugh, Jillian R. "Making Salami, Producing Bergamo: The Transformation of Value." Ethnos 72, no. 2 (2007): 149–72.

Heath, Deborah, and Anne Meneley. "The Naturecultures of Foie Gras: Techniques of the Body and a Contested Ethics of Care." Food, Culture and Society 13, no. 3 (2010): 421–52.

Kurutz, Steven. "Not Buying It," The New York Times, June 21, 2007.

Bennett, Drake. "The Localvore's Dilemma," The Boston Globe, July 22, 2007.

Specter, Michael. "A Reporter at Large: Big Foot: Reporting & Essays." The New Yorker, February 25, 2008.

Burros, Marian. "The Dairies Are Half-Pint, but the Flavor Isn't," The New York Times, February 20, 2008.

Hedin, Jack. "My Forbidden Fruits (and Vegetables)," The New York Times, March 1, 2008.

Rosenthal, Elisabeth. "The Environmental Costs of Shipping Food," The New York Times, April 26, 2008.

"Local, Organic Milk: Profit Remains Elusive," The New York Times, February 18, 2011.

23 Any food is good food if you're hungry

Buy at Amazon Fitchen, Janet. "Hunger, Malnutrition and Poverty." In Food and Culture: A Reader. 1st ed. Edited by Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik. Routledge, 1997, pp. 384–401. ISBN: 9780415917100.

Clapp, Jennifer. "The Political Economy of Food Aid in an Era of Agricultural Biotechnology." Global Governance 11, no. 4 (2005): 467–85. (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF)

Sklaver, Ben. "Humanitarian Daily Rations: The Need for Evaluation and Guidelines." Disasters 27, no. 3 (2003): 259–71.

Digestive
24 Rethinking food "choice"

Pollan, Michael. "Voting with Your Fork," The New York Times, May 7, 2006.

Buy at Amazon Nestle, Marion. "The Supermarket: Prime Real Estate." In What to Eat. North Point Press, 2006, pp. 17–24. ISBN: 9780865477049.

Interview with an artist inspired by Sahadi's in Brooklyn. (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF - 1.6MB)

Feast
25 Final Paper Presentations  
26 Potluck and Final Paper Presentations