Eating CultureAn Anthropological Guide to Food, Second Edition

Gillian Crowther is Professor of Anthropology at Capilano University in Vancouver, British Columbia.

“It is written in a clear and comprehensible manner for those interested in food studies, not only from an anthropological perspective, but also encompassing the stance of social sciences, and is much more than a mere introduction or textbook. The author reveals personal involvement in the way her own research is incorporated into the text, and the theory is creatively interwoven with an ethnographic approach.”–Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

“… A great introductory read for students (or anyone) interested in thinking about how and why we ‘do food’ in modern societies.”-Cuizine: The Journal of Canadian Food Cultures

“A feast of ideas, insights, surprising connections, and delights: Eating Cultureprovides an engrossing journey through humanity’s past and present engagements with food. It is a wonderful introduction to the anthropology of food and, indeed, to anthropology in general.”-John Barker, University of British Columbia

“In anthropology, we study food in order to better understand societies and cultures. Eating Culture provides an expansive, thorough, and very readable explanation of how we do that and of what we have so far understood.”-David Beriss, University of New Orleans

“What a satisfying ‘meal’ Crowther has prepared! A rich and nuanced take on food and culture.”-Stephen Wooten, University of Oregon

• TABLE OF CONTENTS

  List of Illustrations
  List of Tables, Diagrams and Boxes
  Acknowledgments

  Prologue: Setting the Anthropological Table
  An Anthropological Appetite for Food
  Social Anthropological Methods and Principles
  Cuisines
  Pondering the Imponderabilia: An Autoethnographic Approach

  1. Omnivorousness: Classifying Food
  Introduction
  Omnivorousness
  The Omnivore’s Dilemma
  Food Classifications and Rules
  Eating for Health: Whose Rules? Whose Authority?
  Redux Omnivore’s Dilemma: Too Many Rules, Too Much Food?

  2. Settled Ingredients: Domestic Food Production
  Introduction
  Food-Getting Strategies and Cuisines
  Hunter-Gathering or Foraging
  Domestication of Plants and Animals
  Pastoralism
  Horticulture
  Agriculture

  3. Mobile Ingredients: Roots, Routes, and Realities of Industrialized Agriculture
  Introduction
  Imagining Global Routes
  Long-Distance Trade Routes: Spices and Exotic Foods
  Roots of Industrialized Agricultural: Plentiful Food for All?
  Retailing Food: Markets to Supermarkets
  Exporting Industrial Agriculture

  4. Cooks and Kitchens
  Introduction
  The Origins of Fire Use and Cooking
  Cooking Techniques
  Cooking and Food-Getting Strategies
  Beyond Culinary Triangles: Toward Contextual Meanings
  Cooking and Gender
  Men’s Conspicuous Cooking: Public Cuisine
  Chefs, Celebrity, and the Shaping of National Cuisines
  Domestic Kitchens: Gender and Home Cooking

  5. Recipes and Dishes
  Introduction
  Recipes: Creating Dishes
  Experiential Cooking: Performing Domestic Recipes
  Textual Cooking: Reading Commercial Recipes
  Cookbooks: Codifying National Cuisines
  British Cuisine: From Cookbooks to Curry

  6. Eating In: Commensality and Gastro-Politics
  Introduction
  Meals: Patterns of Eating
  Gastro-Politics
  Special Meals: Feasting
  Types of Feasts

  7. Eating Out and Gastronomy
  Introduction
  Eating Away from Home: A Risky Business?
  Street Food: Eating Standing Up
  Restaurant Food: Eating Sitting Down
  Characteristics of Restaurants
  Gastronomy: Cultivating Culinary Taste
  Types of Restaurants: Gastronomic Foodscapes
  Ethnic Cuisines: Diaspora Dining
  Restaurants as “Ethnosites”: Cross-Cultural Encounters

  8. Global Indigestion: Resetting the Agenda for Food Security
  Introduction
  Indigestion: Malnutrition and Global Gastro-Politics
  From the Top Down: The Gastro-Politics of Food In/Security
  Four Pillars of Food Security
  Food Quantity: The FAO’s Agenda and Challenges
  Resetting the FAO Agenda: Sustainable Agriculture
  Food Quality: The WHO’s Agenda and Challenges
  Resetting the WHO Agenda: Healthy Diet
  From the Ground Up: Grassroots Activism
  Resetting the Menu: Food Security and Healthy Food

  9. Local Digestion: Making the Global at Home
  Introduction
  Foodscapes: Materializing Global Foods
  Local Shopping: Retailing the Meaning of Food
  Fast and Tasty: Localizing Global Dishes
  Locavorism: Eating Locally
  Farmers’ Markets: Local Foods and Faces
  Brew and Serve: Localizing a Global Beverage
  Hybrid Consumption: Local and Global Realities

  Epilogue: Leftovers to Takeaway
  Takeaway Cuisine
  Takeaway Leftovers

  Glossary
  Bibliography
  Index