ANTH 376: Food and Culture

ANTH 376-001: Food and Culture
(Spring 2016)

01:30 PM to 02:45 PM TR

Section Information for Spring 2016

Food is “a blinding fetish in our culture,” wrote anthropologist Mary Douglas, more than two decades ago. Yet even today, we rarely think about food seriously. Much of what we claim to know about the culture of food is highly anecdotal, somewhat entertaining, and often misleading. It is surprising that food, a physiological necessity and one of the building blocks of culture, has only recently found its place among the social sciences. This course focuses on the relationships between food and culture. In it, we will identify the meanings of food among different cultures, the rules of food consumption in different societies, what causes them to change, and the ways in which geographical, environmental, cultural, political and economic forces interact to influence our food choices, construction of collective identity, images we hold of self and body, and health and nutritional status. Among the questions we will examine are: How can food have different meanings and uses for different people? How do such factors as gender, ethnicity, class, religious beliefs, the media, corporate capitalism, and global and transnational flows affect the foods we choose to grow and eat (and those we choose to avoid) and the manner in which we consume them? How does food function to foster a sense of collective identity yet drive wedges among people? What are some prevailing anthropological theories that help us identify and understand more nuanced meanings of food? In addition a wide range of readings, students will embark upon mini-projects that entail exploring some of the questions above.

Faculty Info Page: http://soan.gmu.edu/people/lseligm2

Course Information from the University Catalog