Anthropology of Food and Foodways

This course digs into the myriad roles that foods and foodways play in human societies across time and space. This includes reflecting cultural values and spiritual beliefs, revealing ethno-ecological relationships and historical encounters, shaping productive activities and social structures, determining individual health and communal well-being, symbolizing ethnic heritage and regional identity, illustrating class distinctions and gender hierarchies, and illuminating political power dynamics and economic relationships. Food and foodways also facilitate connections and spark conflicts, enable creative communication and artistic performance, and help us express joy and materialize love. Food keeps us alive and, sometimes, makes life delicious. Class activities include ethnographic research into local foods and foodways, folkloristic documentation of culinary traditions, experiential learning with hands-on cooking demonstrations and tutorials, historical research into various culinary cultures, engagement with local foodways experts, and plenty of eating, drinking, and scholarly merriment.