D16. Anthropology of Food

This cultural anthropology course will introduce students to how anthropologists think by asking them to consider the deep connections between food and power in a variety of societies worldwide. At issue: how do food systems interact with social hierarchies, religion, gender, personal and group identities? How does food work as a language? What happens in indigenous communities as food production and consumption becomes industrialized? Why is a food justice perspective a useful one, ethically? We’ll read anthropology essays and one ethnography (an anthropological study based on ethnographic fieldwork) – physician/anthropologist Seth Holmes’ prizewinning “Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States.” The course will ask you to rethink food in general and your own food choices in a social science framework.