2008 Handbooks

Why are some foods considered inedible in some cultures and not in others? Are there some foods which are universally considered repulsive - like human flesh? When and how is eating a barometer of one's moral state? From subsistence strategies to nutritional intake, from food taboos to the social rules that structure how people sit down at the table together or refuse to eat with certain other people, the everyday activities of cooking and eating are packed with economic, medical, and particularly political and cultural meaning. Indeed, for most (if not all) cultures, what people will and won't eat determines their status as civilised beings. This course explores the extraordinary variety of food likes and dislikes, food taboos around the world, and the way food mediates and shapes core social relations to place, to time, and to gender, sexuality and social rank. We will also look at political economies and the ways that food industries shape labour practices, nutritional intake, economies, pleasure and suffering. Not only will we talk about food, we will also come together to share food, in the hopes that this will provide insight!