Ways of Eating: Exploring Food through History and Culture (Volume 81) (California Studies in Food and Culture)

What we learn when an anthropologist and a historian talk about food. From the origins of agriculture to contemporary debates over culinary authenticity, Ways of Eating introduces readers to world food history and food anthropology. Through engaging stories and historical deep dives, Benjamin A. Wurgaft and Merry I. White offer new ways to understand food in relation to its natural and cultural histories and the social rules that shape our meals. Wurgaft and White use vivid storytelling to bring food practices to life, weaving stories of Panamanian coffee growers, medieval women beer makers, and Japanese knife forgers. From the Venetian spice trade to the Columbian Exchange, from Roman garum to Vietnamese nớc chấm, Ways of Eating provides an absorbing account of world food history and anthropology. Migration, politics, and the dynamics of group identity all shape what we eat, and we can learn to trace these social forces from the plate to the kitchen, the factory, and the field. Cover Series Editors Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Vignette 1. Duccio’s Eden Chapter 1. Nature and Culture in the Origins Of Agriculture Vignette 2. Akashiyaki at Nishi-Akashi Chapter 2. Staple Empires of the Ancient World Vignette 3. Coffee and Pepper Chapter 3. Medieval Tastes Vignette 4. Before Kimchi Chapter 4. The Columbian Exchange, or, the World Remade Vignette 5. The Spirit Safe Chapter 5. Social Beverages and Modernity Vignette 6. Authenticity in Panama Chapter 6. Colony and Curry Vignette 7. The Icebox Chapter 7. Food’s Industrial Revolution Vignette 8. Bricolage Chapter 8. Twentieth-Century Foodways, or, Big Food and Its Discontents Vignette 9. Nem on the Menu Chapter 9. Ways of Eating Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index "From the origins of agriculture to twenty-first century debates over culinary authenticity, Ways of Eating introduces readers to world food history and to the practice of food ethnography. By engaging ethnographic vignettes and historical chapters, the authors offer new ways to think about food in relation to its natural and cultural histories. In addition to offering new intellectual tools, starting-points are provided for future reading ina wide variety of subjects, from the European spice trade to the Columbian Exchange, from food and gender to ethnographic methodology. Food studies are made vivid by stories like the ones in this book--stories of Scottish peat-cutters, women beer-makers, and Japanese knife-forgers"-- Provided by publisher