http://www.utexas.edu/courses/stross/ant393b_files/ant393b.htm

Syllabus

Brian Stross Anthropology 393 Fall 2008

Unique # 31195 (ANT 393), # 41845 (LAS 391) M 7-10pm EPS 1.128

FOOD FOR DISCOURSE AND THOUGHT:

THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF FOOD AND COMMUNICATION

Under Consruction

Course Description

Food sustains us, giving meaning, order, and values to our lives; and food

reflects the symbolism in our ideological systems. Food plays an important part in

our identity construction, our religious practices, and our socialization. Food

practices can thus tell us a lot about the society in which they play a part. Furthermore,

foodways change both in the influencing and reflection of a society's technology. This

course will investigate the facts that we communicate messages by means of foods, as

well as about foods, that we communicate frequently and much about foods, and that

we can look at foodways to discern cultural presuppositions used in

communication.

Topics explored in this course will include food preferences and taboos,

genetically modified food, fast foods, technology in food production (reproduction

[seed, egg, stock] growth, maintenance [weeding, feeding], harvest, packing,

storage), distribution, and consumption (preparation, eating, disposal), food and

energy utilization, conversation during the production, distribution, preparation,

consumption and disposal of food, food as a topic of conversation, naming and

beliefs about foods, food metaphors, social structure in seating and eating, meals

and manners, food and education, food and religion, food and sex, food and identity,

food and power, food and forensics, food and the senses, food and the flow of time,

and maize in Mesoamerica.

Food participates in multiple symbolic systems in a society, and one goal of this

course, conducted in a seminar format, will be to discern some of the meanings that can

be read into the language-like patterns to be found in the choices and variations in what,

when, where, and how people eat, as well as what, where, when, why, and how they

talk about food.

In this course we will have three ethnographic projects, in which participants

will collect information on foods or food related information that could be interesting

and relevant to the course.

Requirements:

Grades will be assigned on the basis of class preparation and

on the written (approximately 7 pages each) and oral presentations of the results of

three ethnographic exercises, as well as on keeping an up to date journal. Each

week one (or two) of the participants will have volunteered to lead the discussion

of the assigned reading, by preparing notes on the reading assignment for the week

and questions for discussion.

Texts: Required

E.N. Anderson. 2005. Everybody Eats. ISBN 0-8147-0496-4 (pb)

Marvin Harris. 1985. Good to Eat. ISBN 1-57766-015-3 (pb)

Nabhan, Gary 2004. Why Some Like it Hot. Island Press

ISBN 1-59726-091-6 (pb)

Readers and other books: Optional

Counihan, Carole & Penny Van Esterik, eds., 1998. Food &

Culture: A Reader. ISBN: 0-415-91709-3 (the reader)

Plotnicov, Leonard and R. Scaglion. 1999. The Globalization of Food.

Waveland Press.

Peter Farb and George Armelagos. 1980. Consuming Passions:

The Anthropology of Eating. (out of print, but useful read)

Counihan, Carole M. 1999. The Anthropology of Food and Body:

Gender, Meaning, and Power.

Bryant, Carol, DeWalt, Kathleen, Courtney, Anita and Jeffrey Schwartz.

2003. The Cultural Feast (2^nd ed.)

Visser, Margaret. 1991. The Rituals of Dinner . ISBN 0-00-637909-5

(now out of print )

Robbins, John 2001. The Food Revolution. ISBN: 1-57324-702-2

Kahn, Miriam. 1986. Always Hungry, Never Greedy: Food and the

Expression of Gender in a Melanesian Society.

Schlosser, Eric. 2001. Fast Food Nation

Striffler, Steve 2005. Chicken: The Dangerous Transformation of

America's Favorite Food.

Harris, Marvin 1977. Cannibals and Kings. ISBN 0-394-72700-2

Mary J. Weismantel 1988. Food, Gender, and Poverty in

the Ecuadorian Andes. ISBN 1-57766-029-3

This semester I am suggesting number of topics for discussion in trying to understand

the complexity of the relationships among food, discourse, and culture and in trying to

discover ways by which careful observation of individual and group practices

concerning food can give us useful or important information about "culture" and about

"psychology", and particularly about communication and classification. Come to class

prepared to discuss the topics of the week (one person will take the role of facilitator

each week, and will help facilitate the discussion both of the current topic and of the

assigned homework).

Notebook/Journal - I would like all participants to keep a running record or journal of insights,

thoughts, and general notes about food and culture that occur in the course of the semester

(format & medium up to you). Among other things you might want to put in the journal, recopied

and reorganized class notes, notes on films and on readings, insights about food that you might

get at various times, pictures relating to food, etc. Each week I would like you to pick a food or

perhaps a class of foods and do a little research and write approximately a page on that particular

food, to be added to the journal. I hope to reserve a few minutes of each class for individuals to

report on interesting things they have put in their journal recently and relevant to the week's

topic.

Anthropology Question - For each topic discussed it will be useful to keep in mind a broader

question about the anthropology of food. One can ask oneself: What does this information

about the use and relationship of food to the various forms of human endeavor tell us about

the peoples involved, about people in general, and about the anthropological topics broached?

What does it tell us about variation (diversity), about functions, about correlations, about

history, and about adaptation; and always, what is its "meaning" or "significance."

Week 1 Sept. 3

Introduction: scope of the course, food, discourse, thought, symbolism,

Ethnography, seeing the other, evidence and interpretation.

((short video on spices of life – Garlic))

Homework: (due for meeting week 2) Read Anderson Introduction,

Chapter 1.

Appendix; K. Bassie 2000 "Corn Deities and the Complementary Male/Female

Principle" come to Class of Week 2 prepared to discuss the reading and to discuss

"seeing the other" (the link above).

Optional: "Oil in your Food"

Week 2 September 10

MAIZE IN MESOAMERICA: production [planting, harvest, packing],

distribution [storage, transport], preparation, consumption, and disposal

of maize - discourse, work cycles, aesthetic enterprises,

nutrition, etc.

((short video on spices of life- Chili peppers))

Homework: (due for meeting week 3) Read Harris, Ch 1, 2; Nabhan pp. 1-35

Optional Further Reading: (Flavio Rojas Lima 1988. La Cultura del Maiz en Guatemala.;

Taube, Karl 1985. "The Classic Maya Maize God: A Reappraisal." in V.M. Fields

and M.G. Robertson (eds.) Fifth Palenque Round Table, 1983, Vol. VII. San Francisco:

Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute, pp. 171-182; Karl Taube 1996. The Olmec maize

god: the face of corn in formative Mesoamerica. RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics

29/30; González, Roberto J. 2001. Zapotec Science: Farming and Food in the

Northern Sierra of Oaxaca. University of Texas Press. Brian Stross 1994" Maize

and fish: the iconography of power in late formative Mesoamerica." RES: Anthropology

and Aesthetics 29/30; Brian Stross 1992, "Maize and Blood: Mesoamerican Symbolism

on an Olmec Vase and a Maya Plate." RES: Anthropologyand Aesthetics 22.

B. Fussell 1999. Story of Corn.

Week 3 September 17

FOOD PREFERENCES AND TABOOS (snakes, cannibalism, snails, edible bugs

dogs, earios; chili peppers, yogurt, famine foods) on the societal and individual

levels. A society's food preferences and taboos (what is implied about that

society's experiences (history), perceptions, beliefs, boundaries, classification

systems, needs, adaptive strategies, etc.)

An individual's food preferences and taboos (what does it say about that

individual's experiences, personality, etc.).

FOOD AND FORENSICS (e.g. the palo verde pod in the pickup truck –

DNA in a Phoenix murder trial; coprolite analysis to see what people ate,

and to see if they were cannibals; Hussein's dates and drying sausage; maize

in jar in tomb at Apatzingan; chocolate in vessel at Rio Azul, Guatemala)

((short video on food preferences and taboos NGS)) (Spices)

Homework: (due for meeting in Week 4) Read Anderson Ch 2, 3; Harris

Ch. 3; Nabhan Ch. 2.

Week 4 September 24

FOOD DISCOURSES: Conversation during and/or about food practices,

including production (supply), distribution, preparation, cooking, serving

and/or consumption.

Meat vs vegetarian diet discourses. ( Meat v Veggies ) ( meatrix ) ( meat video )

(egg farming – "Silent Suffering" ; Meat: People & Chickens);

Sustainability discourses (e.g. Dervaes 1 , Dervaes 2, Dervaes 3, S. Jones 1)

Planting prayers, harvesting rituals and sayings, saying grace, to your health,

complimenting the cook, asking for seconds, offering food, toasting,

urban legends (such as "live monkey brains").

Classification of forms and contexts; functions of the discourses

in each context. (Planting and harvesting, cooking and serving, fasting and

feasting) diversity.

Food related linguistic routines - saying grace, toasting (and related

"to your health" routines),

blessing the seeds, prayers for planting and harvest,

(short video on cannibalism - discourse on that topic)

FOOD JOKES The character and incidence of jokes about food can reveal

much about how food is thought of in the society, about social stresses

concerning food, and about the nature and use of stereotypes in the society

(cf. kids food jokes, hungrymonster, food jokes w/ ratings, funny tummy,

user rated, more kids food jokes, visual, litterbox cake).

Homework: (due meeting in week 5) Read Anderson Ch. 7; Harris Ch.4;

Ch. III Food in Newari Culture ( http://web.comhem.se/~u18515267/CHAPTERIII.htm )

Week 5 October 1

FOOD NAMING, CLASSIFICATION, AND BELIEFS ABOUT FOODS

and associated constructs (Categorization of kinds of food, kinds of eating;

kinds of food (e.g. fruits, vegetables, or meat; carbs, fat, or protein; red

meat, white meat, or fish),

kinds of food preparation (roasting, boiling, smoking), hot and cold foods)

((short video on the food quest in biological perspective – D. Morris The

Hunting Ape - look for classification, naming here))

Homework: (due for meeting in Week 6) Harris Ch. 5; Nabhan Ch. 3,

and Bays & MowBray (Cookies, Gift Giving, & the Internet); and come to

class with a list of food metaphors, a list of food symbols

and their meanings, and some thoughts on rituals in which foods are

prominent.

Optional: (Evon Z. Vogt 1976. Tortillas for the Gods – Skim to

get a sense for the parts played by foods in Tzotzil Maya ritual life;

Visser Ch. 4)

Week 6 October 8

FOOD METAPHORS (he's a nut; piña, chayote, mango; chile, nuts; that's

corny; he brings home the bacon; that's a lot of bread to get from the bank;

callaloo; internet cookies (+ applets, java script;); food in novels;

food in films, food in popular song;

What are the bases for such metaphors, what purposes do they serve, and

how do they influence perceptions in the process of social reproduction.

(cf. e.g. G. Lakoff and M. Johnson, Metaphors We Live By; G. Lakoff, Women, Fire,

and Dangerous Things; G. Lakoff and M. Johnson, Philosophy in the Flesh:

The Embodied Mind & Its Challenge to Western Thought. Christine Ammer, Fruitcakes

And Couch Potatoes)

Internet food metaphors,

FOOD SYMBOLISM (tamale = human body, tortilla = ?, durian = ?,

rice = ?, maize ear = head, wine = Christ's blood, wafer [host] = Christ's

flesh).

What are the bases for such symbols, what purposes do they serve, and how

do they inform us concerning a society's history, interests, and adaptive

strategies; food symbol and society; food in dreams;

Passover food symbolism; easter food;

((short video on animals getting food from plants - Trials of Life: Finding Food))

FOOD RITUALS AND RITUAL FOODS (where the symbolism often

becomes explicit); ceremony and ritual (eating out; saying grace, washing

hands, brushing teeth,drinking coffee, having tea);

life crisis rituals (e.g. Korean, Newars, Yoruba ) (bread, chocolate,

wine)

Homework: (due for Week 7) Anderson Ch. 5, 11; Harris Ch. 6

1^st project due this week

Week 7 Òctober 15

SOCIAL STRUCTURE In the time and place of food production, food

distribution, food preparation, and food consumption (e.g. seating locations,

who eats first, who does the planting, who does the gathering, who does the

hunting, who cooks the staples, how is food transported from place of

production to place of consumption; what meals are eaten when; eating out,

eating in; who you can eat with – e.g. who you can eat with is defined by caste

in India).

MEALS AND MANNERS table manners (using knife fork and spoon

continental or American style V 138-241) (belching to show appreciation

of food V 297-358)

(topics of conversation – eg. usually dinner conversation doesn't include

bathroom habits, but children often find ways to get into such topics -

V 262-272)

((short video on spices of life – Cloves or The Meaning of Food 1: Food

and Life))

Homework:(due week 8) Anderson Ch. 10; Harris Ch. 7; Nabhan Ch. 4

Week 8 October 22

FOOD AND RELIGION feast, festival, fast, forbidden

Food for the Gods (e.g. chocolate, incense [e.g. copal ], candle; food

sacrificed to the gods),

food and drink in the wafer and the wine – the bread of life;

sacrifice of only perfect specimens; the holy meal.)

Food in this Life - Harvest festivals

( Id Al-Fitr, Seder, Holy Communion )

( Religious vs. secular holydays and festivities: where is the dividing line?

Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving 2, Mardi Gras, Halloween)

Food in the afterlife (food for the soul, food on the journey)

((short video on spices of life – Saffron or

The Meaning of Food 2: Food and Culture))

Homework: (due for week 9) Read Anderson Ch. 8; Harris Ch. 8

Read on the web: Food & Seduction by Robin Fox

Optional: (Consuming Passions Ch. 7) C&V Ch. 14, 16, 17, 18 ;

Week 9 October 29

FOOD, GENDER, SEX, and CHILDBIRTH Food, gendered and

sexual. (metaphors linking food and sex [and gender],

beliefs about food and gender [production, distribution, preparation,

consumption], food facilitators and inhibitors of sexuality; gender related

eating problems [anorexia, bulimia]; pregnancy cravings; geophagy); food

taboos for new mother.

((short video on spices of life – Allspice or

The Meaning of Food 3: Food and Family))

Homework: (due week 10) Anderson Ch. 12; Harris Ch. 9; Nabhan Ch. 5

R. Wilk, "'Real Belizean food': building local identity in the transnational

Caribbean" in American Anthropologist, vol. 101 (June 1999), pp. 244–255.

Week 10 November 5

FOOD AND IDENTITY Strategies for manipulating identity (of self

and of other) through food and discourse on food. (Cancuqueros are

known to eat snakes", "The Mixe claim to be cannibals", "I like Chinese

food"; "I love pizza"; French "Frogs" and German "Krauts");

rituals of identification (ethnicity and/or ethnicities – that one identifies

with - by means of food; locale one identifies with - of origin or growing

up - by means of food; time/era/decade one identifies with - of birth or

growing up - by means of food ["We used to have fresh pumpernickel from

these little bakeries", "I remember when they rationed chocolate/sold Kanana

banana flakes"]; social class one identifies with - ["I remember trying to drink

the water from the fingerbowl", "I used to love roast possum"; "I'd like to just

sit around and eat caviar]. Ethnic origins can be apparent when looking

around someone's kitchen;

Religious affiliations/identity in food (e.g. Muslims and Jews – no pork; Hindus

no beef); Where you buy your food shows your politics.

Doing it yourself: (growing your own food; preparing a meal from

scratch – connecting with tradition, appreciating the activities, "getting your

hands dirty")

((short video on spices of life – Nutmeg or Food for the Ancestors))

Homework: (due week 11) Harris Ch. 10; pp. 74-80, 96-110 of

Michael Kearney's The Winds of Ixtepeji;

2^nd project due this week

Week 11 November 12

FOOD AND POWER (giving, receiving, and refusing food; food

sharing/ commensalism; genetically engineered food plants [golden rice1,

golden rice2]; globalization; food and politics; dieting)

food production – power in control of irrigation system; food

distribution - power in control of how food gets distributed and stored;

food preparation – power in control of the preparation of foods

(specialized knowledge among other things, the power to poison);

food consumption – power in control of who eats, when and where.

Conspicuous consumption; public giving away of food; Display of food

staple in/on ruler's attire or body (says the ruler is the nurturer of his people,

and the food is thus a symbol of power); control by hunger strike (refusing

to eat).

Food is chemically transformed in the body yielding calories through

digestion and other processes characterized by chemical reactions.

This energy constitutes another form of power (energetic, caloric).

Some foods are in this sense more powerful than others.

FOOD AND WAR - The relationship of war to food production, distribution,

and consumption. Food for troops (rations) and for those left behind

(rationing). sieges, distributing food packets & cluster bombs in Afghanistan.

wars fought for food, and food fights. Manipulation of food and food

references in time of war (e.g. French fries become "freedom fries" by an act

of Congress, March 2003)

((short video on spices of life – Pepper or ½ of Future of Food))

Homework: (due week 12) Harris Ch. 11; Nabhan Ch. 6.

handout to be distributed in class if available

Further Reading: Frances Moore Lappe, Diet for a Small Planet (1971)

Week 12 November 19

FOOD AND TIME [time as duration, as sequence (of events), as order

(w/in a cycle), and as frequency (based on two experiential facts –

1. certain natural phenomena repeat themselves (repetition), 2. life change

is irreversible (non-repetition)].

Cycles by which food crops or gathered food plants organize the activities of

the year; (and cycles of food crop pests that also affect planting, and

harvesting)

Times of food preparation, time it takes to prepare meals, special meals;

Fast food , fast food nation (why, how does it work, what are its

consequences?)

the slow food movement;

Cycles of food consumption that organize the day; cycles of food

consumption that reflect other cycles of time, like the month, the year,

or the decade;

Famine foods for times of famine.

Time duration for abstinence from certain foods for ritual purposes;

Time duration following eating before swimming, sex, other activities;

Food Preservation (links to preservatives and other additives)

((short video on spices of life – Herbs or ½ of Future of food))

Homework: (due week 13) Anderson Ch. 2, 9; Nabhan Ch. 7;

Messer, Ellen. 1984, Anthropological perspectives on diet. Annual Review

of Anthropology 13:205-49) [look in library's electronic journals]:

Week 13 November 26

FOOD AND NUTRITION (vitamins, minerals, salt in foods, maize and lime

and protein, msg, genetically engineered foods, entomophagy) diets and dieting

((short video on spices of life – Spices of India or Mustard))

Further Reading: Bryant et al, The Cultural Feast.

FOOD AND MEDICINE (tofu and menopause - estrogen production,

almonds and cancer cures [vit. B17], fiber and intestinal health;

hot and cold foods)

foods in ethnomedicine

Homework: (due week 14) Anderson Ch. 13; Nabhan Ch. 8

Further Reading: Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation – pp. 1- 193.

bring some kind of food to class for all to share. It could be something that you

identify with, or something new you've discovered, something you love, or something

you just learned how to make.

Week 14 December 3

FOOD AND EDUCATION (formal and informal)

learning about life during food production and consumption

learning about food during non-food experiences

school and food (the cafeteria, catsup as a vegetable, food vending machines

in school, Coca Cola sponsoring Channel 1 in AISD)

(one learns a lot around the "dinner table", learning about life while planting

maize, shopping for food, or working in the kitchen)

formal (and informal) education about food production and consumption

((short video on spices of life –curry))

FOOD AND THE FUTURE energy, fertilizer, and food production;

Meat vs vegetarian food production costs and consumption costs;

Grain vs. root production and storage costs;

Prepare a little something to bring to class for the

last class meeting and be able to talk a little about it from one or more of the

perspectives dealt with in the course.

Homework: (due Week 15) Anderson Ch. 4, 6;

3^rd project due this week

Week 15

FOOD AND THE SENSES (the smell of baking bread, living near the

stockyards, a sprig of parsley on the plate, eating with the fingers, the sound

of chewing, lip-smacking; piquant chile burning the mouth)

((short video on spices of life – Peppercorns))

RESOURCES

Glossaries and Timelines

http://www.gracefoods.com/site/glossary glossary of food & cooking terms

http://www.masterfoods.com.au/cookbook/glossary.asp cooking terms

http://lloyd2.home.mindspring.com/words.htm food conversions

http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodmaya.html maya foods

http://www.foodtimeline.org/index.html food timeline

Videos

The Spice of Life Series – traces the history of spices and herbs over the centuries

and into present day kitchens.

Allspice, One Spice

Chilies: a Dash of Daring,

Cinnamon, the Elegant Addition

Cloves: Natures Little Nails

Curry Around the World

Garlic's Pungent Presence

Herbs: Aromatic Influences

Mustard, the Spice of Nations

Nutmeg, Nature's Perfect Package

Pepper, the Master Spice

Peppercorns, Fresh Ground Flavor

Saffron, Autumn Gold

The Spices of India