| Premises Broadly speaking, the general premises of food anthropologists and food anthropology as a discipline is to investigate the ways in which food, food production, food consumption and food rituals are associated with cultural norms, behaviours, social conventions and individual and group ways of living. How does food and its associated discourses contribute to the social order? Why and how does what we eat reinforce cultural norms and enact social behaviours? Food anthropologists ultimately unearth the subtle but apparent connections and associations that food has in reinforcing, maintaining, creating and contesting society and culture. Origins Food has always assumed a role in anthropological studies. It is only recently however that it has emerged from the peripheries of academic inquiry to assume a more central position within the discipline. As early as the 1900s, anthropological writings briefly mentioned food within the context of a culture's diet. What was focused on was the actual constitutive parts of the diet, which tended to border more on directories and lists rather than analysis. In the fieldwork experience, early anthrpologists would simply note that Group A would leave their huts, go to the fields and gather berries, plants, rice and yams. Food rituals were also of frequent note in early anthropological writings. These again were descriptive in nature rather than analytical.  | By the 1950s to the early 1970s food anthropology had moved towards a biological/scientific orientation. Anthropologists were concerned with two main directions in food theory. Nutritive studies were quite popular during this time with anthropologists acting as defunct nutritionists, "analyzing" the dietary components of a group's diet and assessing its nutritional value compared to other diets within other cultures. This focus on the nutritional constituents of a culture's diet was in part influenced by the concomitent concern shown within other fields over the sustainabilit of the world's food supply in combination with several new scientific discoveries that initiatied the "Green Revolution". On the other hand, there were those anthropologists who were interested in tracing the origins of particular foodstuffs. Where was rice domesticated, what was the chronology of that domestication vis-a-vis other foodstuffs.  | In the 1970s to the 1980s, there was a dissatisfaction with existing anthropological approaches to food. Anthropologists began to understand that food was meaningful within the context of a given society. It was during this epiphany that anthropologists began to move towards conceptualizing food as a symbolic substance that was embedded and invested with meaning. These symbolic anthropologists tended to look at either a particular foodstuff or a particular food ritual and analyze it in its own terms as well as within the context of culture. By the 1980s and 1990s, food anthropology shifted once again and concentrated on aspects of economics and politics within culinary conceputalizations. For political-economists, it was not enough to simply state that a wedding cake was culturally significant in the development of wedding traditions. Instead, it was necessary to incorporate an analysis of the political and economic circumstances that evoked such symbolism. Now in the 21st century, food anthropology has expanded quite dramatically. Current studies emphasize the cultural and social aspects of food production, consumption and food itself, rather than its nutritive qualities. With new leaps towards bio-engineering and genetically modified foods, it is no wonder that many studies of late have assessed the relevancy of GM foods. Topics of Study  | Food anthropology is not strictly limited to investigating one particular foodstuff and its interaction with culture. Anthropologists have studied food events such as festivals and food rituals as well as the consequences and significance of famines and food disasters. There have been studies on food production approaches such as the use of magical farming and its relationship to society. Yet other studies have focused on fast foods and fast food restaurants such as McDonald's and its association with issues of globalization, transnationalism and economic power. Studies have been done on the use of drinking and its role in social cohesion of a society. Scholars have discussed how food maintained particular colonial ideals of power and maintained unequal relationships of subordination and hegemony. Anthropologists have investigated how food is associated with particular gender images and ideals and is a tool in maintaining those ideals. My thesis was on Canadian Chinese immigrant cuisine and its role in maintaining, contesting and developing identity, senses of community, geographical spaces and aestheticisms. In brief, the topics of study for food anthropology are as diverse as the anthropologists who have an interest in studying the field. Food can have an associative connection with just about everything in the world. The interesting thing is how we conceptualize those connections with the everyday |
