Adventures in eating
Subtitle: anthropological experiences of dining from around the world
By: edited by Helen R. Haines and Clare A. Sammells
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Boulder, Colo
Language: eng
Number of pages: 292
ISBN-13: 9781607320371; 9781607320142; 9781607320159
Subjects: Food habits; Food preferences; Dinners and dining
Description: "Anthropologists training to do fieldwork in far-off, unfamiliar places prepare for significant challenges with regard to language, customs, and other cultural differences. However, like other travelers to unknown places, they are often unprepared to deal with the most basic and necessary requirement: food. Although there are many books on the anthropology of food, Adventures in Eating is the first intended to prepare students for the uncomfortable dining situations they may encounter over the course of their careers." "Many cultures place significance on food and hospitality, and whether sago grubs, jungle rats, termites, or the pungent durian fruit are on the table, participating in the act of sharing food can establish relationships vital to anthropologists' research practices and knowledge of their host cultures. Using their own experiences with unfamiliarand sometimes unappealingfood practices and customs, the contributors explore such eating moments and how these moments can produce new under-standings of culture and the meaning of food beyond the immediate experience of eating it. They also address how personal eating experiences arid culinary dilemmas can shape the data and methodologies of the discipline." "The main readership of Adventures in Eating will be students in anthropology and other scholars, but the explosion of food media gives the book additional appeal for fans of No Reservations and Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel." "Helen R. Haines is a research associate at Trent University Archaeology Research Center and teaches anthropology at Trent University and the University of Toronto-Mississauga." "Clare A. Sammells is assistant professor of anthropology at Bucknell University."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The importance of food and feasting around the world / Helen R. Haines and Clare A. Sammells; title: Boiled eggs with chicks inside, or what commensality means / Robert Ivar Lohmann; title: A rat by any other name : conflicting definitions of "dinner" in Belize, Central America / Helen R. Haines; title: The delicacy of raising and eating guinea pig / David John Goldstein; title: Termites tell the tale : globalization of an indigenous food system among Abaluyia of Western Kenya / Maria G. Cattell; title: Ode to a Chuño : learning to love freeze-dried potatoes in highland Bolivia / Clare A. Sammells; title: Durian : the king of fruits or an acquired taste? / Maxine E. McBrinn; title: MSG and sugar : dilemmas and tribulations of a "native" ethnographer / Lidia Marte; title: Eating incorrectly in Japan / James J. Aimers; title: No heads, no feet, no monkeys, no dogs : the evolution of personal food taboos / Miriam S. Chaiken; title: Buona forchetta : overeating in Italy / Rachel Black; title: "No thanks, I don't eat meat" : vegetarian adventures in beef-centric Argentina / Ariela Zycherman; title: Eating with the Blackfeet : who's been eating whose food? / Susan L. Johnston; title: Drinking Ethiopia / Ronald Reminick; title: You are what you drink in Honduras / Joel Palka; title: Epilogue : Edibles and ethnic boundaires, globalization and guinea pigs / Miriam S. Chaiken.