Latinamerican foodways

optional courses

This course focuses on different manifestations of foodways - understood as networks of behaviors, traditions, and beliefs concerning food, all the activities surrounding a food item and its consumption, including the procurement, preservation, preparation, presentation and performance of that food (Yoder 1972) in cultures of Latin America and Latino diasporas in the US.

The course examines the origins as well as cultural, social and economic practices of Latin American foodways in critical perspective. We will study the region’s culinary history, food as manifestation of regional/local identity, the relationship between food and race, class, gender, changing production and consumption patterns and increasing problem of food sovereignty in the context of transnational and global processes (e.g. migration). The reading material consisting mainly of ethnographic examples (case studies) is supplemented with varied mass media material (feature films, documentaries, commercials etc.).

Further reading:

Eduardo P. Archetti (1997), Guinea-pigs. Food, Symbol and Conflict of Knowledge in Ecuador, Oxford and New York: Berg.

Warren Belasco (2008), Food. The Key Concepts, Oxford and New York: Berg.

Donna R. Gabaccia (1998), We Are What We Eat. Ethnic Food and the Making of Americas, Harvard University Press.

Hanna Garth (ed.)(2013), Food and Identity in the Caribbean, Bloomsbury.

Carolyn Korsmeyer (red.) (2005), The Taste Culture Reader. Experiencing Food and Drink, Oxford & New York: Berg.

Sidney M. Mintz (1985), The Sweetness and Power. The Place of Sugar in Modern History, Penguin Books.

Alexander Nützenadel, Frank Trentmann (red.) (2008), Food and Globalization. Consumption, Markets and Politics in the Modern World, Oxford & New York: Berg.

Jeffrey M. Pilcher (1998), ¡Que vivan los tamales! Food and the Making of Mexican Identity, University of New Mexico Press.

Jeffrey M. Pilcher (2012), Planet Taco. A Global History of Mexican Food, Oxford University Press.

Jeffrey M. Pilcher (ed.) (2012), The Oxford Handbook of Food History, Oxford University Press.

Mary J. Weismantel (1988), Food, Gender and Poverty in the Ecuadorian Andes, Waveland Press, Inc.

Richard Wilk (2006), Home Cooking in the Global Village. Caribbean Food from Buccaneers to Ecotourists, Oxford and New York: Berg.

Richard Wilk, Livia Barbosa (eds.)(2012), Rice and Beans. A Unique Dish in a Hundred Places, London and New York: Berg.

Assessment:

attendance (1 unexcused absence)

active participation (including 15-minute presentation)

short summaries of texts (sent beforehand)

final essay