The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating A Reader

by Watson, James L.; Caldwell, Melissa L.

• ISBN13: 9780631230922
• ISBN10: 0631230920
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-12-27
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating offers an ethnographically informed perspective on the ways in which people use food to make sense of life in an increasingly interconnected world. Uses food as a central idiom for teaching about culture and addresses broad themes such as globalization, capitalism, market economies, and consumption practices Spanning 5 continents, features studies from 11 countries-Japan, China, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, France, Burkina Faso, Chile, Trinidad, Mexico, and the United States Offers discussion of such hot topics as sushi, fast food, gourmet foods, and food scares and contamination

Author Biography

James L. Watson is Fairbank Professor of Chinese Society and Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University. His books include Golden Arches East: McDonald’s in East Asia(edited 1998), Village Life in Hong Kong (with Rubie Watson, 2004), and Between Two Cultures (edited, Blackwell, 1977).

Melissa L. Caldwell is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at University of California, Santa Cruz. She is the author of Not by Bread Alone: Social Support in the New Russia (2004).

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors	vii
Editors' Acknowledgments	ix
Acknowledgments to Sources	x
Introduction	1	(10)
James L. Watson and Melissa L. Caldwell
Part I Food and Globalization	11	(93)
Introduction	11	(93)
1 How Sushi Went Global	13	(8)
Theodore C. Bestor
2 French Beans for the Masses: A Modern Historical Geography of Food in Burkina Faso	21	(21)
Susanne Freidberg
3 Fresh Demand: The Consumption of Chilean Produce in the United States	42	(12)
Walter L. Goldfrank
4 Coca-Cola: A Black Sweet Drink from Trinidad	54	(16)
Daniel Miller
5 China's Big Mac Attack	70	(10)
James L. Watson
6 Of Hamburger and Social Space: Consuming McDonald's in Beijing	80	(24)
Yunxiang Yan
Part II Gentrification, Yuppification, and Domesticating Tastes	104	(111)
Introduction	104	(59)
7 Children's Food and Islamic Dietary Restrictions in Xi'an	106	(16)
Maris Boyd Gillette
8 The Rise of Yuppie Coffees and the Reimagination of Class in the United States	122	(22)
William Roseberry
9 Crafting Grand Cru Chocolates in Contemporary France	144	(19)
Susan J. Terrio
10 Globalized Childhood? Kentucky Fried Chicken in Beijing	163	(17)
Eriberto P. Lozada, Jr.
11 Domesticating the French Fry: McDonald's and Consumerism in Moscow	180	(17)
Melissa L. Caldwell
12 "India Shopping": Indian Grocery Stores and Transnational Configurations of Belonging	197	(18)
Purnima Mankekar
Part III The Political Economy of Food	215	(92)
Introduction	215	(2)
13 Food and the Counterculture: A Story of Bread and Politics	217	(18)
Warren Belasco
14 Industrial Tortillas and Folkloric Pepsi: The Nutritional Consequences of Hybrid Cuisines in Mexico	235	(16)
Jeffrey M. Pilcher
15 Food, Hunger, and the State	251	(8)
Susan Brownell
16 The Bakers of Bernburg and the Logics of Communism and Capitalism	259	(17)
Hans Buechler and Judith-Maria Buechler
17 The Global Food Fight	276	(10)
Robert Paarlberg
18 Half-lives and Healthy Bodies: Discourses on "Contaminated" Food and Healing in Post-Chernobyl Ukraine	286	(13)
Sarah Drue Phillips
19 Mad Cow Mysteries	299	(8)
Harriet Ritvo
Index	307