Anth. 330  Food For Thought									Tannenbaum
TTH 1:10 - 2:25													Fall 1999
Office: Price Hall 11 [Visit Myanmar Year 1996]
Office Hours:  MWF 9:30 - 10:30 or by appointment or chance

Purpose:  To become familiar with anthropological approaches to the symbolic and social uses of food, dining, and commensality and to explore these topics by examining what Lehigh eats, with whom, where, when and why.

Class Structure:  Discussion of readings and research, class presentations, and some eating.  

Evaluation:  
Essays:  Three essays: comparison and contrast of Weismantel and Kahn, 15%; food and identity incorporating food journal assignments and readings from the section food and identity, 25%; and food and the maintenance of social order drawing on all the readings and your food journal observations on eating at Lehigh, 35%.  You will present your essays in class.  First drafts and presentations due on the dates assigned in the syllabus.  Revisions due one week after I return your essays: you must include your first draft with your final draft. Note: draft means that you have written the whole paper and have developed the argument.

Journals: Six journal assignments, see handout for description, 15%.

Class participation:  10%. Class participation means doing the reading and research and being prepared to discuss the materials. This includes 7 critical annotations of articles/chapters, see handout, and any other incidental class preparation/discussion assignments.

This is a writing intensive class. In order to pass the writing intensive portion of the course you need to adequately complete all the assignments.

Class attendance is required.  You may miss no more than 3 classes without penalty.  For each class after your 3, missed without an adequate excuse, your grade will go down one-third of a letter grade; e.g. if you have an "A" but you miss a total of 5 classes, your grade will be a "B+."

Required Texts:
Kahn, Miriam  Always Hungry, Never Greedy: Food and the Expression of Gender in a Melanesian Society.  Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1994.
Pilcher, Jeffrey  Que Vivan Los Tamales: Food and the Making of Mexican Identity.   Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998.
Weismantel, Mary  Food, Gender, and Poverty in the Ecuadorian Andes.  Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1998.

AND a packet of articles available at Price Hall rm. 1. included articles are marked with * in the syllabus.

Assignments and Course Outline

I.  Introductions
Week 1 Aug. 31 - Sept. 2  
Readings: *Mintz, Sidney  Eating and Being: What Food Means. Food: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, p. 102-115, Barbara Harriss-White and Sir Raymond Hoffenberg, eds.  London: Blackwell Publishers, 1994.
*Kuper, Jessica, ed.  The Anthropologists' Cookbook.  New York: Universe Books, 1977.  Selections by Ivan and Patricia Karp, Bakoly Domenichi Ramiaramanana, Stephen and Roxane Gudeman, Frederica deLaguna, Jacque Dourmey, Alan Davidson, and Rosemary Firth.
*Lee, Richard Borshey  Eating Christmas in the Kalahari, Conformity and Conflict James P. Spradley and David W. McCurdy, 7th edition.  Glenview, Illinois: Scott Foresman, 1990 (1969).

Week 2 Sept. 7 - 9  Introduction, cont.
Readings:  Kahn,  Preface, Acknowledgements, Introduction
Pilcher, Preface and Introduction
Weismantel  Introduction,  Food and Theory
*Douglas, Mary  Deciphering a Meal, Deadulus 101(Winter): 61-81, 1972.
Due Sept. 9: Issues and problems in the anthropological study of food.

II.  Anthropological approaches to food in society
Week 3 Sept. 14 - 16 Food in a Melanesian Society
Readings: Kahn, Chap. 1 Ethnographic orientations
 Kahn, Chap. 2 “Sorry my friend, no food”
Kahn, Chap. 3 “Famine” reconsidered
Kahn, Chap. 4 Tamodukoroko: the monster within
Due Sept. 16: Journal 1 What you eat.

Week 4 Sept. 21 - 23 Food in a Melanesian Society, cont.
Readings: Kahn, Chap. 5 Pigs and pork: the domestication of affinal tensions
Kahn, Chap. 6 Taro: The cultivation of men’s “children”
Kahn, Chap. 7 Digestion and reproduction: parallel acts of regeneration
Kahn, Chap. 8 The language of feasts
Kahn, Conclusions

Week 5 Sept. 28 - 30  Food in an Ecuadorian Society
Readings: Weismantel, Chap. 2  The Parish of Zumbagua
Weismantel, Chap. 3  The Diet of Zumbagua: Basic Vocabulary
Due Sept. 28: Journal 2  Dining Prehistory:  What you ate, with whom, etc.

Week 6 Oct. 5 -7 Food in an Ecuadorian Society, cont.
Readings: Weismantel, Chap. 4  The Cuisine of Zumbagua
Weismantel, Chap. 5  Food in Discourse: Everyday Symbols in Ideological Conflict
Weismantel, Chap. 6  Practice: Kitchen Life

Week 7 Oct. 12 - 14  Food and Society:  Weismantel and Kahn
Readings:  Review Weismantel and Kahn
Due Oct. 14: Essay question comparing/contrasting Weismantel and Kahn
Due Oct. 14: Journal 3 Dining at Lehigh.
Note: no class on Oct. 12 - spacing break.

III Food and Identity
Week 8 Oct. 19 - 21 National Identity
Readings: Pilcher, Chap. 1  The People of Corn: Native American Cuisine
Pilcher, Chap. 2  The Conquest of Wheat: Culinary Encounters in the Colonial Period
Pilcher, Chap. 3  Many Chefs in the National Kitchen: the 19th Century
Due Oct. 21: Essay on Weismantel and Kahn.

Week 9 Oct. 26 -28 National Identity, cont.
Readings: Pilcher, Chap. 4  The Tortilla Discourse: Nutrition and National Building 
*Mintz, Sidney  Sugar and Morality, p.67-83. In Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom: Excursions in Eating, Culture, and the Past by Sidney Mintz.  Boston: Beacon Hill, 1996.
*Shapiro, Laura  Whoever Knew a Dyspeptic to be a Christian? p. 127-168.  In Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century by Laura Shapiro.  New York: North Point Press, 1986.
Due Oct. 26: Journal 4 Observational Preliminaries.

Week 10 Oct. Nov. 2 - 4 National Identity, cont.
Readings: Pilcher, Chap. 5  Replacing the Aztec Blender: The Modernization of Popular Cuisine
Pilcher, Chap. 6  Apostles of the Enchilada: Postrevolutionary Nationalism
Pilcher, Chap. 7  Recipes for the Patria: National Cuisines in Global Perspective
Pilcher, Epilogue.
*Appadurai, Arjun How to Make a National Cuisine: Cookbooks in Contemporary India.  Comparative Studies in Society and History 30(1):3-24, 1988.

Week 11 Nov. 9 - 11 Community Identity
Readings: *Bower, Anne  Cooking Up Stories: Narrative Elements in Community Cookbooks.  In Recipes for Reading: Community Cookbooks, Stories, Histories, Anne Bower, ed., pp. 29-50.  Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
*Bishop, Marion  Speaking Sisters: Relief Society Cookbooks and Mormon Culture.  In n Recipes for Reading: Community Cookbooks, Stories, Histories, Anne Bower, ed., pp. 89-104.  Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
*Ireland, Lynne  The Compiled Cookbook as Foodways Autobiography. The Taste of American Place: A reader on regional and ethnic foods, p. 111-117.  Barbara G. Shortridge and James R. Shortridge, eds.  Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998.
Due Nov. 9: Preliminary observations at food site

Week 12 Nov.  16 - 18 Ethnic Identity
Readings: *Kaplan, Anne R., Marjorie A. Hoover, and Willard B. Moore  The Scandinavians. In The Minnesota Ethnic Food Book Anne R. Kaplan, Marjorie A. Hoover and Willard B. Moore, pp. 102-143; 320-345..  St. Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society. 
*VanEsterik, Penny  Feeding their Faith: Recipe Knowledge Among Thai Buddhist Women.  Food and Foodways 1:197-215, 1986.
*Tuchman, Gaye and Harry Gene Levine  New York Jews and Chinese Food: The Social Construction of an Ethnic Pattern.  The Taste of American Place: A reader on regional and ethnic foods, p. 163-184.  Barbara G. Shortridge and James R. Shortridge, eds.  Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998.
*Dubisch, Jill  You are what you eat: religious aspects of the health food movement.  The American Dimension: Cultural Myths and Social Realities, 2nd edition,  p.114-127,  W. Arens and S. Montague, eds..  Sherman Oaks, CA: Alfred Publishing Co. Inc., 1981.
Due Nov. 18: Journal 5 Observations and analysis of dining at Lehigh

Week 13 Nov. 23 - 25 General discussion of food and identity.
Readings:  Review readings on food and identity.
Due Nov. 23: Essay topic for food and identity,
Note: no class Nov. 25, Thanksgiving.

IV Food and the Creation and Maintenance of Social Order
Week 14 Nov. 30 - Dec. 2 Some additional cases
 Readings:  *Whitehead, Ann  Food Symbolism, Gender Power and the Family. In Food: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, p. 116-129, Barbara Harriss-White and Sir Raymond Hoffenberg, eds.  London: Blackwell Publishers, 1994. 
*Watson, Jmes  McDonalds in Hong Kong: Consumerism, Dietary Change, and the Rise of a Children’s Culture.  In Golden Arches East: McDonald’s in East Asia, p. 77-109, James Watson ed.  Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997.
Due Nov. 30: Journal 6 Holiday Meals.
Due Dec. 2: First draft of essay on food and identity.

Week 15 Dec. 7 - Dec. 9 And another case and a general discussion
Readings:  *Judith G. Goode, Karen Curtis, and Janet Theophano  Meal Formats, Meal Cycles, and Menu Negotiation in the Maintenance of an Italian-American Community.  In Food in the Social Order: Studies of Food and Festivities in Three American Communities, p. 143-218, Mary Douglas, ed.  New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1984.
Due. Dec. 9: Essay topic on food and the creation of the social order.

Due on final exam date: Food and the creation and maintenance of the social order.
Revision due no later than the last day of finals.