FOOD, SYMBOL & SOCIETY
Professor David Sutton
Faner 3542
Phone: 453-3298
e-mail: dsutton@siu.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday, Thursday 9:30-11, or by appointment
COURSE DESCRIPTION: In this course we will explore all aspects of the social uses and symbolic meanings we attach to food and eating. How do we use food to make friends, to make enemies, and to make ourselves? What is changing in our food consumption patterns? What are some of the politics and the ethics involved in producing and marketing food? What is the significance of eating out? Of "ethnic" restaurants? Of Starbucks? How do we analyze the smell and taste of food cross-culturally? These and other questions will be approached from a variety of anthropological perspectives.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
*All reading on the syllabus is required, and should be done before the class for which it is assigned
*Class Attendance is Required, as is class participation, and will be counted toward 5% of your grade.
*There will be regular short food assignments throughout the term. Buy a notebook in which to keep these assignments. These assignments will be marked on a 3-pt. scale and will count collectively for 15% of your grade.
*There will be a mid-term assignment of 6-8 pages, due by the beginning of 9th week. This will involve research. It will be worth 35% of your grade. Details to follow.
*There will be a final essay exam worth 45% of your grade.
*Graduate Students taking the course for credit will write a final research paper of 15-20 pages in lieu of the final exam. Graduate students must arrange to see me to discuss this paper by 9th week. An outline, including proposed bibliography (at least 15 citations) will be due by the end of 10th week. A first draft of the paper will be due by the beginning of 14th week. A final draft, including annotated bibliography, will be due by the beginning of 16th week. Failure to adhere to this schedule will count against your grade on this assignment.
EXTRA CREDIT: Graduate Students in particular are urged, but all students have the option of doing an in-class presentation based on the recommended reading for any particular week. Presentations will also involve a writeen component. If you wish to do such a presentation see me at least 2 weeks before the week in question.
REQUIRED BOOKS
Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney Rice as Self
Mark Winegardner We Are What We Ate
Ester Reiter Making Fast Food
Vandana Shiva Stolen Harvest
WEEK 1 INTRODUCTION: TELL ME WHAT YOU EAT, I'LL TELL YOU WHO YOU ARE...
Reading:
Diana Beach "Anthropology of the Sandwich." (handout)
Margaret Visser "Food and Culture: Interconnections." (handout)
WEEKS 2-3 FOOD, IDENTITY, COSMOLOGY
Reading:
Emiko Ohnuki Tierney Rice as Self
WEEK 4 FOOD AND THE MAKING (& BREAKING) OF KINSHIP
Mary Weismantel "Making Kin" (selection, reserve)
Steven Steinberg "Bubbie's Challah" (handout)
*Charles Baxter "My Son, Eating Dinner." In We Are What We Ate
WEEK 5: THE MEANING OF MEALS
Readings:
*Mary Douglas "Deciphering a Meal." (Reserve)
*Anne Murcott "Family Meals--a thing of the past?" (Reserve)
*John Dufresne "Nothing to eat but food." In We Are What We Ate
*Luce Giard "'When it Comes Down to it, Cooking Worries Me'" (Reserve)
The Film "The Family Table" Will be Shown
WEEKS 6-7: GENDER, ETHNICITY, CLASS: DIFFERENCE & IDENTITY
Readings:
Robert Girardi "Spaghetti." We Are What We Ate
Marjorie DeVault "Conflict and Deference" (Reserve)
Anne Allison "Japanese Mothers and Obenitos: The Lunch Box as Ideological State Apparatus." (Reserve)
Jane Cowan "Going Out for Coffee" (Reserve)
Brett Williams "Why Migrant Women Feed their Husbands Tamales" (Reserve)
Carol Counihan "Bread as World" (Reserve)
Pierre Bourdieu "Distinction" (Reserve)
Steve Yarbrough "Grandma's Table." We Are What We Ate
The Film Fishing in the City will be shown
WEEKS 8-9 EATING MORALITIES
Christopher Gillette "Wine and Cakes: Food, Power and Ritual Relationships Among Neo-Pagans" (Reserve)
Jill Dubisch "You Are What You Eat: Religious Aspects of the Health Food Movement." (Reserve)
Warren Belasco "Future Notes:The Meal in a Pill" (Reserve)
Lucy Long "Culinary Tourism: A Folkloristic Perspective on Eating and Otherness" (Reserve)
Amy Bentley "From Culinary Other to Mainstream American: Meanings and Uses of Southwestern Cuisine" (Reserve)
Wendell Berry "The Pleasures of Eating." We Are What We Ate
Ellen Meloy "Eat Your Pets." We Are What We Ate
MID-TERM Due beginning of Week 9
WEEKS 10-11 PRODUCTION, CONSUMPTION, DEVELOPMENT, BIOTECHNOLOGY AND THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
Vandana Shiva Stolen Harvest
Cynthia Enloe "Carmen Miranda on my Mind." (Reserve)
The Film "Coffee Break" will be shown
WEEKS 12-13: RESTAURANTS AND RESTAURANT WORK
Ester Reiter Making Fast Food: From the Frying Pan to the Fryer
Stewart O'Nan "Tots" in We Are What We Ate
The Film "Serving With Dignity" will be shown
WEEK 14 EATING NOSTALGICALLY
David Sutton "Whole Foods"
Jessica Harris "In a Leaf of Collard, Green" We Are What We Ate
Mark Winegardner "We are What We Ate: Introduction." We Are What We Ate
Elena Castedo "Watercress." We Are What We Ate
David Sutton "Global Food: Memory Destroyer?"
Allison Leitch "The Social Life of Lardo: Slow Food in Fast Times
WEEK 15: CONCLUSION AND FINAL EXAM
