21A.155
Food, Culture, and Politics
Explores connections between what we eat and who we are through cross-cultural study of how personal identities and social groups are formed via food production, preparation, and consumption. Organized around critical discussion of what makes "good" food good (healthy, authentic, ethical, etc.). Uses anthropological and literary classics as well as recent writing and films on the politics of food and agriculture. Instruction and practice in written and oral communication provided.
Fall 2019 · Food, Culture & Politics
Topics
- Introduction to food, culture, and politics
- Food paradoxes and dilemmas in the US
- Food and power in the global arena
- Good food is culinarily authentic
- Good food is convenient
- Good food feeds relationships
- Good food is appreciated, not appropriated
- Any food is good food if you’re hungry
- Good food is sense-ible/able
- Guest lecture: Andrea McClave, MIT Integrated Design & Management , on developing an MIT food map app
- Thanksgiving
- Good food sustains us
- Final paper panel presentations
Readings
- [B] = Bowen, Sarah, Joslyn Brenton, and Sinikka Elliott. Pressure Cooker: Why Home Cooking Won’t Solve Our Problems and What We Can Do About It . Oxford University Press, 2019. ISBN: 9780190663292.
- [C] = Chen, Nancy N. Food, Medicine, and the Quest for Good Health . Columbia University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780231508919.
- [G] = Gewertz, Deborah, and Frederick Errington. Cheap Meat: Flap Food Nations in the Pacific Islands . University of California Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780520260931.
- [K] = Korsmeyer, Carolyn, ed. The Taste Culture Reader: Experiencing Food and Drink . Berg Publishers, 2005. ISBN: 9781845200619.
- [B] Chapter 3: Deep Roots.
- Albriton, Robert. “Between Obesity and Hunger: The Capitalist Food Industry.” Chapter 24 in Food and Culture: A Reader. 3rd ed. Edited by Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik. Routledge, 2012. ISBN: 9780415521048.
- Poppendieck, Janet. “Want Amid Plenty: From Hunger to Inequality.” Chapter 38 in Food and Culture: A Reader. 3rd ed. Edited by Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik. Routledge, 2012. ISBN: 9780415521048.
- Fisher, M.F.K. “How to Distribute Your Virtue.” In The Art of Eating: 50th Anniversary Edition . Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004. ISBN: 9780764542619.
- [G] Chapter 2: Making Flaps.
- [G] Chapter 3: Treading Meat.
- [G] Chapter 4: Papua New Guinea’s Flaps.
- [G] Chapter 5: Smiles and Shrugs, Worried Eyes and Sighs.
- [G] Chapter 6: Pacific Island Flaps.
- Dash, Julie. “Rice Culture.” In Through the Kitchen Window: Women Explore the Intimate Meanings of Food and Cooking . Edited by Arlene Voski Avakian. Berg Publishers, 2006. ISBN: 9781845203252.
- Beoku-Betts, Josephine. “‘We Got Our Way of Cooking Things’: Women, Food, and Preservation of Cultural Identity Among the Gullah.” Chapter 21 in Food in the USA: A Reader . Edited by Carole Counihan. Routledge, 2002. ISBN: 9780415932325.
- [B] Chapter 7: Finding Balance.
- Caplan, Pat. “‘Is it Real Food?’ Who Benefits from Globalization in Tanzania and India?” Chapter 15 in The Globalization of Food . Edited by David Inglis and Debra Gimlin. Berg Publishers, 2009. ISBN: 9781845208202.
- [K] Peynaud, Emile. Chapter 26: Tasting Problems and Errors of Perception.
- Meigs, Anna. “Food as a Cultural Construction.” Chapter 8 in Food and Culture: A Reader. 1st ed. Edited by Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik. Routledge, 1997. ISBN: 9780415917100.
- Douglas, Mary. “Deciphering a Meal.” Chapter 18 in Implicit Meanings . Routledge, 2010. ISBN: 9780415606738.
- “Appendix to Chapter 3: Food Diary of Peng, An Eleven-Year-Old Hui Boy, June 7–14, 1997.” In Feeding China’s Little Emperors: Food, Children, and Social Change . Edited by Jun Jing. Stanford University Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780804731348.
- [B] Chapter 9: Spaghetti for an Army.
- [K] Proust, Marcel. Chapter 28: The Madeleine.
- [K] Seremetakis, C. Nadia. Chapter 29: The Breast of Aphrodite.
- De Silva, Cara, ed. “Introduction.” In In Memory’s Kitchen: A Legacy from the Women of Terezín. Translated by Bianca Steiner Brown. Jason Aronson, Inc., 1996. ISBN: 9781568219028.
- [B] Chapter 11: Where’s the Gravy?
- Counihan, Carole. “Food Rules in the United States: Individualism, Control, and Hierarchy.” Chapter 7 in The Anthropology of Food and Body: Gender, Meaning and Power . Routledge, 1999. ISBN: 9780415921930.
- Supplemental:
- Listen to podcast:
- Good food is medicinal
- [C] Chapter 1: Healing Foods and Longevity.
- [C] Chapter 3: Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods.
- Fitchen, Janet M. “Hunger, Malnutrition and Poverty: Some Observations on Their Social and Cultural Context.” Chapter 27 in Food and Culture: A Reader. 1st ed. Edited by Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik. Routledge, 1997. ISBN: 9780415917100.
- LEC #: 24 · TOPICS: Thanksgiving · READINGS: Siskind, Janet. “The Invention of Thanksgiving: A Ritual of American Nationality.” Chapter 5 in Food in the USA: A Reader . Edited by Carole Counihan. Routledge, 2002. ISBN: 9780415932325.
- [B] Chapter 28: Conclusions: Thinking Outside the Kitchen.
- Loh, Penn, and Julian Agyeman. “Boston’s Emerging Food Solidarity Economy.” Chapter 11 in The New Food Activism: Opposition, Cooperation, and Collective Action. Edited by Alison Hope Alkon and Julie Guthman. University of California Press, 2017. ISBN: 9780520292147.
- LEC #: 26 · TOPICS: Final paper panel presentations · READINGS: No readings assigned.
- LEC #: 27 · TOPICS: Potluck and final paper panel presentations · READINGS: No readings assigned.
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2019
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.