Learning Objectives

-       why anthropologists are interested in food

-       the connections between how people get their food and organize themselves socially

-       the differences between food foragers and food producers

-       about different types of foraging based on the resources of a given area

-       the characteristics of food-producing societies, including horticulturalists, pastoralists, intensive agriculturalists, and industrialists

-       the effects of globalization on food availability

-       that diverse diets based on nutrient-rich foods can be healthy for the human body

Review Questions

1.     What characteristics distinguish food foragers?

2.     What characteristics tend to correlate with the five basic subsistence types: foraging, horticulture, pastoralism, intensive agriculture, and industrialism?

3.     What are some of the major changes that have accompanied the industrial and globalized food systems?

4.     Since humans everywhere eat different kinds of foods, what seem to be the requirements for a healthy diet?

Discussion Questions

1.     Have you ever sought out “authentic” food experiences? What does it mean to you to eat “authentic” food?

2.     What type of “tool kit” does a modern industrial eater need to survive?

3.     Do alternative food movements today have any similarities to any of the foodways discussed here?

4.     Have you ever sought out foods that were produced, grown, or sold in a particular way due to environmental or health concerns?

Chapter Outline and Key Points

Introduction: The Meanings of Food

Food-related activities are richly embedded in a complex system of norms and expectations, reflecting and reinforcing our cultural, ethnic, and individual identities in meaningful ways. Seeking and producing food and eating are at the center of communal life in human societies. Therefore, human social organization can be identified based on food-getting practices.

Adaptive Strategies: Food-Getting Practices

Foragers (also called hunter-gatherers) use the available resources in the environment by hunting, fishing, and gathering. Food producers transform nature in some way, whether through farming land or raising animals for food. Food procurement strategies are flexible and subject to change.

Food Foragers

Foragers live in bands, divide labor by sex, and have an egalitarian and cooperative system with a lack of specialization. They are nomadic and return to the same locations annually to take advantage of resources.

Food Producers: Horticulturalists

Horticulturalists plant gardens with basic tools to feed their families, often using swidden cultivation techniques. Groups may settle to plant crops once the carrying capacity of their land is overburdened.

Food Producers: Pastoralists

Pastoralists depend upon animal husbandry for their livelihood and nutrition. They are semi-nomadic groups who generally use horses to move herds of animals to pasture seasonally.

Food Producers: Intensive Agriculturalists

Intensive agriculture greatly increases the production capacity of land but requires more intense labor and advanced tools and strategies. Animal domestication, occupational specialization, and the growth of cities accompany the development of agriculture.

Food Producers: Industrialism

Industrialist food production uses highly mechanized processes. Massive fields are often monocropped with one or two crops such as corn or soy. These seeds may be genetically modified for increased protection against pests or for increased output. Industrial farms are commonly referred to as Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), which create challenges for both the health of the land and the farmworkers.

Globalization of Food

Today, producers and consumers of food are linked all over the world in an interconnected chain of supply and demand. In general, people in high-income nations benefit from the globalized food system, while people in low-income nations benefit less or experience negative effects. People—especially in high-income nations—may adopt a deliberate pattern of eating based on cultural values.

The Human Diet

Humans can be healthy eating a wide range of foods, as long as the foods are fresh and not processed.

Glossary

animal husbandry: the use and breeding of animals for purposes that benefit humans

band: small egalitarian society of food foragers who live and travel together

carrying capacity: the number of people that can be sustained with the existing resources of a given area

chemical inputs: synthetic additives, such as pesticides and fertilizers, that raise the yield of crops in industrial agriculture

city: a settlement supporting a dense population with a centralized government, specialization, and socio-economic hierarchy

community-supported agriculture (CSA): a direct-marketing program in which consumers pay up front for boxes of fresh produce that are delivered on a regular basis from the farms where the produce is grown

confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs): industrial farming enterprises in which large numbers of animals are prepared for human consumption; the basis of conventional meat production

conventional: a process of growing food in industrial societies that uses pesticides and other chemicals

cooperative society: a pattern of social life in which resources are shared among the group

domestication: shaping the evolution of a species for human use

egalitarian: describes a society in which every member has the same access to resources and status; non-hierarchical

fallow: describes land that has been cultivated and left unseeded for a season

food foragers: people who utilize the food resources available in the environment; roughly synonymous with hunter-gatherers

food producers: people who transform the environment with the goal of food production using farming and/or animal husbandry

food sovereignty: the right of peoples to define and manage their own healthy and culturally relevant food systems

foodways: the methods, knowledge, and practices regarding food in a particular society

genetically modified (GM): altered at the level of the gene; refers particularly to food crops that have been modified by introducing genes from another organism to enhance or create desired traits in the species

globalization: the integration of economic, social, political, and geographic boundaries in complex chains of interconnected systems and processes

glycemic index (GI): a measurement of how different foods affect a person’s blood sugar level. Foods that have high numbers on the index (56–100) are those that release glucose rapidly into the bloodstream, resulting in a sharper rise in blood sugar. A diet high in high-GI foods may lead to obesity, diabetes, and other diseases

horticulture: a method of producing food in which people cultivate the land in small-scale farms or gardens

hunter-gatherer: people who utilize the food resources available in the environment; roughly synonymous with food foragers

industrialism: methods of producing food and goods using highly mechanized machinery and digital information

intensive agriculture: a farming technique that can support a large population using advanced tools and irrigation, and requiring more preparation and maintenance of the soil

locavore diet: a diet that emphasizes the consumption of foods grown in one’s own community or region

monocropping: the practice of growing a single crop year after year on the same plot of land

monoculture: a technique used in industrial farming in which a single crop is planted on a large number of acres

nobles: high-status members of a society with rank often inherited

nomadic: moving within a large area frequently in order to access food resources

organic: a process of growing food that prohibits the use of chemical pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers, irradiation, and genetic modification

pastoralism: a way of life that revolves around animal domestication and herding animals to pasture

peasants: low-status members of a society who farm for a living

pulses: legume seeds that are harvested when dry, includes most beans, chickpeas, and lentils

sexual division of labor: the sex-based division of tasks in a community

social density: the frequency and intensity of interactions among group members in a society

specialization: possessing certain skills that others in the group do not share; characteristic of complex societies

swidden farming/shifting cultivation: a farming technique in which plant material is burned and crops are planted in the ashes

technology: the tools, skills, and knowledge used by people to survive

terraced: a farming technique utilizing graduated steps on hilly terrain

terroir: a French term to describe the character of a crop, most often wine, that forms as a result of its particular environmental conditions 

transhumance: a pattern of seasonal migration in which pastoralists move back and forth over long distances to productive pastures

veganism: a diet composed of plant-based foods that restricts the consumption (and sometimes the use of) products made from animals or produced by animals (such as milk or eggs)

vegetarianism: a diet that emphasizes plant-based foods while restricting the consumption of meat and fish

whole foods: foods that are not processed by chemical or other means; foods in their natural state, either grown or raised

Weblinks

Culture and Agriculture, a section of the AAA
https://cultureandagriculture.americananthro.org/
Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition (SAFN)
http://foodanthro.com
Human Relations Area Files—Hunter-Gatherers (Foragers)
http://hraf.yale.edu/resources/faculty/explaining-human-culture/hunter-gatherers-foragers-2/
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)—Pastoralism in the New Millennium
http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/y2647e/y2647e02.htm
Anthropology of Food open access web journal
http://aof.revues.org
Anthropology of Food links compiled by Tim Roufs at the University of Minnesota, Duluth
http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/anthfood/index_online.html#title

Further Reading

Foodways

Anderson, S.E. (2005). Everyone eats: An understanding of food and culture. New York: New York University Press.

Chrzan, J. & Brett, J. (Eds.) (2019) Food Culture: Anthropology, Linguistics and Food Studies. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books.

Counihan, C., Van Esterik, P. & Julier, A. (2017). Food and culture: A reader (4th ed.). New York: Routledge.

Crowther, G. (2018). Eating culture: An anthropological guide to food (2nd ed.) Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Harris, M. (1985). Good to eat: Riddles of food and culture. Long Grove: Waveland Press.

Lee, R.B. (1969). Eating Christmas in the Kalahari. Natural History, December: 60–63.

Mintz, S.W. (1985). Sweetness and power: The place of sugar in modern history. New York: Viking-Penguin.

Mintz S.W., & Du Bois C.M. (2002). The anthropology of food and eating. Annual Review of Anthropology, 31(1), 99–119.

Diet

DuFour, D.L., Goodman, A.H., & Pelto, G.H. (2013). Nutritional anthropology: Biocultural perspectives on food & nutrition (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.

Messer, E. (1984). Anthropological perspectives on diet. Annual Review of Anthropology, 13(1), 205–49.

Popkin, B. (2001). The nutrition transition and obesity in the developing world. The Journal of Nutrition, 131(3), 8715–35.

Food-Centered Ethnographies

Cho, L. (2010). Eating Chinese: Culture on the menu in small town Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Counihan, C. (2010). A tortilla is like life: Food and culture in the San Luis Valley of Colorado. Austin: University of Texas Press.
McIlwraith, T. (2012). “We are still Didene”: Stories of hunting and history from northern British Columbia. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Paxson, H. (2013). The life of cheese: Crafting food and value in America. Berkeley: UC Press.
Stull, D.D., & Broadway, M. (2013). Slaughterhouse blues: The meat and poultry industry in North America (2nd ed.) Case Studies on Contemporary Social Issues. Belmont: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Wellman, R. (2021). Feeding Iran: Shi’i Families and the Making of the Islamic Republic. Berkeley: UC Press.