Course Syllabus
Anthropology of Food D |
 |
| Semester & Location: |
Fall 2024 - DIS Copenhagen |
| Type & Credits: |
Elective Course - 3 credits |
| Major Disciplines: |
Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Food Politics |
| Faculty Members: |
Christian Martinez - current students use the Canvas inbox |
| Time & Place: |
Tuesday and Friday 13:15-14.35 Classroom: Fi44-Kosmo 402 |
Description of Course
”You learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together," the American celebrity chef and travel documentarian Anthony Bourdain once said. Bourdain’s food-filled journeys to cities with fabulous restaurants and street kitchens and rural exotic local treats showed the abundance of food cultures and ways of using food in a local context. It echoes the 19th-century epicure, politician and gastronome, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, who famously said: “Tell me what you eat, and I’ll tell you who you are”.
Anthropologists explore how cultural identities are shaped, and in this course, we focus on how humans and food are linked in way that may surprise you. Eating is more than sustenance, it's more than just a matter of eating whats tasty. When we buy food, when we eat it, we communicate meaning that creates identities, maintains social bonds, and sustains cultures. This makes eating not only a nutritional act but also a social and cultural act.
How can one’s educational level influence what you buy? Why is Thanksgiving not the same without a turkey? Why do some see the friend-bonding qualities of eating a burger, while others see climate crisis issues? And why do Michelin-starred restaurants in Copenhagen flaunt their uses of sustainable, local, seasonal ingredients and organic natural wine? These are some of the questions we will explore during Anthropology of Food.
By focusing on food culture across the world, with most case studies from Europe and more specifically Copenhagen, we will develop an intercultural understanding of other societies, as well as our own.
During our sessions, we’ll make the theoretical subject come to life by inviting guest lecturers. And we will do fieldwork in food markets, dive bars, and Middle-Eastern Kebab joints, explore wine tastings and get a sense of the neighborhoods of Copenhagen.
Students will get acquainted with the anthropological perspectives on the topic of food, get immersed deeply into the Scandinavian eating culture, and the Nordic culinary revival, and investigate the role of the city in rethinking our food systems.
Learning Objectives
The overall objective of the course is to enable students to understand the different social and cultural meanings of food. The course aims to endow them with a sense that food is more than what is served on a plate and provide them with a toolkit of impressions, experiences, approaches, and concepts with which they will be able to better understand the practice of eating.
By the end of the course, students should have:
- developed a sense of the culinary cultures of Denmark and other countries and how these relate to broader cultures;
- enhanced understanding of food culture in their home country and other countries after using Denmark as a case model
- an understanding of how to analyze the role of food in forging an identity on an individual and collective levels;
- developed a sense of how to think critically about food as a reflection of social, political, and economic phenomena;
- enhanced their understanding of the evolving role of gastronomy and the role of culture in reshaping a cultural identity;
- greater knowledge of the fields of anthropology and sociology and how these disciplines approach the study of food
- the ability to use anthropological methods of inquiry to critically reflect on the role of food in culture in cultural practice;
Readings
There is no textbook for this course. All readings are found on Canvas.
Ariel, Ari, The Hummus Wars, Gastronomica. the Journal for Food Studies, Februrary 2012, Volume 12, Issue I, Univeristy of California Press 2012
Bajc, Vida, “Tourist Gaze.” In: Dale Southerton (Ed.) The Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture. London: Sage 2011.
Barthes, Roland, Rhetoric of the image, Image, Music, Text, Fontana Press 1972
Bourdieu, Piere, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, Routledge 1984 (e
Danish Agriculture and Food Council: Denmark, Danish Food and Gastronomy, Copenhagen 2011
Fischler, Claude, Food, Self, and Identity, Social Science Information 27(2), June 1988, pp. 275-292
Fox, Robin, “ Food and Eating: An Anthropological Perspective"
Gee, James Paul, An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method 2nd Ed., Routledge 2007
Geertz, Clifford, Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture, The Interpretation of Cultures, Basic Books 1973
Halawa, Mateuz & Parasecoli, Fabio , Eating and drinking in Global Brooklyn, Food, Culture & Society. An International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research June 2019
Herman, Jenny L., #Eatingfortheinsta: A Semiotic Analysis of Digital Representations of Food on Instagram, Graduate Journal of Food Studies Vol. 4, No. 2 (Nov. 2017)
Jaap Koijmaan, Fabricating the Absolute Fake. America in Contemporary Pop Culture, Introduction: Fabricating the Absolute Fake, Amsterdam University Press 2008
Korsmeyer, Carolyn, Delightful, Delicious, Disgusting, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism (2002)
Laudan, Rachel, Birth of the Modern Diet, Scientific American 283(2):76-81, September 2000
Leer, Jonathan, The Rise and Fall of New Nordic Cuisine, Journal of Aesthetics & Culture, vol. 8:1, 2016
Mührmann-Lund, J. (2016). Food Policing in Early Modern Danish Towns. Rural Landscapes: Society, Environment, History, 3(1): 3, 1–13
Orange, Richard, "Facist" food fight?, Public Radio International, April 8, 2012 via pri.org
Pollan, Michael, Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Penguin Press 2006
Ramsden, James, Eating with the eyes, The Guardian 28 January 2011
Reddy, Geetha, van Dam, Rob M., Food, culture, and identity in multicultural societies: Insights from Singapore, Appetite vol. 149, 1 June 2020
Reicher, A. Yael Raviv, Falafel Nation: cuisine and the making of National Identity in Israel. Dialectical Anthropology vol. 40, 2016
Schösler, Hanna, de Boer, Joop & Boersma, Jan J., The Organic Food Philosophy: A Qualitative Exploration of the Practices, Values, and Beliefs of Dutch Organic Consumers Within a Cultural–Historical Frame, Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics vol. 26, pp. 439-460, 2013
Seremetakis, C. Nadia, Senses Still, The Memory of the senses, Part 1: Marks of the Transitory, University of Chicago Press, 1996
Schmidt, Garbi, Indvandringens Historie på Nørrebro 1885-2010, Museum Tusculanums Forlag 2015
Skinner, Jonathan, A Four-part Introduction to the Interview: An Ethnographic Approach, Berg Publishers 2012
Swinbank, Vicki A., The Sexual Politics of Cooking: A Feminist Analysis of Culinary Hierachy in Western Culture, Journal of Historical Sociology vol. 15 no. 4, december 2002
Taylor, Chloe, Faucault and the Ethics of Eating, Foucault Studies, No. 9, pp. 71-88, September 2010
Tjørnhøj-Thomsen and Ploug Hansen (2015). "Managing Uncertainties, Gaining Control: The Magic of Foods and Words" in Steffen, V., Jöhncke, S., & Raahauge, K. M. (red.) (2015). Between Magic and Rationality (eds. Jöhncke, Steffen, Vibeke Steffen & Kirsten Marie Raahauge): On the limits of reason in the modern world. (Critical Anthropology udg.) København: Museum Tusculanum. (Critical Anthropology, Vol. 4).
Trubec, Amy B., The Taste of Place: A Cultural Journey into Terroir, University of California Press 2008
Veblen, Thorstein, The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study in the Evolution of Institutions, Chapter IV: Conspicous Consumption, Dover Publications Inc. 1899
Wallace, David Foster, Consider the Lobster, Gourmet, August 2004
Field Studies
During the semester the two field studies will provide the possibility to explore and taste.
Guest Lectures
During the course, we will go out and visit locations or have speakers come and visit us. These will be announced during the semester.
Expectations of the Students
I expect you to attend all class sessions unless prevented by an emergency. I expect you to complete all the assigned reading and come to class prepared to discuss it in depth. I expect you to turn in assignments on time.
Anthropology is a field that allows a large part of the time in class to be class debates and conversations about cultural interpretations. This demands full engagement from all and students are therefore not allowed to use a laptop or smartphone in class. Considerations will, of course, be taken if you have special needs for a computer for note-taking. Please speak to the Office of Academic Support to request accommodations. In some specific cases, you may be requested to use an electronic device for quick/ad-hoc research on the Internet. Any misuse of trust will be reflected in your engagement grade.
All students are expected to have completed the course readings before class so that we can discuss the material at the right level. It is important to be well-prepared for class because I may randomly select students to give key points on the readings for that day.
Students are expected to participate actively in all classes and field studies and be open-minded to their fellow student’s contributions to the class. The aim is to establish an environment where we can learn from each other as well as from the texts and cases we engage with, and you are expected to actively support this approach.
Approach to Teaching
The methods used to cover class materials include lectures, videos, discussions, individual and group presentations, guest lectures, and field trips. Periodically we will split up into smaller groups to review and analyze the material more thoroughly. The course will have several out-of-the-classroom sessions on location to experience the different facets of food firsthand. Students are expected to be able to find and be at the external locations on time. The external locations will not be far from DIS's location and maps and addresses will be given in advance. Office hours are held after class or by appointment.
Instructor
Christian Martinez. Journalist and freelance writer, primarily working with reportage and long-form journalism. Master of Arts (MA) in Cultural Studies from the University of Copenhagen.
Feel free to follow the Instagram of this course for students, https://www.instagram.com/p/CVkGVybMDpu/
Evaluation
Students will be evaluated on their ability to understand, discuss, and communicate theories within the Anthropology of Food as well as interpret them meaningfully. These skills will be the primary focus of evaluations. Group work in class and in the field as well as the student's ability to contribute to a group effort will be taken into account for the grade.
Grading
Your grade consists of the following three elements. Written assignments, your journal, and your participation in class. The three parts are weighed as follows:
| Assignment |
Percent |
| ASSIGNMENT 1 - Ethnographic photography |
15% |
|
ASSIGNMENT 2 - Thick description |
15% |
|
ASSIGNMENT 3 - Observations and foodscapes |
20% |
|
ASSIGNMENT 4 - Integrated ethnographic methods |
20% |
|
Participation |
15% |
|
Journal |
15% |
Academic Regulations
Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on:
Students must always check canvas for changes, but here is a PDF of the syllabus
Course Summary:
| Date | Details | Due |
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