Course Syllabus

Tasting Culture: Nordic  Food, Tradition, and Nutrition

Semester & Location:	Summer 2021, Session 3 - DIS Copenhagen
Type & Credits:	Elective Course - 4 credits
Study Tour:	Jutland and Samsø
Major Disciplines:	Anthropology, History, Sociology
Prerequisite(s):	None
Faculty Members:	Anders Larsen, al@dis.dk
Program Coordinator:	Sanne Rasmussen, sra@dis.dk
Time & Place:	Monday through Friday N7-B13

Description of Course

We eat to live. But food is not just about survival. We express who we are through our food. How we eat is, however, also shaped by other forces than our social identities, and these are often invisible to us in our everyday lives. Over four weeks we will explore food and eating in Denmark — allowing us to understand both the commonalities and the differences that such forces bring to food and cuisine, as well as people’s imagination and inventiveness in creating something to eat.

Learning Objectives

• You will gain a firm understanding of the study of food in its social and cultural aspects, working towards understanding the multilayered dimensions of food practices.  
• You will become familiar with the bibliography related to food in Denmark.
• You will be able to analyze food practices within a general understanding of the social structures of the contemporary Danish society and their historical development.   
• You will learn to think about preparing, sharing, and eating food as activities that are central to building human relationships and creating meaning.
• You will become a critical reader of advertising, labeling, and popular news stories related to food and health.
• You will understand the central themes in contemporary debates surrounding food in regard to health, identity, nation, gender, environment, and more in a European context.
• You will have broadened your palate with many amazing new tastes and textures.
• You will receive a basic introduction to ethnographic and organoleptic research methodologies and have put those research methods into practice.

Faculty  

Anders Larsen

+4521215773

Cand.Mag., History and English Literature and Language, University of Copenhagen (2008). His research has focused on cultural history and visual culture. Anders teaches Meaning of Style which is an introduction to semiotic analysis using fashion as a case study, as well as Visual Culture of Cities in the summer. He also teaches Copenhagen History. Structure, plan and design. He has previously taught Anthropology of Food and London: Reading the city. Anders has over the years worked on various projects for DIS relating to cultural competencies and cultural engagement. He has furthermore worked on staff training within the Housing & Student Affairs department. With DIS since 2007.

Email: al@dis.dk. 

Readings

Ariel Ari, The Hummus Wars, Gastronomica. The Journal for Food Studies, February 2012 vol. 12, issue I, University of California Press 2021

Bajic, Vida, Tourist Gaze in Dale Southerton (Ed.) The Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture, Sage 2011

Bourdieu, Pierre, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Routledge 1984 (exerpts on dood)

Danish Agriculture and Food Council. Denmark, Danish Food and Gastronomy. Copenhagen: Danish Agriculture & Food Council, 2011.

Douglas, Mary, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo, Routledge 1966

Laudan, Rachel, Birth of the Modern Diet, Scientific American 283(2):76-81, September 2000

Leer, Jonathan. "The Rise and Fall of the New Nordic Cuisine." Journal of Aesthetics & Culture 8, no. 1 (2016).

McNeilly, Claudia, The Psychological Case for Instagramming Your Food, The Cut Mar. 7, 2016

Orange, Richard, Facist food fights?, Public Radio International, April 8, 2012

Parkhurst, Priscilla, Accounting for Taste: the Triumph of French Cuisine, University of Chicago Press 2004

Pollan, Michael, Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Penguin Press 2006

Reicher, A. Yael Raviv, Falafel Nation: Cuisine and the making of National Identity in Israel, Dialectical Anthropology vol. 40, 2016

Schlösler, 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, Part1: Marks of the Transitory, University of Chicago Press 1996

Swinbank, Vicki, The Sexual Politics of Cooking: A Feminist Analysis of Culiary 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 & Plough Hansen (2015), Managing Uncertainties, Gaining Control: The Magic of Food and Words in Jöhncke, Steffen V.(Ed.), Between Magic and Rationality, Museum Tusculanum 2015

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, Considering the Lobster, Gourmet, August 2004

West, Harry G. "Artisanal Foods and the Cultural Economy: Perspectives on Craft, Heritage, Authenticity and Reconnection." In The Handbook of Food and Anthropology, by Jakob A. Klein James L. Watson, 406–434. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

 

Supplementary readings (will be referred to in lectures or parts of which will be workshopped during classtime):

Tan, Fransisca Hok-Eng. "Flavours of Thought: Towards a Phenomenology of Food-related Experiences." Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems 11, no. 4 (2013): 400-414.

Meneley, Anne. “Like an Extra Virgin.” American Anthropologist 109, no. 4 (2007): 678–687.

Parrott, N., N. Wilson, and J. Murdoch. “Spatializing Quality: Regional Protection and the Alternative Geography of Food.” European Urban and Regional Studies 9, no. 3 (2002): 241–61.

De Certeau, Michel, Luce Giard, and Pierre Mayol. The Practice of Everyday Life, Vol. 2: Living and Cooking. Univ. Of Minnesota Press, 1998. (selections)

Bampilis, Tryfon. Greek Whisky: The Localization of a Global Commodity. Berghahn Books, 2010.

Bardhi, Fleura, Jacob Ostberg, and Anders Bengtsson. “Negotiating Cultural Boundaries: Food, Travel and Consumer Identities.” Consumption, Markets and Culture 13, no. 2 (2010): 133–157.

Barthes, Roland. “Toward a Psychosociology of Contemporary Food Consumption.” In Food and Culture: A Reader, edited by Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik, 23–30. Routledge, 2012.

Bennett, Diane. “Saints and Sweets: Class and Consumption Ritual in Rural Greece.” In The Social Economy of Consumption. Vol. 6. New York: University Press of America, 1989.

Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984 (1979).

DeSoucey, Michaela. “Gastronationalism Food Traditions and Authenticity Politics in the European Union.” American Sociological Review 75, no. 3 (June 1, 2010): 432–455.

Douglas, Mary. "Deciphering a Meal." Deadalus, Winter 10 (1972): 61–81.

Eric Ball. “Greek Food After Mousaka: Cookbooks, ‘Local’ Culture, and the Cretan Diet.” Journal of Modern Greek Studies 21, no. 1 (2003): 1–36.

Galanopoulos, Konstantinos, Konstantinos Karantininis, Konstadinos Mattas, and Christos Karelakis. "Exploring the Relations, Bargaining Forms and Dynamics of the EU Food Supply Chain under the Perspective of the Key Actors: Evidence from Greece and Denmark." Int. J. Food System Dynamics 2, no. 3 (2011): 274-280.

Gefou-Madianou, Dimitra. “Exclusion and Unity, Retsina and Sweet Wine.” In Alcohol, Gender and Culture, edited by Dimitra Gefou-Madianou, 108–136. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Hald, Mette Marie, Jacob Mosekilde, Betina Magnussen, Martin Jensen Søe, Camilla Haarby Hansen, and Morten Fischer Mortensen. "Tales from the barrels: Results from a multi-proxy analysis of a latrine from Renaissance Copenhagen, Denmark." Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 20 (2018): 602-610.

Halkier, Bente, and Lotte Holm. "Food Consumption and Political Agency: on Concerns and Practices among Danish Consumers." International Journal of Consumer Studies 32, no. 6 (2008): 667-674.

Hegnes, Atle Wehn. "Introducing and Practicing PDO and PGI in Norway." Anthropology of Food 7 (2012).

Hermansen, Mark Emil Tholstrup. "Creating Terroir: an Anthropological Perspective on New Nordic Cuisine as an Expression of Nordic Identity." Anthropology of Food 7 (2012).

Herzfeld, Michael. The Poetics of Manhood. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985.

Herzfeld, Michael. "Culinary Stereotypes: The Gustatory Politics of Gastro-Essentialism." In The Handbook of Food and Anthropology, by Jakob A. Klein James L. Watson, 31–47. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Holm, Lotte, Marianne Pipping Ekström, Jukka Gronow, Unni Kjærnes, Thomas Bøker Lund, Johanna Mäkelä, and Mari Niva. "The Modernisation of Nordic Eating. Studying Changes and Stabilities in Eating Patterns." Anthropology of Food 7 (2012).

Jensen, Tenna. "The Consumption of Fats in Denmark 1900-2000. Long Term Changes in the Intake and Quality." Anthropology of Food 7 (2012).

Kahma, Nina, Johanna Mäkelä, Mari Niva, and Thomas Bøker Lund. "Associations between Meal Complexity and Social Context in Four Nordic Countries." Anthropology of Food 10 (2014).

Kjeldsen, Chris, Lise C. Deleuran, and Egon Noe. "The Quality Turn in the Danish Food Scape: New Food Chains Emerging–New Territorial Impacts?." Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica, 63, no. 1 (2013): 19-28.

Kravva, Vasiliki. “The Taste of Belonging: An Ethnographic Approach to the Study of Commensality and Collectivity.” Balkan Border Crossings: First Annual of the Konitsa Summer School (2008): 202.

Luetchford, Peter. "Ethical Consumption: The Moralities and Politics of Food." In The Handbook of Food and Anthropology, by Jakob A. Klein James L. Watson, 387–405. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Mührmann-Lund, J. "Food Policing in Early Modern Danish Towns." Rural Landscapes: Society, Environment, History 3, no.1 (2016):1–13.

Naska, A., and A. Trichopoulou. “Back to the Future: The Mediterranean Diet Paradigm.” Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases 24, no. 3 (2014): 216–19.

Papagaroufali, Eleni. “Uses of Alcohol among Women: Games of Resistance, Power and Pleasure.” In Alcohol, Gender and Culture, edited by Dimitra Gefou-Madianou, 48–70. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. Perfection Learning, 2007.

Rakopoulos, Theodoros. "The Crisis Seen from Below, Within, and Against: from Solidarity Economy to Food Distribution Cooperatives in Greece." Dialectical Anthropology 38, no. 2 (2014): 189-207.

Seremetakis, C. Nadia. The Senses Still. University of Chicago Press, 1996.

Sutton, David E. Remembrance of Repasts: An Anthropology of Food and Memory. Oxford: Berg, 2001.

Urry, John. Consuming Places. Routledge, 2002.

Vlontzos, George and Marie-Noelle Duquenne. “Economic Crisis and Food Selection: The Financial, Social and Spatial Dimension.” Int. J. Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology 10, no. 2 (2014).

West, Harry G. "Artisanal Foods and the Cultural Economy: Perspectives on Craft, Heritage, Authenticity and Reconnection." In The Handbook of Food and Anthropology, by Jakob A. Klein James L. Watson, 406–434. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Yiakoumaki, Vassiliki. “‘Local,’ ‘Ethnic,’ and ‘Rural’ Food: On the Emergence of ‘Cultural Diversity’ in Greece since Its Integration in the European Union.” Journal of Modern Greek Studies 24, no. 2 (2006): 415–445.

Yiakoumaki, Vassiliki. “The Nation as ‘Acquired Taste’: On Greekness, Consumption of Food Heritage, and the Making of the New Europe.” New School for Social Research, 2002.

Study Tour

The study tour will focus on regional differences in producing and consuming food. We will explore how terroir, local identities and economic interests shape the way people think about food, how the sell and buy it, and how they eat it. 

Study Tour Objectives

• You will understand the terroir of two Danish regions and how it works in tandem with other forces in shaping the local food cultures.
• You will gain insight into the factors that affect the production and consumption of food.
• You will improve your skills in tasting and assessing foods.

Jutland

Jutland is the Danish mainland. This is where the majority of conventionally grown produce are made. We will focus on the borderland near Germany as the identity and culture of the area has been shaped by the Danish-German border moving several times over the past centuries. 

Samsø

Samsø is known for producing high-quality sustainable vegetables such as potatoes and carrots. These are staples in traditional Nordic cuisine. Additionally, Samsø has a unique island climate with rare indigenous plants that chefs have recently started to explore. While on study tour, we explore how the terroir of Samsø, as well as the history of the island, inform local practices around food production and consumption. We will meet with manufacturers of produce, sample their goods, and learn about how they are used.

 

Approach to Teaching

Classes are conducted as a combination of lectures, group discussions, and interactive exercises. Active student participation is expected. Class sessions will be complimented by field studies and independent field work. 

Expectations of the Students

Students are expected to show up for class prepared and participate actively. 

Computers and tablets are allowed in class PURELY for note taking purposes. Cases of other uses such as Facebook, emails, or internet surfing will have a negative impact on your participation grade. Cell phones are to be shut off or silenced during class and texting etc. during class will have a negative impact on your participation grade.

Evaluation

Active class participation throughout the course: A=96 / Occasional participation: B=86 / Little or no participation: C=76. Fine-tuning of percentage points may occur, reflecting student performance.

Note that attendance at all classes and field studies is required and expected and is not credited as participation. Failure to attend will have a negative influence on the participation grade, however.

How to Get a Good Grade

• Involve yourself! Allow yourself the luxury of taking a genuine interest in the course, i.e. in ‘food’. It may not be your core field or interest, but why not join the many students who have been surprised at how interesting it actually is to suddenly understand the history and nutrition of the food we consume.
• Get organized! Enter all due dates in a calendar and set aside time to work on assignments and prepare for class. 
• Prepare for class! Every class! 
• Take good notes! You will be graded on your analytical thinking. 
• Participate! Sharing your thoughts and ideas in class is not just important for the participation grade, it is one of the best tools for developing your analytical skills.

Academic Regulations  

Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on: 

• Course Enrollment and Grading  
• Academic Expectations and Honor Code 

 

DIS - Study Abroad in Scandinavia - www.DISabroad.org