NUTR 0330 1 Spring 2023

NUTR 0330: Anthropology of Food and Nutrition - Spring 2023

Class Meetings: Mon. 3:15 to 6:05, Remote

Instructor: Ellen Messer, Ph.D. Ellen Messer, Ph.D. [email protected]
Instructor Office Hours: Wed. 1:30-3:30 or by appt.

Semester Hour Units: 3

Prerequisites: Some social science background

Course Description:

This course offers an advanced introduction to anthropological theory and methods designed for food and
nutrition science and policy graduate students who want to understand agriculture, food, and nutrition
through a biocultural and sociocultural lens. It offers training in anthropological food-systems research
and advocacy, with special emphasis on the biological and cultural evolution of human diets and food
systems and the many ways traditional through modern cultures construct human ecological, social, and
economic relationships through food. The course overall encourages critical thinking and scientific
assessment of anthropology's evidence base, analytical tools, logic, and meaning-making, in the context
of contributions to multi-disciplinary research and policy teams. By the end of this course, students will
understand what roles anthropology plays in nutrition research, policy, and practice, and how key
concepts and evidence can inform a diversity of nutrition interests and career paths.
Weekly modules, organized into topical readings and discussions, demonstrate the anthropology’s value
added to cutting-edge food-related issues, including the origins of plant-based and sustainable diets (is
meat-eating essential? why did agriculture replace foraging?), food as medicine (food classifications
connecting nutrition and health), food and social justice (who owns the rainforest? What are different
cultural variations on the human right to food?), and indigenous and small-farmer food activism as
dimensions of food sovereignty (claims and community-organizing at multiple political levels).
Ethnographic case studies, in addition, cover contending, cross-cultural perspectives on organic versus
genetically engineered food and agriculture, traditional and local versus globalized and liberalized diets,
demographic questions (how many people can the earth support--depends on what people are eating and
acceptable standards of living), and obesity (cultural standards of acceptable weight). Policy and practice
exercises ponder culturally appropriate language and interventions to improve women’s and children’s
nutrition, mitigate food crises, and food strategies designed to share resources more equitably.
Crosscutting themes integrated across all modules consider diversity and inclusion, sustainability, and
connections between local and global food systems.

Instructor. Professor Messer brings to this course her academic bio-cultural training in ecological
anthropology (ethnobotany), anthropological approaches to religion, and nutrition, and her life-long
advocacy focused on ending hunger and advancing human rights.

Her long-term research interests concern the evolution and diversification of plant-based diets and dietary
transformations associated with global food trade and industrial food processing. Her present and
continuing research examines the ideas and impacts of U.S. NGOs working against hunger (1970s
through the present) and the intersections of climate, political, and food-price volatilities that strengthen
NUTR 0330 2 Spring 2023

connections between conflict and hunger. She has published past research on cultural dimensions of agro-
biotechnology crops, and in 2022 is moving into additional Tufts research on novel foods.

Her policy research advances biocultural approaches to human foodways and rights-based approaches to
food security and nutrition policies, with special attention to breaking the links between food security and
violent conflict.

Course Objectives:
1. Appreciate anthropology as a discipline, whose concepts and methods can be applied to food and
nutrition issues: its holistic questions, multiple sub-disciplinary and thematic modes of inquiry,
approaches, and evidence base; quantitative and qualitative research tools and ethical concerns; and
how anthropology differs from and complements other disciplinary modes of inquiry.
2. Recognize the significance of archaeological, primate and human evolution, historic, ethnographic,
and linguistic evidence for contemporary biocultural perspectives on human evolution and food and
nutrition studies.
3. Master the basic terms of anthropological analysis and discourse and be able to reference them
effectively in professional work on topics of professional interest.
4. Know how to access (bibliographies, data bases) and navigate (key words) the anthropological
literature in general, and especially relevant to food and nutrition research and policy questions.
5. Identify anthropology's U.S. and international institutional structures, and where to access
anthropology's professional networks working on nutrition issues.
6. Understand qualitative and quantitative methods used by anthropologists, their standards of data
collection, analysis, interpretation, and ethical concerns, as these relate to theory, policy, and practice.
7. Be able to incorporate anthropology literature into a research proposal or write-up on a focused food
and nutrition question.
8. Use anthropology to respond to structural violence.

Deliverables Assignments and activities incorporate background readings, related discussions, and short
writing assignments, plus an anthropological literature review on a focused food and nutrition project
relevant to each student’s particular interests.
Weekly synchronous 3-hour live classroom sessions feature an introductory overview lecture, student-
facilitated discussion of readings, and professor-moderated debate or exercise illustrating that week's
themes. Throughout the term, participants keep a written reading log (critical response diary), to be
handed in week 3 and 6. In lieu of a mid-term exam, there are two 2-page graded written essay
assignments, due weeks 4 and 8. The term-long food-and nutrition proposal-writing project will explore
anthropological literature on a focused food and nutrition question, with an outline due week 9, and a
short literature review and annotated bibliography due week 12. A final discussion will explore the value-
added of anthropology to food and nutrition studies, with reference to historical literature reviews and
earlier synthesizing volumes in nutritional anthropology.

Summary of Assignments and Grading:

Assignment(s) Grading Weight

NUTR 0330 3 Spring 2023

(1) Weekly reading logs (graded pass/fail), with critical responses to 20%
required and outside readings, plus responsibility for leading class
discussions of readings on a rotating basis. Write-up’s due Wk 3, 6, 11

(2) Weeks 4 and 8: graded two-page critical responses to questions 20%

summarizing major ideas from readings

(3) Weeks 5, 9, and 12: topic and 100 word summary, outline, then 40%
final version of a concise anthropological literature review, including
annotated bibliography, on a focused food and nutrition project-
proposal question

(4) Final 3 pp discussion (Wk13) explores anthropology’s value-added 20%

Instructions for Submission of Assignments and Exams: Assignments will be submitted on

CANVAS by 9 PM the evening prior to the class session when particular assignment is due.
Students who are unable to complete an assignment on time for any reason should notify the
instructor by email with a brief explanation for why the extension is needed.

Assessment and Grading: A passing grade in the course is B- or better. Course grades will be
based on the below (subject to revision during the course):
A > 94% A- 90 - <94%

B+ 87 - <90% B 84 - <87% B- 80 - <84%

Penalties for late or incomplete assignments: Grade reductions for assignments more than
three days late (half grade), and unexcused absences.

Course Texts and Materials

Each week incorporates key texts for critical discussion defining key terms, illuminating focal concepts,
demonstrating methods and applications.
Required texts are:
Monaghan, John and Peter Just (2000) Social and Cultural Anthropology. A Very Short Introduction.
Oxford (on-line: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/tufts-ebooks/detail.action?docID=232868 )

Wrangham, Richard R. (2009) Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human. NY: Basic Books

DuFour, Darna L., A.H. Goodman, and G.H. Pelto (2013) Nutritional Anthropology. Biocultural
Perspectives on Food & Nutrition. 2nd Ed. Oxford
A simple, optional background reading on biocultural approaches is:
Anderson, Eugene N. (2005) Everyone Eats: Understanding Food and Culture. New York University
Press. (outlines biocultural dimensions of human evolution and food systems)
All reserve readings are available on Hirsch Library e-reserves, and most are available on CANVAS,
which is where students will submit weekly assignments.
 NUTR 0330 4 Spring 2023

Academic Conduct: Each student is responsible for upholding the highest standards of academic
integrity, as specified in the Friedman School’s Policies and Procedures Handbook and Tufts University
policies (http://students.tufts.edu/student-affairs/student-life-policies/academic-integrity-policy). It is the
responsibility of each student to understand and comply with these standards, as violations will be
sanctioned by penalties ranging from failure on an assignment and the course to dismissal from the
school.

Diversity Statement: We believe that the diversity of student experiences and perspectives is essential to
the deepening of knowledge in this course. We consider it part of our responsibility as instructors to
address the learning needs of all of the students in this course. We will present materials that are
respectful of diversity: race, color, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, religious beliefs, political preference,
sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, citizenship, language, or national origin among
other personal characteristics.

Accommodation of Disabilities: Tufts University is committed to providing equal access and support to
all students through the provision of reasonable accommodations so that each student may access their
curricula and achieve their personal and academic potential. If you have a disability that requires
reasonable accommodations please contact the Friedman School Assistant Dean of Student Affairs at
617-636-6719 to make arrangements for determination of appropriate accommodations. Please be aware
that accommodations cannot be enacted retroactively, making timeliness a critical aspect for their
provision.

Course Topics and Assignment Schedule at a Glance

Class DATE TOPIC ASSIGNMENTS & ACTIVITIES

1 Jan. 23 Introduction Introduction to anthropology, its

subfields, and methods.

Class exercises: Introductions;

anthropology data bases; key
controversy: universals vs. cultural
relativism

Discussion: Encountering and

countering anthropology’s racist
legacy

2 Jan 30 Biocultural Evolution of Readings (logs)

Humans and their Food Class exercises:
Environments: evidence Debate 1: Is meat-eating essential to
from Biological and Physical human evolution and well-being? What
Anthropology is the evidence?
Debate 2: Resolved: race should be
abolished as an analytical concept

3 Feb.6 Sociocultural Origins and Readings (logs)

Evolution of human diets: Class exercise: Local mapping and
evidence from Archaeology calendar round
 NUTR 0330 5 Spring 2023

on foraging and transitions Discussions: Why agriculture? Why

to agriculture forage?
Discussion: Contending and
contentious narratives. Whose
interpretation prevails?

4 Feb. 13 Community based diets and 2-page critical response due

local food systems: evidence,
tools, and concepts from Class exercises: Ethnography: Mapping
social and cultural kinship, resources, time allocation.
ethnographic studies
Ethical discussion: the challenges of
working in colonial or post-colonial
contexts.

5 Feb. 23 Gendered and Cultural Lit Review topic & brief summary due
Value-Based Approaches to Readings (logs)
Child Nutrition (food, health Class exercise: Ethnography:
and care): evidence from Characterizing and integrating
economic, political, political- substantivist, formalist, or other
economic anthropology economic rationales into analysis

Discussion: Gendered and Cultural-

Value Based Approaches to Child
Nutrition (food, health, and care) (1)

6 Feb. 27 Ecologies: cultural, human, Readings (logs)

political, spiritual: Class exercise: Ethnography: Mapping
Conceptual and cognitive and operational food and
ethnographic studies of nutrition environments (tomatoes,
water and food potatoes)

Discussion: Food Sovereignty from

multiple ethnic perspectives

7 Mar. 6 Linguistics: cognitive, Readings (logs)

semiotic, and interpretative Class exercises: Ethnography: ethnic
approaches; language and cuisines and culinary language, identity,
cultural identity Food & ritual.

Discussion: Indigenous US Foodways

and Black Food Matters

8 Mar. 13 Anthropology of food and 2-page critical response due

nutrition: historical overview Class exercise: Working with key
through current research, words, bibliographies, and data bases
policy, and practice
Discussion: Inclusion and Diversity in
Professional Anthropology
 NUTR 0330 6 Spring 2023

BREAK
9 Mar. 27 Famine, Food Systems, and Lit. Review outline, with subtopics, key
Food Crises words, and preliminary references due

Child survival, demography, Class discussion: literature reviews

and gender Ethical discussion: critical
anthropology

10 Apr. 3 Food classification, Readings (logs)

Biocultural Analyses of Anti-
Nutritional Factors in Foods. Class exercise: Food classification:
and Foods as Medicines genetic-engineering, branding, labeling

Discussion: Genetic Engineering,

Inclusion, & Food Sovereignty: Film
& Text Discussion on South Central
Los Angeles Community Farm

11 Apr.10 Dietary structure, nutritional Readings (logs)

content, and socioeconomic
and cultural change Biological and Cultural Food
traceability (exercise)

Book Review: Black Food Matters

Film Discussion: “Soul Food Junkies”

12 Apr. 21 Integrating Diversity & Lit. Review Due

Inclusion into Anthropology
of Food & Nutrition’s studies Sharing results of lit. review projects
of Child Survival, Gender,
and Diet Discussions: Value added of Diversity
& Inclusive Perspectives on Food,
Health, and Care.

13 Apr. 24 Summary and Conclusions: Discussion: anthropology’s added

anthropology’s added value value to nutrition’s inclusive lens
to nutrition’s inclusive lens
Take home final exam

This schedule is subject to modification at the instructor’s discretion.

Detailed Description of Course Topics, Assignment Schedule, and the Learning Objectives for Each
Class Session: Class 1: Introduction

Learning Objectives:
• Describe anthropology as a holistic discipline, and situate anthropology of food and nutrition within it.
• Four subfields
NUTR 0330 7 Spring 2023

• Theoretical, Applied, Policy-Engaged, Advocacy, and Public Anthropology

• Cross-cutting thematic interest groups (agriculture, health, environment, food and nutrition,
human rights, religion, practice)
• Anthropology ofs food and nutrition
• Quantitative and qualitative methods, ethics
• Ethnography, biocultural anthropology, and human classification
• Professional associations, literatures, and data bases

Key Controversies & Discussion Questions:

(1) By what criteria is anthropology a science or/and humanities? What kinds of frameworks, terms of
analysis, standards of evidence and interpretation are used to construct respective problems and
solutions?
(2) In what senses are anthropological studies theoretical or applied, and how do the two relate to
policy, advocacy, and “public” anthropology studies? Consider, e.g., “Development” as an
anthropological professional field and intellectual problem.
(3) How does anthropological research manage advocacy and ethics? In studies of the environment,
human rights, reproduction, infant feeding -- what should be the limits on activism or inaction? If
the researcher is part of the action, can she be objective?
(4) How do ideas surrounding universals vs. cultural relativism relate to human classification,
behaviors, language, biocultural evolution?

Exercise: working with key words, bibliographies, and data bases

Discussion: Encountering and countering anthropology’s racist legacy

Required Readings:
Monaghan, John and Peter Just (2000) Social and Cultural Anthropology. A Very Short
Introduction. Oxford (provides short introduction to the field in 146 very small pages). Read
chapter 1, and as much of the rest as you have time.

Tumilowicz, A., L.M. Nefeld, and G. Pelto (2015) Using Ethnography in Implementation
Research to Improve Nutrition Interventions in Populations. Maternal and Child Nutrition 11,
Suppl. 3, pp.55-72 Access at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mcn.12246/full

Nutritional Anthropology (NA), Part I. “A Taste of Nutritional Anthropology”, pp.1-26

Blog: Kehoe, Alice (2020, Nov.5) “Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Me.” Allegra
Access at: https://allegralaboratory.net/ruth-bader-ginsburg-and-me/

Optional Readings:
Bernard, H. Russell (2011) Research Methods in Anthropology. 5th ed. Qualitative and
Quantitative Approaches. Walnut Creek: Alta Mira Press, pp.1-22 ("Anthropology and the
Social Sciences") and, as you have time, pp. 82-112, ("Research Design: Experiments and
Experimental Thinking")

Escobar, Arturo (1991) Anthropology and the Development Encounter: The Making and
Marketing of Development Anthropology. American Ethnologist 18(4): 658-682

Kanter, R., Gittelsohn, J. (2020) Measuring Food Culture: a Tool for Public Health
Practice. Curr Obes Rep 9, 480–492 (2020). https://doi-
org.ezproxy.library.tufts.edu/10.1007/s13679-020-00414-w
NUTR 0330 8 Spring 2023

Key words, concepts & definitions: universals vs. cultural relativism

Class 2: Biological and Physical Anthropology and Biocultural Evolution

Learning Objectives:
Use anthropology’s concepts and tools to assess:
• Biocultural evolution of humans in relation to diet: Foraging time, energy expenditure, nutrient
contents and budgets, diet palatability and digestibility.
• Optimal growth and adaptation: Andean, Guatemalan, Asian food-systems examples; seasonal and
periodic stressors; biocultural perspectives on the "small but healthy hypothesis"
• Gender dimorphism: adaptation or adjustment to circumstances?
• Disease, diet, and evolution of human populations in ecosystems
• Undernutrition and overnutrition, obesity and malnutrition; local concepts of child growth &
development; energy & nutrient intakes in relation to function

Discussion questions:
(1) Evolution of human diet: What background do primate and physical anthropology studies provide
for our understandings of evolution of human diet?
(2) Growth, size, adaptation, and function: Distinguish between adaptation and adjustment to
nutritional stress, and qualify growth and size as indicators of human well-being.
(3) What biological, cultural, and political factors influence the "small but healthy" hypothesis, in
what context (s), and what evidence supports it? How has this idea been used for policy purposes?
(4) What are some ethical dilemmas that physical and biological anthropologists confront in studying
human ecology in politically, economically, and environmentally stressed environments, and how
have they responded?

Debate 1: Is meat-eating essential to human evolution and well-being?

Debate 2: Resolved: race is a socially constructed, not biological concept.

Required Readings:
Wrangham, R. (2009) Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human. NY: Basic Books (read
preface and pp.1-36 on background to human evolution, and skim other chapters for interest) (Note:
Gibbons, A. “Food for Thought”, NA,pp. 47-50 offers a science journalist’s response to “cooking and
human evolution” arguments. )

Eaton, S.B. and M. Konner (1985) Paleolithic Nutrition: A Consideration of Its Nature and Current
Implications. NA, pp.51-59

Pontzer, H., B.M. Wood, D.A. Raichlin (2018) Hunter-gatherers as Models in Public Health. Obesity
Reviews 19,S1:24-35. Access at:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/obr.12785?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Henry, A.G., A.S. Brooks, and D.R. Piperno (2014) Plant foods and the dietary ecology of early
modern humans," Journal of Human Evolution 69: 44-
54 https://anthropology.columbian.gwu.edu/sites/anthropology.columbian.gwu.edu/files/downloads/
Henry_Brooks%202014.pdf Check additional references by Brooks on "raw foods" diets

Martorell, R., H.L. Delgado V. Valverde, and R.E. Klein (1989) Body Size, Adaptation, and Function.
Human Organization 48(1):15-20. NA pp.321-326i
NUTR 0330 9 Spring 2023

Dufour, Darna and Barbara Piperata (2018) Reflections on Nutrition in Biological Anthropology. Am.
J. Phys. Anthrop. 165:855-864 Access at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ajpa.23370

Goodman, Alan (2013) Presidential Address. Bringing Culture into Human Biology and Biology
Back into Anthropology. Am. Anthropologist 115(3):359-373. PDF

Explore the website: https://www.understandingrace.org/HumanVariation which contains the

interactive museum exhibit launched by the Am. Anthrop. Assn.

Optional readings:
Am. Anthrop. Assn. (2011) Race and Human Variation: Why are we so different? Take a virtual tour
of this exhibit at: http://www.understandingrace.org/about/virtour.html.

Key words, concepts & definitions: adaptation; small but healthy hypothesis

Class 3: Archaeology & Prehistory: Human agricultural origins and sociocultural evolution
Learning Objectives :
• Characterize relationships of people to land (resources)
• Track catchment areas and trade routes
• Assess plant, animal, mineral, microbial, and water resources
• Describe social stratification based on differential access to resources and outcomes

Key concepts & terms of analysis:

Foraging
Seasonality and scheduling
Optimal foraging (theory): time, energy, and specific nutrient budgets
Systems theory and the origins of agriculture
Social stratification relative to population growth
Hydraulic agriculture, hydraulic theory of state formation
Ethnographic analogy
Feasting (vs.) fasting
Activity areas

Discussion Questions:
(1) Questions and evidence regarding evolution of human diet:
Were “man the hunter” and “woman the gatherer”, as Marshall Sahlins opines, “The
Original Affluent Society”? What do current studies of modern hunter-gatherers or
foraging alongside agriculture and other occupations, have to teach us about human
origins, and use of the environment? How do tools of archaeological analysis provide
relevant insights into analysis of modern land-use systems and diets? Paleolithic diet?
Were diets healthy? Predominantly plant or animal? Medicinal foods? What is the
evidence on seasonality and scheduling, and how does it provide reference point for
evolution of human diet and food systems (including preferences for sweet, salty, or fat)?
(2) Agricultural and dietary transformations, their causes and consequences: What motivates
agricultural transitions? Do agricultural transitions deliver nutritional benefits; if so for
whom? What is the evidence or what evidence is required?
(3) Evolution of civilization: what do settlement patterns indicate about population growth,
stratification, and distribution, plant and animal domestication, and water management in
the ancient world? (see Jacobsen and Adams)
(4) What are the uses and logical limits of ethnographic analogy?
NUTR 0330 10 Spring 2023

Debate 1: Transitions from foraging to agricultural (farming and herding) modes of subsistence
are advantageous: from whose perspectives? What is the evidence?
Discussion: Contending and contentious narratives. Whose interpretation prevails?
Ethnographic exercise: Local mapping and calendar-round

Required Readings:

Lee, R. Lee, R. What Hunters Do for a Living, or, How to Make out on Scarce Resources (NA
37-46)
“Agriculture: The Great Revolution” (?) NA 60-62
Cohen, Mark N. “Origins of Agriculture” NA 63-67
Goodman, A.H. and G.J. Armelagos “Disease and Death at Dr. Dickson’s Mounds” NA 68-71
Katz, S.H. and M.M. Voigt, “Bread and Beer: The Early Use of Cereals in the Human Diet” NA
72-81 OR
Katz, Sol et al. (1974) "Traditional Maize Processing Techniques in the New World: Traditional
alkali processing enhances the nutritional quality of maize." Science 184 : 765-73

Optional Readings: Non-required readings in NA Unit I and II.

Middleton, Guy D. (2018) Bang or Whimper? The evidence for collapse of human civilizations
at the start of the recently defined Meghalayan Age is equivocal. Science 361, 6408:1204-1205
Access at: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6408/1204

Codding, B. and K. Kramer, eds. (2016) Why Forage? Hunters and Gatherers in the 21st
Century. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. Read the Introduction (pp.1-14) and
one or more of the ethnographic case studies (chapter 3 by Richard Lee, and ch. 4 by R.
Hitchcock and M. Sapignoli, update perspectives on the San, which is a case study in your
textbook.)

Key words, concepts & definitions (incorporated into terms of analysis, above)

Class 4: Social and cultural ethnographic studies: concepts & tools

Learning Objectives: Review main categories of ethnographic research
• Historic background studies
• Classic ethnographies with community focus
• British social anthropology
• French cultural studies
• US: Native Americans, South Pacific, Latin American, Asian, and African community
ethnographies
• Multi-level ethnographies, communities in state and global contexts
• Studying "up": ethnographies of institutions, bureaucracies, businesses

Key concepts& terms of analysis:

Ethnocentrism
Universals vs. cultural particulars ("cultural relativism")
Cosmology, world view, ethos, behaviors
Communities: closed, corporate, open to state and global influences
Coping strategies

Discussion Issues:
NUTR 0330 11 Spring 2023

(1) Consider value of key terms of ethnographic analysis and human classification and their
significance for multi-disciplinary nutritional studies:
a. kinship (consanguineal, affinal), genealogy (lineages), marriage rules; age,
gender
b. class, race, and ethnicities; political-geographic-ethnic-religious (PGER)
identities (special case: Horizontal Inequalities and Conflict (Frances Stewart)
c. “closed corporate communities” with peasantries (special case: Peasant Wars of
the Twentieth Century (Eric Wolf 1969);
d. evolution of the state and locational analysis (on food, see Gonzalez 2014)
(2) Audrey Richards (1939): review her terms of analysis in its colonial context. Which
aspects are relevant to historical and cross-cultural comparison? What are some
limitations? How valid is Moore & Vaughn’s Cutting Down Trees critique, that
Richards was a tool of colonial powers, inattentive to the changing cultural-political
context, and intentionally or unintentionally misleading in her emphasis on “absent
males” and shifting cultivation as related causes of underproduction and hunger?
(3) If ethnographic results are community-specific, and often use opportunistic samples,
what are contributions and limits on generalizability of ethnographic findings?
(4) Although anthropologists often do long-term studies, they contribute rapid ethnographic
methods, especially useful for nutritional studies. What are they, how rapid, and in what
contexts are they advantageous?
Kinship and Time Mapping Exercises
Ethical discussion: Anthropologists and related disciplines practice in colonial and post-colonial
political contexts. What are the ethical challenges, and how are they relevant to nutrition
science and policy?

Required Readings:
Review “food” ethnographic discussions by Monaghan and Just (from Week 1)
Richards, Audrey (1939) Land, Labour, and Diet in Northern Rhodesia: An Economic Study of the
Bemba Tribe. London: G. Routledge (This is the classic food ethnography. Read final chapter, pp.381-
405 (on-line) and as much of the rest as you have time and interest. We will discuss framework, the
conclusions, and more recent critiques. Access at:
http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/ehrafe/citation.do?method=citation&forward=browseAuthorsFullConte
xt&id=fq05-002
Moore, H. and M. Vaughn. (1987) Cutting Down Trees: Women, Nutrition, and Agricultural Change in
Northern Province of Zambia, 1920-1986. African Affairs 86, 345: 523-540 (If you are interested, you
can read a more complete account in Cutting Down Trees: Gender, Nutrition, and Agricultural Change in
a Northern Province of Zambia, 1890-1990. Heinemann)
Logan, Amanda (2020) The Scarcity Slot. Excavating Histories of Food Security in Ghana. University of
California Press. Ch.5, pp.129-157 (the-scarcity-slot-6-consuming-a-remotely-global-modernity-in-
recent-ti.pdf) Download pdf at: https://www.luminosoa.org/site/chapters/m/10.1525/luminos.98.f/
Dufour, Darna et al. (1997) Living on the Edge: Dietary Strategies of Economically Impoverished
Women in Cali, Colombia. Am. J. Physical Anthrop.102:5-15
Peña, Devon P., Luz Calvo, Pancho McFarland, and Gabriel R. Valle, eds. (2019) Mexican Origin Foods,
Foodways, and Social Movements. Decolonial Perspectives. University of Arkansas Press. Provocative
conceptual and case studies critique structural violence and analytic concepts like “food sovereignty”
from Mexican/Latinx Perspectives. Selected chapters.
NUTR 0330 12 Spring 2023

Michelle Cristine Medeiros Jacob, Ivanilda Soares Feitosa, Joana Yasmin Melo de Araujo, Natalia Araújo
do Nascimento Batista, Temóteo Luiz Lima da Silva, Virgínia Williane de Lima Motta & Ulysses Paulino
de Albuquerque(2020) Rapid Ethnonutrition Assessment Method Is Useful to Prototype Dietary
Assessments with a Focus on Local Biodiverse Food Plants, Ecology of Food and
Nutrition, DOI: 10.1080/03670244.2020.1852227

Optional Readings:
Scrimshaw, Susan. Rapid Anthropological Assessment Procedures: Applications to Measurement of
Maternal and Child Morbidity, Mortality, and Health Care. Data Needs for Food Policy in Developing
Countries. New Directions for Household Surveys. J. von Braun and Detlev Puetz, eds. Occasional
Papers, International Food Policy Research Institute, pp. 138-156. Access at:
https://books.google.com/books?id=N4imAyq-
aqEC&pg=PA138&lpg=PA138&dq=%22rap%22+rapid+assessment+procedures+presentation+susan+sc
rimshaw&source=bl&ots=-Be-
Ssfv2x&sig=ACfU3U05t0JjjYdjv152V9M_JfpvLSDTLA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwirvoSB25jgAh
VPzlkKHQCaBqkQ6AEwEHoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22rap%22%20rapid%20assessment%20pro
cedures%20presentation%20susan%20scrimshaw&f=false

Zobrist S, Kalra N, Pelto G, Wittenbrink B, Milani P, Diallo AM, et al. Using cognitive mapping to
understand Senegalese infant and young child feeding decisions. Matern Child Nutr. 2018;14:e12542 A
Focused Ethnographic Study (FES) manual was used to generate a context-specific understanding of the
perceptions of mothers in Northern Senegal about dimensions of food-decision making in relation to 38
local food items; that can subsequently be used to inform a culturally-appropriate nutrition intervention.

First critical review essay due.

Class 5: Economics, politics, and political-economics

Learning Objectives:
• Distinguish substantivist (Polanyi) vs. formalist (Firth, others) economics (debates), and the
cultural relativist critique of both (Gudeman).
• Compare particular vs. universal notions of scarcity, well-being, and abundance, influencing
cross-cultural comparative notions of economic “rationality” (Sahlins, Harris), material
accumulation, and exchange ("gift" and redistributive economic systems) (Mauss, Douglas,
Sahlins)
• Calculate relative well-being and sustainability in terms of material resources, time, money,
and access to information and non-material resources, risk (risk-taking or aversion). The
notion of “limited good” versus “limited goods”. (For week 6, see also Barbara Rose
Johnston, Who Pays the Price?, especially Rappaport article on notions of impact.)
• Compare commodity-based global transformations of food production (Geertz) and
agricultural trade (Mintz)
• Assess locational analysis within political states (C. Smith) as a way to integrate information
at local, national, global scales

Discussion Questions:
(1) How and in what contexts do anthropologists use formal versus substantivist or other
approaches as tools of analysis?
NUTR 0330 13 Spring 2023

(2) Distinguish between agricultural intensification and agricultural involution, and the
motivating circumstances for each (Geertz). How important are good ideas vs. complete
supporting evidence?
(3) What concepts and methods does Mintz use to connect the history of sugar, dietary
transformations, industrial revolution, and world trade? Think of other cases that might
adopt his approach and possible limitation.
(4) Political anthropologists like Carol Smith demonstrate that it is impossible for ethnographers
to interpret the internal workings of communities without reference to larger scale political-
economic structures. In this context, what are evolving roles and contributions of
anthropologists?

Class Exercise: characterize and integrate substantivist, formalist, and other economic
rationales into analysis of a nutrition problem.
Ethical Discussion: Gendered and Cultural-Value Based Approaches to Child Nutrition (food,
health, and care): Practicing humanitarian and nutritional anthropology in Darfur, Sudan: what
are some dilemmas and how do researchers offset them?

Required Readings:
Harris, M. “India’s Sacred Cow” NA pp.134-138 (Optional: Harris, Marvin (1966) The Cultural
Ecology of India’s Sacred Cattle. Current Anthropology 7.1: 51-66 (includes commentaries by
respondents)
Geertz, Clifford (1963) Agricultural Involution: The Processes of Ecological Change in Indonesia.
Berkeley, California: University of California Press (we will discuss, critically, a short excerpt,
define the term “involution” in class, and consider Geertz’s insights on recognizable patterns and
problematic evidence)

McCabe, J.T. , P.W. Leslie, and L. DeLuca, “Adopting Cultivation to Remain Pastoralists…” NA
pp. 94-106
Finnis, “Now It Is an Easy Life …” NA pp. 107-111

Galvin, Kathleen, et al. (2015) Nutritional Status of Maasai Pastoralists Under Change. Hum. Ecol.
Interdisc. J.43,3: 411-424. Access at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4512275/

Himmelgreen, D.A., N. Romero-Daza, and C.A. Noble, “Anthropological Perspectives on the

Global Food Crisis” NA, pp 120-128

Optional Readings:
Young, Helen et al. (2009) Livelihoods, Power, and Choice: The vulnerability of the Northern
Rizaygat, Darfur, Sudan.
http://www.unep.org/conflictsanddisasters/Portals/6/documents/Sudan/Livelihoods_Tfts_Report.pdf
(This very extensive report describes cultural history of pastoralism, livelihoods, and conflict)
Hart, Keith and Chris Hann (2007) A Short History of Economic Anthropology. (paper expanded
into a book summarizes anthropology’s historical contestations with economics, and what
anthropologists contribute to the understandings of socialism, economic development, and
capitalism/globalization) http://thememorybank.co.uk/2007/11/09/a-short-history-of-economic-
anthropology/

Stryker, Rachael and Roberto J. Gonzalez, eds. (2014) Up, down, and sideways: anthropologists
trace the pathways of power NY: Berghahn (Chapters by Gonzalez, Grandia)
NUTR 0330 14 Spring 2023

Wells, Jonathan C. 2016 The Metabolic Ghetto. An Evolutionary Perspective on Nutrition Power
Relations and Chronic Disease. Cambridge University Press.

Class 6: Ecologies: cultural, human, political, spiritual

Learning Objectives:
• Reconcile cultural materialism (review M. Harris, Wk. 5 reading) vs. ideational
approaches (including “the new ethnography” which privileges linguistics, see Wk 7
readings), and their intersections with history (Geertz, this week and wk 7, C. Smith, Wk 5)
• Distinguish Cultural ecology (Julian Steward): cultural core and periphery and their
intersections from Human ecology: systems theory and methods as an approach to evolution
of human populations in ecosystems, drawing on the ethnographic work of Gregory
Bateson, systems modeling of van Bertalannfy and Jay Forrester, and archaeological
interpretations of Kent V. Flannery (Review Archaeology, wk.3)
• Cognitive vs. operational environments (Rappaport)
• Cybernetics (general systems theory), as applied to ecosystems and cultural systems
• Adaptation, trophic levels, and levels of meaning (Rappaport)
• Maladaptation and the Anthropology of Trouble (Rappaport adds global and policy
perspectives to human ecology)
• Distinguish environmental anthropology, political ecology, spiritual ecology: whereas
Human ecology emphasized self-organizing systems, environmental anthropology and
political ecology add power, politics, and discourse analysis, and move the ecological
anthropology discussion terms of analysis from self-organizing to power dominated
systems.

Discussion Questions:
(1) What are the key similarities and differences between cultural ecology and human ecology?
(consider local populations and human populations in ecosystems as units and levels of
analysis)
(2) Rappaport's initial writings on human ecology reject the notion that individuals or power
motivate and determine ecological processes. What are the strengths and weaknesses of this
position, and of his units of analysis?
(3) Studies of dietary globalization attempt to combine political, economic, and ecological
analyses. From the standpoint of scientific method, how successful are the examples from
the readings (e.g., Leatherman and Goodman)
Discussion: Food Sovereignty from multiple ethnic perspectives

Class Exercise: Mapping Cognitive and Operational Environments

Required Readings:
Rappaport, Roy A. (1993) Distinguished Lecture in Anthropology: The anthropology of trouble. Am.
Anthrop.95(2):295-303
https://search.proquest.com/docview/198127492/fulltextPDF/A004197C5B814F6BPQ/1?accountid=1
4434
Dufour, D. “Insects as Food: A Case Study from the Northwest Amazon” NA pp.157-167
Nieschmann, “When the Turtle Collapses, the World Ends” NA pp.362-366
Dufour and Bender, “Nutrition Transitions” NA pp.372-382
Leatherman & Goodman, “Coca-cola-ization”, NA pp.383-395
NUTR 0330 15 Spring 2023

Dumas SE, Maranga A, Mbullo P, Collins S, Wekesa P, Onono M, Young SL. (2018) "Men Are in
Front at Eating Time, but Not When It Comes to Rearing the Chicken": Unpacking the Gendered
Benefits and Costs of Livestock Ownership in Kenya. Food Nutr Bull. 39(1):3-27. doi:
10.1177/0379572117737428. Epub 2017 Dec 10. PMID: 29226708.

Optional Readings:
Johnston, Barbara Rose, ed. (1994) Who Pays the Price? The Sociocultural Context of Environmental
Crisis. Washington D.C.: Island Press. See especially: Rappaport, Roy A. (1994) Human Environment
and the Notion of Impact, pp.157
Videos: Steve Lansing,
“Ecological Anthropology” (1 minute 20 secs.) Access at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M42I2QgnfU
Bali’s water temple guidance for adaptive, self-organizing water and rice systems (20 mins). Access
at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9ozS8BKUFI

Class 7: Linguistics: cognitive, semiotic, and interpretative approaches, language and cultural
identity
Learning Objectives:
• Reconcile ethnoscience (“the new ethnography”) and cultural materialism
• Navigate ethnographically grounded symbolic analysis and thick descriptions (examples
from Clifford Geertz, Interpretation of Culture; and Stephen Lansing, "The Goddess
and the Computer" and Bray’s study of Malaysian food systems)
• Demonstrate symbolic and ritual uses of food (Mary Douglas, Victor Turner)
• Negotiate communications and reflexivity
• Discourse analysis as cognitive and semiotic science
• Policy and advocacy framing and rhetoric
• Post-modern and reflexive, social and cultural studies of science and
technology, globalization
• Perspectives vs. analysis of the whole (see brief essay by Sahlins)
Discussion Questions
(1) Anthropologists distinguish between social-systems and semiotics as modes of analysis.
What are their differences, and how are they combined in practice?
(2) Anthropologists argue over the discipline's identity as "science" or "humanities". What are
the differences in standards of evidence and analysis, and in what contexts are these
important? How do anthropologists negotiate local, national, and transnational scales of
analysis in these engagements? (Geertz, Appadurai)
(3) What are some differences distinguishing ethnotaxonomy, ethnoecology, and various types
of symbolic or ritual descriptions of biological and ecological domains, and in what
circumstances are they usefully applied?
(4) Geertz, Douglas, Turner, and Rappaport all focus on ritual as a context to understand
cultural categories and relationships. What are significant differences in their approaches,
and how do they relate to anthropological science and interpretation?

Class exercise: Ethnoclassification of fruits and vegetables

Class exercise: Ethnographic observation and analysis of ritual use of foods
Discussion: Ohio Food auctions (from multiple anthropological perspectives)
Discussion: Indigenous US Foodways and Black Food Matters
NUTR 0330 16 Spring 2023

Required Readings:
(Review Monaghan and Just’s introduction to anthropology)
Weismantel, “The Children Cry for Bread … “ NA 172-180
Allison, Japanese mothers and obentos” NA pp.180-190
Heller, C. “Techne vs. Technoscience …” NA pp.191-206
Cohen, J.H. and S. Klemetti (2014) The Social and Economic Production of Greed,
Cooperation, and Taste in an Ohio Food Auction. Economic Anthropology 1,1: 80-87 Access at:
https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sea2.12005
Appadurai, Arjun (1988) How to Make a National Cuisine. Cookbooks in Contemporary India
Comp. St. Soc. Hist. 30 (1): 3-24 OR
(1981) Gastropolitics in Hindu South India. Am. Ethn.. 8:494-511

Garth, Hanna and A.M. Reese, eds. (2020) Black Food Matters. Racial Justice in the Wake of
Food Justice. Introduction, pp. 1-28 University of Minnesota Press.

Yates-Doerr, E. (2014) Obesity Science and Health Translations in Guatemala. Anthropology

Now 6,1:2-14 Access at:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19492901.2013.11728412

Optional Readings:
Heiss, Sarah N. and Benjamin R. Bates (2014) Where’s the Joy in Cooking? Representations of
Taste, Tradition, and Science in the Joy of Cooking. Food and Foodways 22,3:198-216
Geertz, Clifford (1973/1977) The Interpretation of Cultures. NY: Basic Books (excerpts, with
emphasis on Geertz’s concepts and methods of “thick description,” and juxtaposition of semiotic
and systems modes of analysis for understanding culture change)
Douglas, Mary (1966) Purity and Danger. (excerpts, with emphasis on her structural analysis of
food classification in relation to social and cosmological classification, natural symbols, and
implicit meanings)
Turner, Victor (1972) Symbols in African Ritual. Science 179:1100-1105

Class 8: Anthropology of food and nutrition: historical overview through current practice
Learning Objectives:
• Compare nutritional anthropology's biocultural roots in the US and UK with reference to the
following terms:
• Biocultural evolution of human populations and food systems
• Food habits and changing food habits:
• Applied and engaged studies of agriculture, food, and environment systems undergoing
change
• Multi-level analysis and activist responses to famines and food crises (“resilience”)
Discussion Questions
(1) What major streams of anthropology coalesced in nutritional anthropology of the mid-
1970s, and how did these change over the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s?
(2) What are some major distinctions distinguishing US anthropology of food and nutrition
from UK or other schools?
(3) In what situations do nutritionists and agricultural scientists call on anthropologists for
assistance or leadership?
NUTR 0330 17 Spring 2023

(4) Describe and contextualize anthropological framings and methods for nutritionists
(distinguish basic, applied, adaptive research and policy contexts).

Discussion: Inclusion and Diversity in Professional Anthropology (professional profiles)

Exercise: Historical time line of anthropology, food and nutrition, and anthropologists in multi-
disciplinary nutrition contexts. Map and discuss changes that occur over 1970s through 2020s.

Required Readings:
Messer, E. (1984) Anthropological Perspectives on Diet. Ann. Rev. Anthrop. 13: 205-49 (Food
systems perspective. Summarizes food and nutrition dimensions in approaches presented in the first 7
weeks)
Mintz, S. and C. Dubois (2002) The anthropology of food and eating. Ann. Rev. Anthrop. 31: 99-119
(good resource tracing changing trends in nutritional anthropology; a good introduction to this
literature)
Counihan, C. and V. Siniscalchi, eds. (2014). Food Activism. Agency, Democracy, and Economy. NY:
Bloomsbury. Skim the table of contents to appreciate the conceptual and political-geographic
scope. Then read Ch. 2 (Gross, Joan E." Food Activism in Western Oregon", pp.15-30) and Ch.15
(Sinisscalchi, V. "Slow Food Activism between Politics and Economy. pp.225-241)
Am. Anthrop. Assn. (2016) Review of the year in advocacy:
https://www.magnetmail.net/actions/email_web_version.cfm?recipient_id=1674594242&message_id
=13800369&user_id=AAA%5F&group_id=1420948&jobid=36052948
O’Donnell, Thomas, Jonathan Deutsch, Cathy Yungmann, Alexandra Zeitz, Solomon H. Katz. 2015
New Sustainable Market Opportunities for Surplus Food: A Food System-Sensitive Methodology
(FSSM). Food and Nutrition Sciences 6 (10). News release version at:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150826113813.htm
Optional Readings
Panter-Brick, Catherine and James F. Leckman (2013) Editorial Commentary. Resilience in Child
Development. Interconnected pathways to wellbeing. J. Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 54,4: 333-
336.
Pelto, G., P. Pelto, and E. Messer, eds. (1989) Research Methods In Nutritional Anthropology. Tokyo:
UNU Press (skim chapter headings and read those of interest on line)
Optional Readings (see also readings for Wk 9):
ICAF (Berghahn Press) Anthropology of Food and Nutrition series, ed. by Helen Macbeth and
colleagues

Critical Response 2 due.

Class 9: Famine, Food Systems, and Food Crises; Demography of hunger

Learning Objectives:
• Distinguish different theories of famine causation, who uses them, and how they are applied
at multiple social levels.
• Evaluate critical anthropology’s approach to hunger and health

Discussion Questions:
NUTR 0330 18 Spring 2023

(1) How do anthropological conceptualizations of household and community food strategies

compare and contrast with Amartya Sen's frameworks analyzing entitlements and
famines?
(2) The hallmark of anthropology is ethnography; how do anthropologists working at more
inclusive or non-local levels of analysis incorporate anthropological concepts and
methods? How do these efforts make their studies "holistic"?
(3) What different institutional bases do anthropologists use in the US, UK, or other places?
(4) How do studies in this week's readings bridge gaps separating theoretical, applied,
advocacy, and policy-engaged studies? What are value added of multi-level
anthropological studies?

Ethical discussion: critical anthropology

Exercise: Working with bibliographies and data bases

Required Readings:

Colson, Elizabeth (l979) In Good Years and Bad: Food Strategies in Self-Reliant Societies.
Journal of Anthropological Research 35:18-29 (classic study of hierarchy of resort to responses
in food crises)
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy (1997) Demography Without Numbers. IN Anthropological
Demography, D. Kertzer and T. Fricke, eds., pp.201-222. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
OR Scheper-Hughes, Nancy (1995) Sweetness and Death: The Legacy of Hunger in Northeast
Brazil. IN The Color of Hunger. Race and Hunger in National and International Perspective.,
D. L.L. Shields, ed. Pp. 121-144. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc.

De Waal, A. and A. Whiteside. “New Variant Famine … “ , NA pp. 333-337

Panter-Brick, C., et al. “Child Malnutrition and Responses to Famine in the Nigerien Sahel” NA
pp.338-348
Optional Readings:
Messer, E. (2009) Rising Food Prices, Social Mobilizations, and Violence. NAPA Bulletin 32.
Note: this forms part of an edited volume, The Global Food Crisis: New Insights Into an Age-
Old Problem, edited by David Himmelgreen. Anthropologists use combinations of ethnographic
and policy studies to describe and integrate local to global causes of and responses to the 2007-
2008 world food crisis. This special issue of a key "practicing anthropology" publication collects
studies by anthropologists working at multiple levels.

Class 10: Biocultural Analyses of Anti-Nutritional Factors in Foods and Foods as Medicines
NUTR 0330 19 Spring 2023

Learning Objectives:
• Distinguish cultural food preferences relative to biological factors in food habits (e.g.,
dairy, legumes)
• Describe the cultural dimensions of a food and medicine continuum, as conceptualized
in various non-Western health systems, and also how patients and practitioners negotiate
and combine different ideas of health, healing, and the body in or out of balance.
• Evaluate both sides and the middle in arguments over safety and nutritional value of
genetically engineered crops and foods.
Discussion Questions:
(1) Compare the methods used in Young et al.’s and Dufour’s very different studies. How do
they compare and contrast with methods used in other research covered so far in this
course, and expand the range of interdisciplinary methods with which you are familiar?
(2) How did milk acquire nutritional pride of place in the US diet? How does the researcher’s
analysis of human biological variation and cultural-political narratives advance
strategies for re-thinking the role of milk for healthy diets?
(3) “Ethno-pharmacology is a well-respected subfield of ethnobiology and economic botany.
With reference to earlier readings and discussions, how might you add additional
questions and layers of interpretation to Etkin’s presentation of issues and materials?
(4) Stone, in his 2002 article, rails against the hyperbole on both sides of the GMO argument.
How have GMO terms and evidence changed?
Discussion: Genetic Engineering, Inclusion, & Food Sovereignty, including film discussion
of South Central Los Angeles Community Farm
Class Exercise: GMO policies: classifications, labeling, and branding

Required Readings:

Young, Sera et al. “Why on Earth? Evaluating the hypotheses about the physiological functions of
human geophagy” NA pp.139-156 (Note: this is an excellent guide to lit review)

Dufour, D. “A Closer Look at the Nutritional Implications of Bitter Cassava Use” NA pp.207-214

Wiley, A.S. “Drink Milk for Fitness” … NA pp.218-230

Etkin, N. “Spices: the Pharmacology of the Exotic” NA pp.259-273

Grivetti, “Chocolate”, NA pp.287-292

Blum, L.S. et al. “Coping with a Nutrient Deficiency … Vitamin A … ” NA , pp.273-286.

Stone, G. (2020): watch his “Glenn Stone and GMOs” 4 min. video at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vta5fcTL3NM&feature=emb_title which summarizes three
visions of rice and GMO golden rice’s violations or ignorance of cultural senses of “place.” His
lifelong work also provides life long perspectives on agricultural “de-skilling” and ecological impacts
of new technologies are multiple scales. Then read:

Stone, G. 2002 Both Sides Now. Fallacies in the Genetic-Modification Wars, implications for
Developing Countries, and Anthropological Perspectives. Current Anthropology 43:611-630 (access
all Glenn Stone’s publications at: https://anthropology.wustl.edu/people/glenn-davis-stone )
NUTR 0330 20 Spring 2023

Kudlu, Chithprabha and Glenn D. Stone (2013) The Trials of Genetically Modified Food. Bt eggplant
and Ayurvedic medicine in India. Food, Culture, and Society. 16,1:21-42
http://www.academia.edu/2776022/The_Trials_of_Genetically_Modified_Food_Bt_Eggplant_and_A
yurvedic_Medicine_in_India

Stone, G.D. and D. Glover (2016) Disembedding Grain: Golden Rice, the Green Revolution, and
Heirloom Grains in the Philippines. Agr. Hum. Values https://anthropology.wustl.edu/people/glenn-
davis-stone

Optional Readings
Stone, Glenn Davis (selected readings). Stone, based at Washington University, St. Louis (close by
Monsanto), provides critical readings on advocacy for and against GMO adoptions.
https://anthropology.wustl.edu/people/glenn-davis-stone

Stone, G.D., D. Glover, and S. Kim 2020 Golden Rice and technology adoption theory. Technology in
Society 60:101227 (with D. Glover and S. Kim). [pdf]

K.R. Kranthi and Glenn D. Stone (2020) Long-term impacts of Bt cotton in India. https://cpb-us-
w2.wpmucdn.com/sites.wustl.edu/dist/4/945/files/2020/06/kranthi_stone_2020_nature_plants_0.pdf
Discuss whether on the basis of what evidence you accept the conclusions of his jointly-authored
“Perspectives” contribution to Nature Plants (2020): “It now appears that Bt cotton’s primary impact
on Indian agriculture will be its role in this rising capital-intensiveness rather than any enduring
agronomic benefits.” (p.195)

Pena, D. et al., Eds. (2018) Mexican Origin Foods, Foodways, and Social Movements. University of
Arkansas Press. (selected essays) and associated film on South Central Farm/Community Garden (Los
Angeles) Access at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs-3f678vys (24 mins). Update Oct 2020:
“Breaking Through the Concrete” at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqCdNCH2ekc and brief
illustrated summary at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0WBK31jVGY

Class 11: Dietary Structure, nutritional content, and change

Learning Objectives:
• Elicit cross cultural notions of "good" or "satisfying" foods, food security, satiety versus
dearth, healthy eating, body size, nutrition-related illness and its management
• Map sociocultural and material-physical traceability of foods
• Construct cross-cultural classifications of and preferences for organic and natural foods
Discussion Questions:
(1) What do anthropological methods contribute to studies of food preferences, dietary
construction, and food traceability?
(2) How do Watson's conceptualization of fast foods and circulation of GM soy in world
food systems support or downplay globalization as assault on food sovereignty, or right
to food? (first define these terms)
(3) A recent issue of Food and Foodways (see Laudan 2011) argues that social scientists
should be studying cultural dimensions of food traceability. How can such studies meet
criteria of scientific rigor and policy relevance?
(4) Describe sociocultural parameters of local vs. organic foods. Whose uses them, for what
purposes? Where do farm-to-fork alternative distribution channels fit into this picture?
Book Review: Black Food Matters;
Film Discussion: “Soul Food Junkies”
NUTR 0330 21 Spring 2023

Class exercise: Biological and Cultural Dimensions of Food Traceability: Campus sustainable
food projects

Required Readings:
Mead, Margaret (1943) The Problem of Changing Food Habits. Washington, D.C.: Bulletin 108, U.S.
National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences (classic, multiple-entendred US policy
work ca. World War II) http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=9566&page=20

Garth and Reese, Eds. (2020) Black Food Matters. (remaining chapters)

Hurt, Byron (2013) "Soul Food Junkies" (Film: PBS Independent Lens)

Pelto and Pelto, “Diet and Delocalization…” NA pp.353-361

Dufour, D.L. and R. L. Bender “Nutrition Transitions: A View from Anthropology” NA pp.372-382

Errington, F. et al. (2012) Instant noodles an anti-friction device. Am. Anthrop. 114:19-31.

Barlett, P. F. (2011), Campus Sustainable Food Projects: Critique and Engagement. American
Anthropologist, 113: 101–115. https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1548-
1433.2010.01309.x

Laudan, Rachel (2011): Afterword, Food and Foodways: Explorations in the History and Culture of
Human Nourishment, Food and Foodways 19:1-2, 160-168

Collinson, Paul & Helen Macbeth, eds. (2014) Food in Zones of Conflict. Cross-Disciplinary
Perspectives. NY: Berghahn Books. Several chapters consider dietary transitions associated with war.
Read chapters (1) by Shepler, on Sierra Leone (27-38)
https://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cbibliographic_details%7C2816
273#page/45/mode/1/chapter/bibliographic_entity%7Cdocument%7C2816275 and (4) by Kent, on Sri
Lanka (65-75).
https://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cbibliographic_details%7C2816
273#page/82/mode/1/chapter/bibliographic_entity|document|2816278
https://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cbibliographic_details%7C2816
273

Optional Readings:
Mintz, S. (1979) “Time, sugar and sweetness,” Marxist Perspectives 2 (4): 56-73.

Pelto, Pelto, and Messer (1989) Research Methods in Nutritional Anthropology. (Judith Goode and
colleagues' anthropological methods of dietary structure and content for nutritionists, and E. Messer's
Determinants of Food Intake)

Wilk, Richard (1999) "Real Belizean Food": Building Local Identity in the Transnational Caribbean.
American Anthropologist 101,2: 244-255

Bertran, M. ed. (2006) Antropologia y Nutricion. Mexico City, Mexico: UAM (Several of these
chapters on changing time, space, and person dimensions of food will be summarized for class
discussion, for those who do not read Spanish.)
NUTR 0330 22 Spring 2023

Macbeth, Helen, ed. (1997) Food Preferences and Taste: Continuities and Change. Oxford: Berghahn
Books.

Watson, James L. (1998; 2nd ed. 2006) Golden Arches East. McDonald’s in East Asia. Stanford
University Press (read introduction and conclusion, and one other essay)

Smith, Chery F. (selection of readings on diets of poverty in urban Minneapolis communities.

Demonstrates anthropologist's use of qualitative methods)

Piperata, B.A. et al. (2001) The nutrition transition in Amazonia: Rapid economic change and its
impact on growth and development in Ribeirinos. Am. J. Phys. Anthrop. 146: 1-13

Piperata, B.A. et al. (2011) Nutrition in transition: dietary patterns of rural Amazonian women during
a period of economic change. Am. J. Phys. Anthrop. 23: 458-469.

Class 12: Child survival, demography, and gender

Learning Objectives:
• Compare local ("cognitive") versus scientific ("operational") perceptions of adequate, under-
or over-nutrition, child growth and mortality
• Support anthropologist's critique of official population statistics and child-survival programs
• Construct place- and culture-specific studies of gender discrimination
• Distinguish research (science) vs. advocacy and activist studies and interpretations

Discussion Questions:
(1) What are the talking points of Scheper-Hughes' argument regarding "demography without
numbers" and what is their significance for research and policy?
(2) Both Das Gupta and Miller (also Harris-White, if you want to read further) find regional and
economic differences surrounding gender discrimination in Indian households. How do their
findings relate to other readings you have done on South Asian nutrition and nutrition
programs?
(3) Van Esterik, a lifelong advocate for breastfeeding over bottle-feeding, argues that one cannot
simultaneously embrace full scientific evidence-based positions and be an effective advocate.
What does she mean, and how do you respond professionally (ethically) to her preference for
advocacy?

Class exercise/discussion: Sharing results of literature review projects.

Required Readings:

Chavez et al. “The effect of malnutrition on human development …” NA pp.306-

Brewis, A. “Big Fat Myths” NA pp.463-468

Gladwell, M. “The Pima Paradox” NA pp.469-478
Connell, C.L. et al. “Children’s Experiences of Food Insecurity Can Assist in Understanding its effect on
their well-being.” NA pp. 442-451
Supplementary Readings
Das Gupta, M. (l987) Selective Discrimination Against Female Children in Rural Punjab, India.
Population and Development Review l3:77-100, OR

Miller, Barbara (1997) Social Class, Gender, and Intrahousehold Food Allocations to Children in South
NUTR 0330 23 Spring 2023

Asia, Social Science and Medicine 44(11):1685-1695.

Class 13: Summary and Conclusions : Value added of anthropology

Learning Objectives:
• Review food and nutrition science and policy studies within anthropology
• Summarize biocultural perspectives on human evolution, ecology, and foodways.
• From nutritional anthropology to anthropology of food and nutrition: describe what has
changed since 1974 in Anthropology of Food and Nutrition? What four topics would you
include in a review article, updating which perspectives from prior overview volumes and
review articles?

Required Readings:
“Looking for solutions” Final Section. NA pp.489-516