Postgraduate Module Descriptor

ANTM021: Food, Body and Society

This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 academic year.

Module Aims

You will read works on food, the body and society produced within a range of disciplines, including nutrition, medicine, psychology, sociology, anthropology, religious studies, literary studies, and philosophy. Through engagement with the literature, you will gain historical and comparative insights, and develop critical perspectives on the relationship between food and bodies--from the individual to the social. The module will prepare you for their own research in the field of study, whether academic or within the context of public institutions, industries, or third sector organisations with an interest in food and foodways, consumption, and diets.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here - you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. Understand comparatively the range of ways in which individuals use food to sustain, shape, and give meaning to their bodies
2. Understand comparatively the range of ways in which social groups use food to constitute and reproduce communities
Discipline-Specific Skills3. Adeptly compare and contrast the relationship between food, the body and society over time and across social and cultural contexts
4. Critically assess the social dynamics through which food is used in the construction of individual and social bodies
Personal and Key Skills5. Independently identify and analyze sources pertaining to the relationship between food, the body and society in various specific contexts
6. Present relevant information in support of coherent and persuasive arguments pertaining to the relationship between food, the body and society in various specific contexts

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Basic reading:

Appadurai, Arjun (1988) “How to Make a National Cuisine: Cookbooks in Contemporary India,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 30 (1): 3-24.

Douglas, Mary (1991 [1966]) ‘The abominations of Leviticus’, in Purity and Danger (London: Routledge), pp. 42-58.

Fischler, Claude (2011) ‘Commensality, society and culture’, Social Science Information, 50 (3-4): 528-48.

Gill, Christopher, Tim Whitmarsh and John Wilkins, eds. (2009) Galen and the World of Knowledge (Cambridge).

Korsmeyer, Carolyn and David Sutton (2011) ‘The sensory experience of food’, in Food, Culture and Society, 14 (4): 461-75.

Lang, Tim and Michael Heasman (2004) Food Wars: The Global Battle for Mouths, Minds, and Markets (Earthscan).

Mintz, Sidney W. (2008) ‘Food and diaspora’, Food, Culture and Society 11 (4): 509-23.

Rozin, Paul (1999) “Food is fundamental, fun, frightening, and far-reaching,” Social Research 66 (1): 9-30.

Sobo, Elisa (1997 [1994]) ‘The sweetness of fat: health, procreation, and sociability in Rural Jamaica’, in Nicole Landry Sault, Many Mirrors: Body Image and Social Relations, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, pp. 132-154.

Warde, Alan (1997) Consumption, Food and Taste: Culinary Antinomies and Commodity Culture. London: Sage.