Module ANT3014 for 2021/2
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
ANT3014: Cultures: Food
This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.
Module Aims
This module is intended to introduce you to the social scientific study of food production, preparation and consumption. It reviews and evaluates the major ways of understanding the relations between food, culture and society. In so doing, it also introduces you to how anthropologists, sociologists and others conceptualise and research cultural and social forces and phenomena more generally.
| On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
|---|---|
| Module-Specific Skills | 1. demonstrate in-depth knowledge of the subject matter of anthropology (and sociology) of food, together with an analytical understanding of the subject matter, which takes into account diverse anthropological and sociological perspectives 2. describe and apply a variety of means of conceptualising and investigating the socio-cultural aspects of food |
| Discipline-Specific Skills | 3. critically relate a body of knowledge to specific contexts within the field of anthropology; 4. think clearly and argue logically and convincingly about the socio-cultural dimensions of food; 5. express coherent anthropological (and sociological) ideas both in writing and verbally; |
| Personal and Key Skills | 6. undertake independent study concerning the subject matter of the course 7. select appropriately from a range of suggested material and present key arguments clearly and convincingly; 8. develop the capacity to reflect critically on the various analytic perspectives presented in the course |
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:
- What is food and how do anthropologists study it?
- Food and the Making and Unmaking of Bodies
- Commensality and Social Bodies
- Food in Diaspora
- The Birth of Agriculture and its Industrialization
- Famine, Food Poverty, Food Security and the State
- Trade and the Globalization of Agriculture and Food
- Food safety and sustainability
- Alternatives Food Systems:
- Food as Traditional Knowledge and Cultural Heritage
Learning and Teaching
This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 27.5 | 122.5 | 0 |
...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activity | 15 | 1.5 hour lectures x 10 weeks |
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activity | 1.5 | Revision session |
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activity | 11 | Weekly 1 hour tutorials |
| Guided Independent Study | 55 | 11 x 5 hours reading for tutorials (2 readings x 2.5 hours per tutorial) |
| Guided Independent Study | 16.5 | Preparing response papers |
| Guided Independent Study | 51 | Exam Preparation |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
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.
Abbots, Emma-Jayne (2016) “Approaches to Food and Migration: Rootedness, Being, and Belonging”, ,” in J. Klein and J. Watson, The Handbook of Food and Anthropology, London: Bloomsbury, chapter 5.
Appadurai, Arjun (1981) ‘Gastro-politics in Hindu South Asia’, American Ethnologist 8 (3): 494-511.
Goldschmidt, Walter (1978) As You Sow: Three Studies in the Social Consequences of Agribusiness, Allanheld, Osmun, and Co., chapter 2.
Inglis, David and Gimlin, Debra (2009) The Globalization of Food, Oxford: Berg. Chapter 1, pp. 3-42.
Klein, Jakob A, Johan Pottier, and Harry G. West (2012) “New Directions in the Anthropology of Food”, in The SAGE Handbook of Social Anthropology, eds. R. Fardon, O. Harris, T.H. J. Marchand, M. Nuttall, C. Shore, V. Strang, and R. Wilson, London: Sage Publications Ltd., pp. 293-302.
Leitch, Alison (2009) “Slow Food and the Politics of ‘Virtuous Globalization’”, in D. Inglis and D. Gimlin, eds., The Globalization of Food, Berg. Reprinted in Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterick, eds. (2013), Food and Culture: A Reader (Third Edition), New York and London: Routledge, pp. 409-425.
Madeley, John (2000) Hungry for Trade: How the Poor Pay for Free Trade, Zed, chapter 3.
Nestle, Marion (2003) Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism, University of California Press, chapter 1.
Pottier, Johan (2016) “Observer, Critic, Activist: Anthropological Encounters with Food Insecurity”, in J. Klein and J. Watson, The Handbook of Food and Anthropology, London: Bloomsbury, chapter 7.
Probyn, Elspeth (2009) “Fat, Feelings, Bodies: A Critical Approach to Obesity”, in H Malson and M Burns, eds., Critical Feminist Approaches to Eating Disorders, Routledge, pp. 113-123.
Raynolds, Laura T. 2012. Fair Trade: Social Regulation in Global Food Markets, Journal of Rural Studies 28 (3): 276-287.
