Unit Guide

General Information

Unit convenor and teaching staff	Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit Convenor Eve Vincent eve.vincent@mq.edu.au Contact via eve.vincent@mq.edu.au
Credit points	Credit points 3
Prerequisites	Prerequisites ANTH150 or 12cp or admission to GDipArts
Corequisites	Corequisites
Co-badged status	Co-badged status
Unit description	Unit description Food mediates and shapes core social relations to place, time, gender, sexuality and social rank. The study of food and eating has long held a particular fascination for anthropologists. From subsistence strategies to nutritional intake, from food taboos to the social rules that structure how people eat together, the everyday activities of cooking and eating are packed with economic, medical, and particularly political and cultural meaning. Indeed, for most (if not all) cultures, what people will and won't eat determines their status as civilized beings. Food is also a lens onto some of the cutting edge concerns of contemporary social anthropology, including globalisation, consumption practices, and identity. This unit celebrates practices of everyday life and explores the extraordinary variety of food likes and dislikes in a range of ethnographic contexts. Not only do we talk about food, we also come together to share food in order to gain insight into our field of study.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

Understand how the everyday activities of cooking and eating are packed with economic, medical, political and cultural meanings;
Gain insight into the ways that food is linked up with many of the concerns of contemporary social anthropology, including globalisation, consumption practices, identity, and practices of everyday life;
Research the food-related practices of everyday life in a range of ethnographic contexts;
Consider the impact of globalisation and migration on food ways, resistance to corporate multinational food chains and celebrations of so-called ‘authentic’ tastes;
Come together to share food in order to gain an embodied knowledge of and insight into food preparation and consumption;
Apply and adapt anthropological knowledge to real world issues;
Enhance their communication and interpersonal skills through oral discussion and written work that focuses on articulating knowledge and information in a clear and concise fashion;
Develop problem-solving skills through this unit's focus on applying and adapting anthropological knowledge to real world problems;
Cement critical analysis and creative thinking skills through research assignments and papers.

Assessment Tasks

Name	Weighting	Due
Tutorial Participation	15%	Weekly
Social Food Mapping	30%	Weeks 7 and 8, in-class
Research Essay	40%	Monday June 2
Final Quiz	15%	Tuesday June 10

Tutorial Participation

Due: Weekly
Weighting: 15%

Each week, you must prepare for the tutorial discussion by completing the assigned readings. You should arrive at class willing to engage in respectful discussion of the authors’ key points and arguments. At the conclusion of each discussion-based tutorial your tutor will spend 5-10 minutes asking for a written response to the following two questions: What was the most interesting argument that you heard expressed in class today? And: Were you convinced of a new point over the course of today’s class?

On successful completion you will be able to:

Understand how the everyday activities of cooking and eating are packed with economic, medical, political and cultural meanings;
Gain insight into the ways that food is linked up with many of the concerns of contemporary social anthropology, including globalisation, consumption practices, identity, and practices of everyday life;
Come together to share food in order to gain an embodied knowledge of and insight into food preparation and consumption;
Apply and adapt anthropological knowledge to real world issues;
Enhance their communication and interpersonal skills through oral discussion and written work that focuses on articulating knowledge and information in a clear and concise fashion;
Develop problem-solving skills through this unit's focus on applying and adapting anthropological knowledge to real world problems;

Social Food Mapping

Due: Weeks 7 and 8, in-class
Weighting: 30%

This will be undertaken as a group assignment (3-4 students) which will be organised within your tutorial. You will choose a particular eating situation, whether it is a meal on campus, dinner at home with family, a holiday meal, eating at the local cafeteria, or dining in a cafe or restaurant. You will then produce a social map of this eating situation. This map should represent the physical layout of the chosen space, and also representation of the social dynamics of the place: who sits where, who serves whom, and what and how they eat. You will also be required to provide some analysis of your observations based on the course material. Creativity in style and media of presentation is encouraged for the in-class presentations. On the date of your presentation, each student will also submit a written report of not more than 1000 words on their project (instructions will be provided during tutorials). Your final mark will take into account the execution, presentation and reporting of the project.

Each group will have 7-10 minutes for their presentation.

On successful completion you will be able to:

Research the food-related practices of everyday life in a range of ethnographic contexts;
Enhance their communication and interpersonal skills through oral discussion and written work that focuses on articulating knowledge and information in a clear and concise fashion;
Cement critical analysis and creative thinking skills through research assignments and papers.

Research Essay

Due: Monday June 2
Weighting: 40%

A list of essay questions will be distributed prior to the mid-semester break. Alternatively, you may develop your own topic subject to your tutor’s approval. As well as a demonstrated engagement with the course readings, this paper requires some further reading from outside the course material but it must apply an anthropological perspective. Word count: 1500-1800 words.

On successful completion you will be able to:

Understand how the everyday activities of cooking and eating are packed with economic, medical, political and cultural meanings;
Gain insight into the ways that food is linked up with many of the concerns of contemporary social anthropology, including globalisation, consumption practices, identity, and practices of everyday life;
Consider the impact of globalisation and migration on food ways, resistance to corporate multinational food chains and celebrations of so-called ‘authentic’ tastes;
Apply and adapt anthropological knowledge to real world issues;
Develop problem-solving skills through this unit's focus on applying and adapting anthropological knowledge to real world problems;
Cement critical analysis and creative thinking skills through research assignments and papers.

Final Quiz

Due: Tuesday June 10
Weighting: 15%

An in-class, short-answer quiz during the Week 13 lecture will test retention of concepts covered in lectures, films and in readings throughout the semester.

On successful completion you will be able to:

Understand how the everyday activities of cooking and eating are packed with economic, medical, political and cultural meanings;
Gain insight into the ways that food is linked up with many of the concerns of contemporary social anthropology, including globalisation, consumption practices, identity, and practices of everyday life;
Consider the impact of globalisation and migration on food ways, resistance to corporate multinational food chains and celebrations of so-called ‘authentic’ tastes;

Delivery and Resources

Recommended texts (on library reserve):

Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik (1997) Food and Culture a Reader, 2^nd ed. New York and London: Routledge.

Marvin Harris (1986) Good to Eat: Riddles of Food and Culture. Illinois: Waveland Press.

James Watson and Melissa Caldwell, eds. (2007) The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating: A Reader. Oxford, Victoria: Blackwell Publishing.

Delivery and resources

All required readings for this unit are collected in the unit reader, which will be available for purchase. Required readings are also available on EReserve. The further readings listed in your unit outline have been placed on reserve, EReserve or 7 day loan in the library.

This course entails both lectures and tutorials. It is expected that you attend both. Films shown during lectures are an important component of this unit and their content will form part of the final quiz. All lectures (not films) will be recorded on echo360 and made available on the iLearn site to assist with review of course material. This should not be considered a substitute for lecture attendance.

Lecture slides will also be available on the iLearn site for review.

Unit Schedule

Weekly Topics

Week 1: What do you eat? How do you eat? Who do you eat? Introduction to the Anthropology of Food

Tuesday March 4

Lecturer: Dr Kim Paul

Background reading:

Pollan, Michael (2007) Introduction in The Omnivore’s Dilemma. England: Penguin Books, 1-11.

Coleman, Leo (2011) Guide to Further Reading in Food: Ethnographic Encounters, Oxford and New York: Berg, 151-166.

No tutorial this week but you should read the course outline thoroughly, familiarise yourself with the course assignments and make a start on the readings for next week. If you have any questions please bring them to next week’s tutorial.

Week 2: Taste and Taboo

Tuesday Mar 11

Lecturer: Dr Kim Paul

Required reading:

Mary Douglas (1970) Purity and Danger, England: Penguin Books, 54-72.

Marvin Harris (1985) Good to Eat: Riddles of Food and Culture. London: Allen & Unwin, 67-87.

Further reading:

Claude Lévi-Strauss (1983) The Raw and the Cooked. Mythologiques, Vol. 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Anna Meigs (1984) Food, Sex, and Pollution: A New Guinea Religion, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.

Marshall Sahlins (1976), ‘Food Preference and Tabu in American Domestic Animals’ in Culture and Practical Reason, University of Chicago Press, 170-179.

Week 3: The Man-eating Myth and Mortuary Cannibalism in the Amazon

Tuesday March 18

Lecturer: Dr Eve Vincent

Required reading:

Beth A. Conklin (1995) ‘Thus Are Our Bodies, Thus Was Our Custom’: Mortuary Cannibalism in an Amazonian Society’, American Ethnologist, Vol. 22, No. 1, 75-101.

Film: Kuru: the science and the sorcery (2009) Rob Bygott

Further Reading:

Arens, W. (1979) The Man-Eating Myth: Anthropology and Anthropophagy, New York: Oxford University Press.

Goldman, L. (ed) (1999) The Anthropology of Cannibalism, Westport, USA: Greenwood Publishing Group.

Week 4: Food and globalisation, Part 1: Big Macs in Beijing

Tuesday March 25

Lecturer: Dr Eve Vincent

Social Food Mapping Project assessment details handed out in class; discussion of research ethics.

Required reading:

Fischer, Johan (2011) The Halal Frontier: Muslim Consumers in a Global Market. Palgrave Macmillan (Chapter 5)

Yan, Y. (1997) ‘McDonald’s in Beijing: The Localization of Americana’ in J. L Watson (ed) Golden Arches East, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 39-76,

Film: Food Inc. (2008) Robert Kenner

Further reading:

Yan, Yunxiang (2005) ‘Of Hamburger and Social Space: Consuming McDonalds in Beijing’ in J. L. Watson and M. L. Caldwell (eds) The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating, USA, UK, Australia: Blackwell Publishing, 80-103,

Watson, J. L. (2005) ‘China’s Big Mac Attack’ in J. L. Watson and M. L. Caldwell (eds) The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating, USA, UK, Australia: Blackwell Publishing, 70-79.

Week 5: Food and globalisation, Part 2: Coffee

Tuesday April 1

Lecturer: Dr Eve Vincent

Required reading:

Roseberry, William (2007) ‘The Rise of Yuppie Coffees and the Reimagination of Class in the United States’, in J. L. Watson and M. L. Caldwell (eds) The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating, USA, UK, Australia: Blackwell Publishing, 122-143.

Film: Black Gold: Wake up and smell the coffee (2007) Marc and Nick Francis.

Further reading:

Shaffer, Linda (1994) ‘Southernization’ Journal of World History, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1-21.

Week 6: The Sweet Stuff, Part 1: Sugar, slavery and colonialism

Tuesday April 8

Lecturer: Dr Eve Vincent

Required reading:

Sidney Mintz (1988) Sweetness and Power. The Place of Sugar in Modern History, New York. Penguin. (Introduction and Chapter 4)

April 14-27: mid-semester recess, no lectures or tutorials

Week 7: The Sweet Stuff, Part 2: Rivers of Chocolate. Eating Sweets across Continents

Tuesday April 29

Lecturer: Dr Kim Paul

Required Reading

James, Alison (1990) ‘The Good, the Bad and the Delicious: the Role of Confectionery in British Society’, Sociological Review, vol. 38, 666-688.

Further reading:

Helen Leach and Raelene Inglis (2003) The Archaeology of Christmas Cakes, Food and Foodways, vol 11, no. 2, 141-166.

Week 8: From Anorexia Mirabilis to Anorexia Nervosa: Food and Bodies

Tuesday May 6

Lecturer: Dr Kim Paul

Required reading:

Joan Jacobs Brumberg (2000), excerpts from Fasting Girls: The History of Anorexia Nervosa. New York: Vintage Books. (‘Love and Food in the Bourgeois Family’, pp.124-138; ‘Modern Dieting’, 229-254; ‘Afterword’, 255-267.

Further reading:

Joan Jacobs Brumberg (2000), excerpts from Fasting Girls (‘Anorexia Nervosa in the 1980s’, 11-42, and ‘From Sainthood to Patienthood’, 43-61).

Susan Bordo, (1993) ‘Anorexia Nervosa: Psychopathology as the Crystallization of Culture’ in Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, Berkeley: University of California Press.

Carol Walker Bynum (1987) Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women Berkeley: University of California Press.

Week 9: Eating What We Grow: Community Mealtime in an Ecovillage

Tuesday April 29

Lecturer: Bridget Jay (Readings TBA)

Week 10: ‘Dancing in the Monsoon.’ Scarcity, Abundance and Belonging: Eating lime pickle in a Rajasthani Household

Tuesday May 20

Lecturer: Dr Kim Paul

Required reading

Appadurai, Arjun (1988) How to Make a National Cuisine: Cookbooks in Contemporary India. Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 30, no. 1, 3-24.

Further reading:

Alison Leitch (2000) The Social Life of Lardo: Slow Food in fast times, The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, vol. 1, no. 1, 103-118.

Reddinger, Amy (2010) Eating ‘Local’: The Politics of Post-Statehood Hawaiian Cookbooks, Nordic Journal of English Studies, vol. 9, no. 3, 67-87.

Marte, Lidia (2007) Foodmaps: Tracing Boundaries of ‘Home’ Through Food Relations, Food and Foodways: Explorations in the History and Culture of Human Nourishment, vol. 15, nos. 3-4, 261-289.

Jean Duruz (2005) Eating at the borders: culinary journeys, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, vol 23, 51-69.

Week 11 Food in multicultural, postcolonial Australia, Part 1: Bushfoods, Indigeneity and Settler Australia

Tuesday May 27th

Lecturer: Dr Eve Vincent

Required reading:

Povinelli, Elizabeth. Labor’s Lot: The Power, History, and Culture of Aboriginal Action. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1994. (Chapter Four)

Excerpts from Marcina Coleman Richards and Sue Coleman Haseldine, Nguly Gu Yadoo Mai (Our Good Food)

Film: Bush Tucker Man. ABC TV

Further reading:

Davey, L, Macpherson, M, Clements, F.W. (1977) ‘The Hungry Years: 1788-1792.’ In Beverley Wood, ed. Tucker in Australia, Melbourne: Hill of Content, 24-46.

Low, T. ‘Foods of the First Fleet: Convict Foodplants of Old Sydney Town.’ Australian Natural History 22(7): 292-297 (1987-1988).

Symons, Michael 1982. One Continuous Picnic: Melbourne: Penguin Books (See 15-23; 254-262).

Week 12 Food in multicultural, postcolonial Australia, Part 2: Eating the Other?

Tuesday June 3

Lecturer: Dr Eve Vincent

Required Reading:

Flowers, Rick and Elaine Swan. 2012, ‘Eating the Asian Other? Pedagogies of Food Multiculturalism in Australia’, Portal Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 1-30.

Further reading:

Hage, Ghassan 1997 ‘At Home in the Entrails of the West: Multiculturalism, Ethnic Food and Migrant Home-Building’ in Home/world: Space, Community and Marginality in Sydney’s West, (eds) H. Grace, G. Hage, L. Johnson, J. Langsworth and M. Symonds. Pluto Press: Annandale, 99-153.

James, Roberta (2004) “The reliable beauty of aroma: staples of food and cultural production among Italian-Australians”, The Australian Journal of Anthropology, vol. 15, no. 1, 23-39.

Sutton, David E. (2001) Remembrance of Repasts: An Anthropology of Food and Memory, New York: Berg.

Sutton, David E. (2010) Food and the Senses, Annual Review of Anthropology, vol. 39: 209-223.

Week 13: The Communal Feast: Potluck and commensality in W6A107

Final quiz this week at 11am in the lecture theatre, followed by our communal feast in W6A107. There are no tutorials this week

Suggested reading:

Daniel Sack, Material History of American Religion Project, On deciphering a potluck: The social meaning of church socials (http://www.materialreligion.org/journal/potluck.html)

Clifford Geertz (1960) ‘The Slametan: Communal Feast as Core Ritual’, The Religion of Java, New York: The Free Press, 11-15,

Maureen Shelley (2008) ‘Our Christmas recipes took centuries to write’, Daily Telegraph, 23 December 2008.

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central. Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Academic Honesty Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.html

Assessment Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy.html

Grading Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grading/policy.html

Grade Appeal Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/gradeappeal/policy.html

Grievance Management Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grievance_management/policy.html

Disruption to Studies Policy http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/disruption_studies/policy.html The Disruption to Studies Policy is effective from March 3 2014 and replaces the Special Consideration Policy.

In addition, a number of other policies can be found in the Learning and Teaching Category of Policy Central.

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/student_conduct/

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Graduate Capabilities

Capable of Professional and Personal Judgement and Initiative

We want our graduates to have emotional intelligence and sound interpersonal skills and to demonstrate discernment and common sense in their professional and personal judgement. They will exercise initiative as needed. They will be capable of risk assessment, and be able to handle ambiguity and complexity, enabling them to be adaptable in diverse and changing environments.