Students
ANTH203 – Food Across Cultures
2016 – S1 Day
General Information
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| Unit convenor and teaching staff |
Unit convenor and teaching staff
Unit Convenor
Eve Vincent
Contact via via email
W6A, 611
Tuesday 11am-12pm or by appointment
Tutor
Monica Dalidowicz
Contact via via email
Tutor
Anmarie Dabinet
Contact via via email
Payel Ray
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| Credit points |
Credit points
3
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| Prerequisites |
Prerequisites
ANTH150 or 12cp or admission to GDipArts
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| Corequisites |
Corequisites
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| Co-badged status |
Co-badged status
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| Unit description |
Unit description
We all eat. But what, when, how, how much and with whom we eat is bound up with questions of cultural difference, gender and power. 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. This unit introduces students to the idea that the everyday activities of cooking and eating are packed with economic, medical, political and cultural meanings. We will focus first on some classic anthropological work on eating as a social practice. Then we move to the concerns of contemporary anthropology, examining industrialised globalised food production, consumption practices and identity. Throughout this course we are concerned with everyday eating practices, exploring the extraordinary variety of food likes and dislikes in a range of ethnographic contexts. Not only will we talk about food, we will also come together to share food.
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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.
General Assessment Information
All assessment items must be attempted in order for a student to pass this unit. Late reports and late essays will be penalised at the rate of 5 per cent per day. There is no late submissions of quizzes permissible.
Assessment Tasks
| Name | Weighting | Due |
|---|---|---|
| Tutorial Participation | 10% | Weekly |
| Weekly Quizzes | 20% | Weekly |
| Eating Experience Research | 30% | Weeks 7 and 8, in-class |
| Essay | 40% | Week 11 - Friday May 27 |
Tutorial Participation
Due: Weekly
Weighting: 10%
Each week, you should prepare for the tutorial discussion by completing the required readings. You should arrive at class willing to engage in respectful discussion of the authors’ key points and arguments. It is especially useful to bring with you any doubts or confusion about the readings - the tutorial is your time to clarify the readings as well as the lecture content. You are expected both to make informed contributions to class discussions, and to listen to others' contributions. Please notify your tutor if you are going to be absent from a tutorial. You are expected to attend at least 80 per cent of tutorials over the course of 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;
- 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;
Weekly Quizzes
Due: Weekly
Weighting: 20%
Between Weeks 2 and 12, you will be required to answer 10 short questions or 'quizzes'. One questions is released each week, it is based on the weekly lecture. Your answer will be between 100-150 words in length. Each quiz will open at 9am on the Tuesday (as our lecture begins) and close at midnight the next day (Wednesday). There is no quiz in Week 11. Each quiz is worth 2 per cent of your overall grade in this unit. You will receive a grade out of ten for each quiz but no written feedback. Please make a time to consult with your tutor or lecturer if you want to discuss your weekly quiz results.
On successful completion you will be able to:
- 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;
- Develop problem-solving skills through this unit's focus on applying and adapting anthropological knowledge to real world problems;
Eating Experience Research
Due: Weeks 7 and 8, in-class
Weighting: 30%
This social research project will be undertaken as a group assignment (3-4 students). Groups will be organised in your Week 3 tutorial. Your group 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 description and an analysis of this particular eating situation. Class discussions and lectures will direct your attention to considering issues such as: the physical layout of the chosen space; the social dynamics of the place: who sits where, who serves whom, and what and how they eat; the role of gender and/or class in this eating experience.
The task is to closely observe an eating experience, and 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 1,000 words on their project (detailed instructions on the report will be provided). The in-class presentation will be worth 10 per cent of your overall mark in this unit. Each group will have up to 10 minutes for their presentation. Every member of the group will receive the same mark as long as they have equally participated in the process of conducting the research and presenting your findings. The written report will be will be worth 20 per cent of your overall mark in this unit: this is an individual assignment.
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;
- Research the food-related practices of everyday life in a range of ethnographic contexts;
- 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;
Essay
Due: Week 11 - Friday May 27
Weighting: 40%
Essay questions will be distributed in Week 7. Essays are due by 11:59pm on Friday May 27. Late essays will be penalised - 5 per cent of the essay grade per day.
On successful completion you will be able to:
- 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;
- Cement critical analysis and creative thinking skills through research assignments and papers.
Delivery and Resources
Weekly readings for this course are available in your iLearn site. Lectures and tutorials are compulsory. Lectures are recorded, but listening online is no substitute for lecture attendance: I will often show excerpts from films to illustrate key points, and these are not properly captured in the lecture recordings.
The following books are background readings for the course, and have been placed on Reserve:
- Carole Counihan and Penny van Esterik (eds), Food and Culture: A Reader. Routledge: New York and London, 1997.
- Marvin Harris, Good to Eat: Riddles of Food and Culture. London: Allen & Unwin, 1985.
- David Inglis and Debra Gimlin (eds) The Globalization of Food. Oxford: Berg, 2009
- Marianne Lien and Brigitte Nerlich (eds), The Politics of Food. Oxford: Berg, 2004
- Michael Symons, One Continuous Picnic. Melbourne: Penguin Books, 1982.
- James Watson and Melissa Caldwell (eds). The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating: A Reader. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005.
Food and Foodways is a journal dedicated to the history and culture of food in different societies.
Unit Schedule
Week 1. Eating Together: Introduction to the Anthropology of Food
Tuesday March 1
Eating is a social experience, cementing or marking social intimacies, hierarchies and roles. In this lecture we will talk about the idea of 'commensality'. The structure of the unit, its key themes, and the assessment items will be explained.
Required readings:
- Clifford Geertz, The Slametan: Communal Feast as Core Ritual, In The Religion of Java, New York: The Free Press, 1960, 11-15.
- Eugene Cooper, Chinese Table Manners: You Are How You Eat, 1986.
There are no tutorials this week but you should read the course outline thoroughly and familiarise yourself with the course assignments. If you have any questions please bring them to next week’s tutorial.
Week 2. Taste and Taboo
Tuesday March 8
Why do some cultures regard certain foodstuffs as disgusting, while others regard these same tastes as highly desirable? How do we learn about these categories? What explains the different cultural categorisations of the same edible items? We will read two authors, Mary Douglas and Marvin Harris, who disagree with each other in their attempts to answer these questions.
Required readings:
- Mary Douglas, The Abominations of Leviticus, In Purity and Danger, England: Penguin Books, 1970, 54-72.
- Marvin Harris, The Abominable Pig, In Good to Eat: Riddles of Food and Culture. London: Allen & Unwin, 1985, 67-87
- Marshall Sahlins, Food Preference and Tabu in American Domestic Animals, In Culture and Practical Reason, University of Chicago Press, 1976, 170-179.
Further reading:
- Marianne Elisabeth Lien, Dogs, Whales and Kangaroos: Transnational Activism and Food Taboos. In Marianne Lien and Brigitte Nerlich (eds), The Politics of Food. Oxford: Berg, 2004, 179-197
Week 3. The Man-Eating Myth and Mortuary Cannibalism in the Amazon
Tuesday March 15
Was anthropophagy -the consumption of human flesh- a sanctioned practice in certain societies, partaken of for specific cultural reasons? Or is cannibalism a myth, generated so that one culture can differentiate itself from others it sees as inferior? What role does colonialism have to play in all of this?
Required readings:
- Beth A. Conklin, Thus Are Our Bodies, Thus Was Our Custom: Mortuary Cannibalism in an Amazonian Society, American Ethnologist, vol. 22, no. 1, 1995, 75-101.
- Shirley Lindenbaum, Cannibalism, Kuru and Anthropology, Folia Neuropathol, vol. 47, no. 2, 2009, 138-144 .
Film: Kuru: The science and the sorcery (2009) Rob Bygott
Further reading:
- William Arens, excerpt from The Man-Eating Myth: Anthropology and Anthropophagy, New York: Oxford University Press, 1979, 10-40.
- Don Gardner, Anthropophagy, Myth and the Subtle Ways of Ethnocentrism, in Laurence Goldman (ed), The Anthropology of Cannibalism, Westport, USA: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999, 27-49.
Week 4. Hunting, Gathering and Food Collecting in Pre-colonial, Colonial and Postcolonial Australia
Tuesday March 22
This week we will learn about the hunting, gathering, food collecting and farming practices of Aboriginal Australia in the pre-colonial period. We'll then ask what it means to some Aboriginal people to eat bush foods today, considering a wide array of examples in the lecture and reading about examples from Belyuen in the Northern Territory and Ceduna on the far west coast of South Australia.
Required reading:
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Elizabeth Povinelli, 'Today We Struggle': Contemporary Hunting, Fishing, and Collecting and the Market, In Labor’s Lot: The Power, History, and Culture of Aboriginal Action. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1994, 168-202.
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Excerpts from Marcina Coleman Richards and Sue Coleman Haseldine, Nguly Gu Yadoo Mai (Our Good Food), 2012.
Further reading:
- Michael Symons, excerpts from One Continuous Picnic, Melbourne: Penguin Books, 1982, 15-23; 254-262.
- L. Davey, M. Macpherson, F.W. Clements, The Hungry Years: 1788-1792. In Beverley Wood (ed) Tucker in Australia, Melbourne: Hill of Content, 1977, 24-46.
Week 5. Food and Gender
Tuesday March 29
Studying food inevitably involves studying gender relations. We will talk, first, about the symbolic associations that certain foods themselves have – foods and also drinks come to symbolise the qualities which a particular culture associates with maleness, or 'masculinity', and the qualities a particular culture associates with femaleness, or 'femininity'. These symbolic associations vary across cultures. Second, we will talk about gender and the allocation of certain roles surrounding food production, cooking, shopping and serving.
Required reading:
- Anne Allison, Japanese Mothers and Obentos: The Lunch Box as Ideological State Apparatus, In Carole Counihan and Penny van Esterik (eds), Food and Culture: A Reader, Routledge: New York and London, 1997, 296-314.
- Jeffrey Sobal, Men, Meat, and Marriage: Models of Masculinity, Food and Foodways, 13:1-2, 135-158.
Further reading:
- Anna Meigs, Food Rules and the Traditional Sexual Ideology, In Food, Sex, and Pollution, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 31-44.
- Carole Counihan, 'It's a Feeling Thing': Cooking and Women's Agency, In A Tortilla is Like Life: Food and Culture in the San Luis Valley of Colorado, Austin: University of Texas Press, 2009, 114-136.
Week 6. High Food, Low Food, Fast Food, Slow Food
Tuesday April 5
This week will begin our exploration of the industrialised globalised food system. We will cover the centrality of corn in the American food chain, the rise of fast food, and industrialised methods of animal slaughter. We will also talk about the labour practices associated with industrialised food production, focussing on Australia's Seasonal Workers Program. In the second half of the lecture, we shift our attention to various food movements that have emerged as a response to the system described in Week 6. What is the relationship between pleasure, eating and time, according to the Slow Food movement? And why does Julie Guthman, a critic of both the industrialised food system and the organic movement, describe the alternative food movement as 'unbearably white'?
Required reading:
- Excerpts from Timothy Pachirat, Every Twelve Seconds: Industrialized Slaughter and the Politics of Sight. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1-19; 140-161
- Michael Pollan, The Meal, In The Omnivore’s Dilemma. England: Penguin Books, 2007, 109-119.
- Julie Guthman, Can't Stomach It: How Michael Pollan et al. Made Me Want to Eat Cheetos. Gastronomica vol. 7, 2007, 75-79.
Further reading:
- Donald Stull and Michael Broadway, Chicken Little, Chicken Big: The Poultry Industry, In Slaughterhouse Blues: The Meat and Poultry Industry in North America, Wadsworth, Belmont, CA, 2013, 42-61.
- Dylan Clark, The Raw and the Rotten: Punk Cuisine, Ethnology, vol. 43, no. 1, 2004, 19-31
- Alison Leitch, Slow Food and the Politics of 'Virtuous Globalization', In David Inglis and Debra Gimlin (eds) The Globalization of Food. Oxford: Berg, 2009, 45-64.
- Julie Guthman, Bringing good food to others: investigating the subjects of alternative food practice. Cultural Geographies, vol. 15, 2008, 431-447.
April 11-22: mid-semester recess, no lectures or tutorials
Week 7. Sizing up obesity: fat studies, feeding families and public health responses
Guest lecturer: Bridget Jay
Tuesday April 26
Required reading:
- Yates-Doerr, Emily. The Weight of the Self: Care and Compassion in Guatemalan Dietary Choices, Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Vol.26(1), 2012, 136-158
- Murray, Samantha. The "Normal" and the "Pathological": "Obesity" and the Dis-eased "Fat" Body, in The Fat Female Body. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 44-68.
Further reading:
- Warin, Megan, Zivkovic, Tanya, Moore, Vivienne, Ward, Paul R., Jones, Michelle. Short horizons and obesity futures: Disjunctures between public health interventions and everyday temporalities, Social Science & Medicine, Vol.128, 2015, p.309(7)
Week 8. The Sweet Stuff: The History and Meaning of Sugar
Tuesday May 3
Do human have an innate preference for sweetness? How did sugar come to be so ubiquitous, and what do we continue to eat it even while knowing it is bad for us? This week we will discuss the history of slavery, the spread of sugar into the English working diet as part of industrial fare, and the current status of sugar in Western societies.
Required Reading
- Sidney Mintz, Introduction and Chapter Four, In Sweetness and Power. The Place of Sugar in Modern History, New York. Penguin, 1988.
- Alison James, ‘The Good, the Bad and the Delicious: the Role of Confectionery in British Society’, Sociological Review, vol. 38, 1990, 666-688.
Week 9. Coffee, Class and Globalisation
Tuesday May 10
Required reading:
- William Roseberry, 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, 2007, 122-143.
- Pierre Bourdieu, excerpts from The Habitus and the Space of Life-Styles, In Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984, 183-186; 193-200.
- Paige West, Making the Market: Specialty Coffee, Generational Pitches, and Papua New Guinea. Antipode, 2010, Vol.42, no. 3, 690-718
Extended reading:
- Yunxiang Yan, McDonald’s in Beijing: The Localization of Americana, in J. L Watson (ed) Golden Arches East, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997, 39-76.
Film: Black Gold: Wake up and smell the coffee (2007) Marc and Nick Francis.
Week 10. Eating the Other? Food, Ethnicity and Identity
Tuesday May 17
Required reading:
- Ghassan Hage, At Home in the Entrails of the West: Multiculturalism, Ethnic Food and Migrant Home-Building, In H. Grace, G. Hage, L. Johnson, J. Langsworth and M. Symonds (eds), Home/world: Space, Community and Marginality in Sydney’s West, Pluto Press: Annandale, 1997, 99-153.
Further reading:
- James, Roberta, The reliable beauty of aroma: staples of food and cultural production among Italian-Australians, The Australian Journal of Anthropology, vol. 15, no. 1, 2004, 23-39.
- Mandy Thomas, Transitions in Taste in Vietnam and the Diaspora, The Australian Journal of Anthropology, vol. 15, no. 1, 2004, 54-67.
- Jean Duruz, Eating at the Borders: Culinary Journeys, In Amanda Wise and Selvaraj Velayutham (eds), Everyday Multiculturalism, Basingtstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, 105-121.
Week 11. Bodies at the Limit: From Anorexia to the Fat Acceptance Movement
Tuesday May 24
Required reading:
- Joan Jacobs Brumberg, excerpts from Fasting Girls: The History of Anorexia Nervosa. New York: Vintage Books, 2000, 124-138; 229-254; 255-267.
- Susan Bordo, Anorexia Nervosa: Pyschopathology as the Crystallization of Culture, In Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
Further reading:
- Carol Walker Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987. (This book has been placed on reserve.)
Week 12. The Andean diet and ethnomedical concepts of health and disease
Tuesday May 31
Guest lecturer: Freya Saich
Required reading:
- M. J. Weismantel, Tasty meals and bitter gifts: Consumption and production in the Ecuadorian Andes, Food and Foodways: Explorations in the History and Culture of Human Nourishment, 5:1, 1991, 79-94.
- R. Corr, Reciprocity, Communion, And Sacrifice: Food in Andean Ritual and Social Life, Food and Foodways, 10:1, 2002, 1-25.
Week 13: The Communal Feast: Potluck and Commensality in W6A, 107
There are no tutorials or lectures this week. Instead we will meet in W6A, 107 at 12pm on Tuesday June 7: bring food to share, and a story about that food.
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New Assessment Policy in effect from Session 2 2016 http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy_2016.html. For more information visit http://students.mq.edu.au/events/2016/07/19/new_assessment_policy_in_place_from_session_2/
Assessment Policy prior to Session 2 2016 http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy.html
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Grade Appeal Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/gradeappeal/policy.html
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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.
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Graduate Capabilities
Creative and Innovative
Our graduates will also be capable of creative thinking and of creating knowledge. They will be imaginative and open to experience and capable of innovation at work and in the community. We want them to be engaged in applying their critical, creative thinking.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- Research the food-related practices of everyday life in a range of ethnographic contexts;
- Come together to share food in order to gain an embodied knowledge of and insight into food preparation and consumption;
- Cement critical analysis and creative thinking skills through research assignments and papers.
Assessment tasks
- Tutorial Participation
- Eating Experience Research
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.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- Research the food-related practices of everyday life in a range of ethnographic contexts;
- Develop problem-solving skills through this unit's focus on applying and adapting anthropological knowledge to real world problems;
Assessment tasks
- Tutorial Participation
- Eating Experience Research
Commitment to Continuous Learning
Our graduates will have enquiring minds and a literate curiosity which will lead them to pursue knowledge for its own sake. They will continue to pursue learning in their careers and as they participate in the world. They will be capable of reflecting on their experiences and relationships with others and the environment, learning from them, and growing - personally, professionally and socially.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- Understand how the everyday activities of cooking and eating are packed with economic, medical, political and cultural meanings;
- Research the food-related practices of everyday life in a range of ethnographic contexts;
- 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;
- Develop problem-solving skills through this unit's focus on applying and adapting anthropological knowledge to real world problems;
Discipline Specific Knowledge and Skills
Our graduates will take with them the intellectual development, depth and breadth of knowledge, scholarly understanding, and specific subject content in their chosen fields to make them competent and confident in their subject or profession. They will be able to demonstrate, where relevant, professional technical competence and meet professional standards. They will be able to articulate the structure of knowledge of their discipline, be able to adapt discipline-specific knowledge to novel situations, and be able to contribute from their discipline to inter-disciplinary solutions to problems.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- 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;
Assessment tasks
- Weekly Quizzes
- Eating Experience Research
- Essay
Critical, Analytical and Integrative Thinking
We want our graduates to be capable of reasoning, questioning and analysing, and to integrate and synthesise learning and knowledge from a range of sources and environments; to be able to critique constraints, assumptions and limitations; to be able to think independently and systemically in relation to scholarly activity, in the workplace, and in the world. We want them to have a level of scientific and information technology literacy.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- 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;
- 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;
Assessment tasks
- Eating Experience Research
- Essay
Problem Solving and Research Capability
Our graduates should be capable of researching; of analysing, and interpreting and assessing data and information in various forms; of drawing connections across fields of knowledge; and they should be able to relate their knowledge to complex situations at work or in the world, in order to diagnose and solve problems. We want them to have the confidence to take the initiative in doing so, within an awareness of their own limitations.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcome
- Develop problem-solving skills through this unit's focus on applying and adapting anthropological knowledge to real world problems;
Assessment tasks
- Weekly Quizzes
- Eating Experience Research
- Essay
Effective Communication
We want to develop in our students the ability to communicate and convey their views in forms effective with different audiences. We want our graduates to take with them the capability to read, listen, question, gather and evaluate information resources in a variety of formats, assess, write clearly, speak effectively, and to use visual communication and communication technologies as appropriate.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- 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.
Assessment tasks
- Tutorial Participation
- Weekly Quizzes
- Eating Experience Research
- Essay
Engaged and Ethical Local and Global citizens
As local citizens our graduates will be aware of indigenous perspectives and of the nation's historical context. They will be engaged with the challenges of contemporary society and with knowledge and ideas. We want our graduates to have respect for diversity, to be open-minded, sensitive to others and inclusive, and to be open to other cultures and perspectives: they should have a level of cultural literacy. Our graduates should be aware of disadvantage and social justice, and be willing to participate to help create a wiser and better society.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- 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;
Assessment task
- Essay
Socially and Environmentally Active and Responsible
We want our graduates to be aware of and have respect for self and others; to be able to work with others as a leader and a team player; to have a sense of connectedness with others and country; and to have a sense of mutual obligation. Our graduates should be informed and active participants in moving society towards sustainability.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- 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;