Students

ANTH2003 – Food Across Cultures

2026 – Session 1, Online-flexible

General Information

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Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff Convenor and lecturer
Eve Vincent
eve.vincent@mq.edu.au
Contact via email
25WW, B220
By appointment
Credit points Credit points
10
Prerequisites Prerequisites
(ANTH150 or ANTH1050) or (40cp at 1000 level or above)
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description

Food is a necessity for human survival. Yet food means many things in different contexts and everyday eating practices vary widely across cultures and across time. How might we understand the diverse deeper cultural, social and political significance of food? This unit focusses on the richly meaningful everyday activities of cooking and eating meals. The study of food, eating and hunger has long held a particular fascination for anthropologists — from the social rules that shape the ways people eat together, to food taboos, to the divergent ways different societies relate to and subsist within their local environments. The unit explores foundational anthropological ideas about eating as a social practice, the basis of taboos, and debates about the consumption of human flesh. It then explores gender and food, the contemporary global food system, and questions of class and inequality. Students will develop an understanding of the extraordinary variety of food likes and dislikes and different practices surrounding food in a range of ethnographic contexts. Students will apply these insights to evocation and analysis of a personal experience of cooking and/or eating a meal, via ethnographic writing.

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:

  • ULO1: Apply anthropological knowledge and theory to the study of food and culture. 
  • ULO2: Analyse the relationship between food and power in the global food system.
  • ULO3: Apply anthropological theory to the study of food-related practices in contemporary Australia.
  • ULO4: Illuminate the meaning of familiar cultural practices relating to food, cooking and/or eating via ethnographic writing. 

General Assessment Information

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, a 5% penalty (of the total possible mark) will be applied each day a written assessment is not submitted, up until the 7th day (including weekends). After the 7th day, a mark of‚ 0 (zero) will be awarded even if the assessment is submitted. Submission time for all written assessments is set at 11.55pm. A 1-hour grace period is provided to students who experience a technical issue.

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Hurdle Due Groupwork/Individual Short Extension AI Approach
Reflective journal 30% No 05/04/2026 Individual No Observed
Concept map 20% No 03/05/2026 Individual No Open
Ethnographic essay 50% No 24/05/2026 Individual No Open

Reflective journal

Assessment Type 1: Reflection task
Indicative Time on Task 2: 10 hours
Due: 05/04/2026
Weighting: 30%
Groupwork/Individual: Individual
Short extension 3: No
AI Approach: Observed

3 x 250 word reflections on weekly topics. 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Apply anthropological knowledge and theory to the study of food and culture. 

Concept map

Assessment Type 1: Experiential task
Indicative Time on Task 2: 34 hours
Due: 03/05/2026
Weighting: 20%
Groupwork/Individual: Individual
Short extension 3: No
AI Approach: Open

A concept map of "global industrial agriculture", identifying relationships between unit readings and lectures.
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Analyse the relationship between food and power in the global food system.

Ethnographic essay

Assessment Type 1: Experiential task
Indicative Time on Task 2: 50 hours
Due: 24/05/2026
Weighting: 50%
Groupwork/Individual: Individual
Short extension 3: No
AI Approach: Open

1500-word account of an eating event you have closely observed and participated in.
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Apply anthropological theory to the study of food-related practices in contemporary Australia.
  • Illuminate the meaning of familiar cultural practices relating to food, cooking and/or eating via ethnographic writing. 

1 If you need help with your assignment, please contact:

  • the academic teaching staff in your unit for guidance in understanding or completing this type of assessment
  • Academic Success for academic skills support.

2 Indicative time-on-task is an estimate of the time required for completion of the assessment task and is subject to individual variation.

3 An automatic short extension is available for some assessments. Apply through the Service Connect Portal.

Delivery and Resources

All readings are available via the Leganto library and the iLearn site for this unit. 

Unit Schedule

Week 1

Eating together

Week 2

Taste and taboo

Week 3

Cannibals?

Week 4

Our ancestors’ diets

Week 5

 Gender

Week 6

Cooking and kitchens

Week 7

Fast food

Week 8

Slow food

Week 9

Class and taste

Week 10

Global hunger 

Week 11

Commensality denied?

Week 12

Eating this continent

Week 13

Conclusion

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Students seeking more policy resources can visit Student Policies (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/policies). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.

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Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/admin/other-resources/student-conduct

Results

Results published on platform other than eStudent, (eg. iLearn, Coursera etc.) or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit connect.mq.edu.au or if you are a Global MBA student contact globalmba.support@mq.edu.au

Academic Integrity

At Macquarie, we believe academic integrity – honesty, respect, trust, responsibility, fairness and courage – is at the core of learning, teaching and research. We recognise that meeting the expectations required to complete your assessments can be challenging. So, we offer you a range of resources and services to help you reach your potential, including free online writing and maths support, academic skills development and wellbeing consultations.

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Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

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Academic Success provides resources to develop your English language proficiency, academic writing, and communication skills.

The Library provides online and face to face support to help you find and use relevant information resources. 

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Student Enquiries

Got a question? Ask us via the Service Connect Portal, or contact Service Connect.

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When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.

Unit information based on version 2026.04 of the Handbook