The Anthropology of Food and Nutrition

Mel Wenger, DPhil [email protected]

The Anthropology of Food and Nutrition : Implications for Global Health Governance

Global Collaborative Summer Programme (3 Credits) Kyung Hee University Seoul, Korea 2016

Course Overview

Food is central to global health. Obesity and non-communicable diseases related to poor nutrition are the leading cause of death globally, and are of central concern to the World Health Organisation (WHO). According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), hunger and food insecurity, which are linked to a range of poor health outcomes, affect one in eight people worldwide every day. While this figure is decreasing, climate change and increasing global inequality may push more people into hunger in future. At the same time, the UN Environment Programme highlights how food production, transport, storage, consumption and waste have significant environmental and economic impacts.

Food is also central to our sense of identity. In biomedical terms, food is composed of nutrients which fuel the body. But we don’t eat nutrients, we eat food. From an anthropological perspective, food and eating – what we eat, who we eat with, and what we consider to be ‘good’ food, for example – are affected by our everyday sociocultural, environmental, historical and political ecological context. Food is produced, given, sold, advertised and traded; food is also sensed, tasted, and experienced. Anthropologists studying food work at different scales, from the home kitchen to the global food system; some work in different societies, while others follow specific foods as they move from farm to fork. This course will explore some of this anthropological research relating to food, identity and nutrition, and consider what it can contribute to global health governance.

Objectives

1. To introduce key concepts in the anthropology and sociology of food and nutrition.

1 2. To explain the role that identity plays in influencing food choices and patterns of consumption.

3. To give an overview of the historical and political backgrounds of global health governance structures, especially those that relate to food and nutrition.

4. To cultivate an interdisciplinary perspective on current and future global health challenges related to food and nutrition.

5. To apply research both critically and constructively to thinking about strategies used in global health governance.

Course Outline

We will meet for fifteen three-hour classes (45 hours in total). Classes will be formed of lectures, discussions and case studies, short films and practical exercises. Students will work in small teams of around four students. Throughout, students will be encouraged to think critically and creatively about food and the health problems associated with it. Classes will trace developments in the global food landscape over time, and analyze how these changes impact human health. Major health themes addressed are: vitamin deficiency; undernutrition and infectious diseases; obesity and non-communicable diseases; and food safety and sustainability.

In addition to the classes, students are encouraged to talk with those of other nationalities about food, health and eating in their local context. They are also encouraged to pay careful attention to the local food environment.

Requirements

Students will be required to come to class ready to discuss the preparatory readings. The final grade will be calculated on the basis of class participation (20%), practical exercises and debates (50%), and a group oral presentation (30%).

Class Participation (20%) Besides attendance, effective class participation includes: asking questions; making comments, critiques and creative suggestions; debating ideas; listening to other members of the class and thinking about what they have to say; contributing additional ideas based on personal experience and reading; and taking risks with suggesting new ideas.

Practical Exercises and Debates (50%) Sociology and anthropology use a unique set of research methods that contribute to a deeper understanding of human behaviour. Many of our classes will include practical

2 exercises that utilize these research methods, and we will be applying them in ways that are useful for gaining a deeper understanding of food and society. Following the exercises, we will have group discussions about how our findings can be used to develop strategies for global health governance. Students will be graded on their data, typed summaries submitted after each exercise (1-3 pages), as well as on the brief oral presentations that accompany each exercise.

Group Oral Presentation (30%) Each team will work together to develop and present a twenty-minute talk on the theme: ‘What will we be eating in fifty years and why?’ Teams will select one theme, from a list including:

 Nutrition transitions and the challenge of healthy diets

 Identity and consumption

 Food security and the politics of feeding the poor

 Global markets, meanings and brands

 New foods, old foods and the importance of social cohesion

 Rapid transitions, human development and genetics

Students are encouraged to think about the main stakeholders and key issues introduced during classes, but may also explore more widely. Teams are encouraged to be as creative as they wish; just remember to use evidence to support any claims. Presentations will be held in the final class.

Resources

Articles and chapters for the course will be distributed electronically. Students may wish to explore additional literature referenced during classes, and/or in relation to their own key interests. A list of further readings and lecture references will be distributed at each class.

Preparatory Readings

Prior to the first class, please read and arrive ready to discuss the following:

Erikson, Kai T. 1976 Everything in its Path: Destruction of Community in the Buffalo Creek Flood. New York: Simon and Schuster Paperbacks.

3 Chapters ‘Buffalo Creek’ Pp. 115-132 and ‘Collective Trauma: Loss of Communality’ Pp.186-245

Ritzer, George 2015 The McDonaldization of Society. 8th edition. Los Angeles: Sage. Chapter 1: ‘An Introduction to McDonaldization’, Pp. 1-27.

Wilk, Richard 2013 Real Belizean Food: Building a Local Identity in the Transnational Caribbean. In Food and Culture: A Reader. 3rd edition. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik, ed. Pp. 375-393. New York: Routledge.

4 CLASS SUMMARIES AND PREPARATORY READINGS

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WEEK 1 FOOD AND IDENTITY

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Monday, July 4th Introduction: Identity, Community and Patterns of Consumption

Preparatory readings for Tuesday:

Fischler, Claude 1988 Food, Self, and Identity. Social Science Information 27(2):275-292.

Reinarman, Craig 1995 The Twelve-Step Movement and Advanced Capitalist Culture: The Politics of Self-Control in Postmodernity. In Cultural Politics and Social Movements. Marcy Darnovsky, Barbara Epstein, and Richard Flacks, eds. Pp. 90-109. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Srinivas, Tulasi 2013 ‘As Mother Made it’: The Cosmopolitan Indian Family, ‘Authentic’ Food, and the Construction of Cultural Utopia. In Food and Culture: A Reader. 3rd edition. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik, ed. Pp. 375-393. New York: Routledge.

Tuesday, July 5th Food and Social Cohesion

Preparatory readings for Wednesday:

Clark, Dylan 2013 The Raw and the Rotten: Punk Cuisine. In Food and Culture: A Reader. 3rd edition. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik, ed. Pp. 230-242. New York: Routledge.

5 Leitch, Alison 2013 The Slow Food Movement and the Politics of ‘Virtuous Globalization’. In Food and Culture: A Reader. 3rd edition. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik, ed. Pp. 409-425. New York: Routledge.

OR Guthman, Julie 2013 Fast Food/Organic Food: Reflexive Tastes and the Making of ‘Yuppie Chow’. In Food and Culture: A Reader. 3rd edition. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik, ed. Pp. 409-425. New York: Routledge.

Kristensen, Dorthe Brogård, Heidi Boye, and Søren Askegaard 2011 Leaving the Milky Way! The Formation of a Consumer Counter Mythology. Journal of Consumer Culture 11(2):195-214.

Ritzer, George 2015 The McDonaldization of Society. 8th edition. Los Angeles: Sage. Chapter 8: ‘Dealing with McDonaldization’ Pp. 159-184.

Sassatelli, Roberta and Frederica Davolio 2010 Consumption, Pleasure and Politics: Slow Food and the Politico- Aesthetic Problematization of Food. Journal of Consumer Culture 10(2):202-232.

Wednesday, July 6th Food and Identities of Resistance

Preparatory readings for Thursday:

Boero, Natalie and C.J. Pascoe 2012 Pro-anorexia Communities and Online Interaction: Bringing the Pro-Ana Body Online. Body and Society 18(2):27-57.

Coleman, Rebecca 2010 Dieting Temporalities: Interaction, Agency and the Measure of Online Weight Watching. Time and Society 19(2):265-285.

Niezen, Ronald 2013 Internet Suicide: Communities of Affirmation and the Lethality of Communication. Transcultural Psychiatry 0(0):1-20.

6 Ritzer, George 2015 The McDonaldization of Society. 8th edition. Los Angeles: Sage. Chapter 9: ‘Globalization and the Possibility of the DeMcDonaldization of Society?’ Pp. 184-209.

Thursday, July 7th Communities Go Online: Food, Identity and Disembodied Selves

Preparatory readings for Friday: Bourdieu, Pierre 2013[1979] Distinction. Richard Nice, trans. In Food and Culture: A Reader. 3rd edition. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik, ed. Pp. 30-39. New York: Routledge.

Hearn, Alison 2008 ‘Meat, Mask, Burden’: Probing the Contours of the Branded ‘Self’. Journal of Consumer Culture 8(2):197-217.

Reith, Gerda and Fiona Dobbie 2012 Lost in the Game: Narratives of Addiction and Identity in Recovery from Problem Gambling. Addiction Research and Theory 20(6):511-521.

Readings related to group projects: ‘What we will be eating in fifty years and why’.

Friday, July 8th The Future of Food and Identity: A Case Study of Food Allergy Dating Websites

Preparatory readings for Monday:

Gardner, Gary and Brian Halweil 2000 Overfed and Underfed: The Global Epidemic of Malnutrition. Worldwatch Paper 150. Washington: Worldwatch Institute.

Manary, Mark J., Robin L Broadhead and Keven E Yarasheski 1998 Whole-Body Protein Kinetics in Marasmus and Kwashiorkor During Acute Infection. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 67:1205-1209.

Murray, M.J., Anne B. Murray, Megan B. Murray and C.J. Murray 1978 The Adverse Effect of Iron Repletion on the Course of Certain Infections. British Medical Journal 2:1113-1115.

7 Van Esterik, Penny 2013 The Politics of Breastfeeding: An Advocacy Update. In Food and Culture: A Reader. 3rd edition. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik, ed. Pp. 509-530. New York: Routledge.

8 WEEK 2 NUTRITION TRANSITIONS, FOOD AND GLOBAL HEALTH ______

Monday, July 11th Micronutrient Malnutrition, Macronutrient Malnutrition and Infectious Diseases

Hughes, Robert G. and Mark A. Lawrence 2005 Globalisation, Food and Health in Pacific Island Countries. Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition 14(4):298-306.

Kruger, Lou-Marié and Marleen Lourens 2016 Motherhood and the ‘Madness of Hunger’: ‘…Want Almal Vra vir My vir ‘n Stukkie Brood’ (‘…Because Everyone Asks Me for a Little Piece of Bread’). Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 40:124-143.

McCutcheon, Priscilla 2013 Community Food Security ‘For Us, By Us’: The Nation of Islam and the Pan African Orthodox Christian Church. In Food and Culture: A Reader. 3rd edition. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik, ed. Pp. 571-586. New York: Routledge.

Poppendiek, Janet 2013 Want Amid Plenty: From Hunger to Inequality. In Food and Culture: A Reader. 3rd edition. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik, ed. Pp. 562-571. New York: Routledge.

Tuesday, July 12th Food Security

Ceccarini, Rosella: 2013 Food Workers as Individual Agents of Culinary Globalization: Pizza and

9 Pizzaioli in Japan. In Food and Culture: A Reader. 3rd edition. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik, ed. Pp. 436-447. New York: Routledge.

Goody, Jack 2013 Industrial Food: Towards the Development of a World Cuisine. In Food and Culture: A Reader. 3rd edition. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik, ed. Pp. 71-90. New York: Routledge.

Yan, Yungxiang 2013 Of Hamburger and Social Space: Consuming McDonald’s in Beijing. In Food and Culture: A Reader. 3rd edition. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik, ed. Pp. 448-471. New York: Routledge.

Popkin, Barry M. 1999 Urbanization, Lifestyle Changes and the Nutrition Transition. World Development 27(11):1905-1916.

Ritzer, George 2015 The McDonaldization of Society. 8th edition. Los Angeles: Sage. Chapter 3: ‘Efficacy and Calculability: Consumers 1’ Pp. 57-63 AND Pp. 68-76 ONLY (i.e. Efficiency: Drive-Troughs and Finger Foods - Shopping: Creating Ever-More Efficient Selling Machines AND Simplifying the Product – The Fast-Food Industry: Of ‘Big Bites’ and ‘Super Big Gulps’).

Come to class ready to give a brief presentation (a few minutes) on the history of a food or meal that is culturally important to you (for example, see http://www.juliussturgis.com/aboutpretzels.html for a brief history on pretzels).

Wednesday July 13th Nutrition Transitions in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Griffiths, Paula L. and Margaret E. Bentley 2001 The Nutrition Transition is Underway in India. Community and International Nutrition 131(10):2692-2700.

10 Hawkes, Corinna 2006 Uneven Dietary Development: Linking the Policies and Processes of Globalization with the Nutrition Transition, Obesity and Diet-Related Chronic Diseases. Globalization and Health 2(4).

Prentice, Andrew M. 2006 The Emerging Epidemic of Obesity in Developing Countries. International Journal of Epidemiology 35:93-99.

Thursday July 14th Rapid Nutrition Transitions and the Dual Burden of Disease

Preparatory readings for Friday:

Brussaard, Lijbert, Patrick Caron, Bruce Campbell, Leslie Lipper, Susan Mainka, Rudy Rabbinge, Didier Babin and Mirjam Pulleman 2010 Reconciling Biodiversity Conservation and Food Security: Scientific Challenges for a New Agriculture. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2:34-42.

Clapp, Jennifer 2013 The Political Economy of Food Aid in an Era of Biocultural Technology. In Food and Culture: A Reader. 3rd edition. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik, ed. Pp. 530-544. New York: Routledge.

Godfray H. Charles J., Ian R. Crute, Lawrence Haddad, David Lawrence, James F. Muir, Nicholas Nisbett, Jules Pretty, Sherman Robinson, Camilla Toulmin, Rosalind Whiteley 2010 The Future of the Global Food System. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 365:2769-2777.

Satcher, David 2000 Food Safety: A Growing Global Health Problem. Journal of the American Medical Association 283(14):1817.

Friday, July 15th The Future of Global Food Markets and their Impact on the Environment

Preparatory readings for Monday:

Drewnowski, Adam

11 2004 Obesity and the Food Environment. American Journal of Preventative Medicine. 27(3s):154-162.

2010 The Cost of U.S. Foods as Related to Their Nutritive Value. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 92:1181-8.

Drewnowski, Adam, Colin Rehm, Chi Kao, and Harold Goldstein 2009 Poverty and Childhood Overweight in California Assembly Districts. Health and Place 15:631-635.

Drewnowski, Adam, Colin D. Rehm, and David Solet 2007 Disparities in Obesity Rates: Analysis by ZIP Code Area. Social Science and Medicine 65:2458-2463.

Nabhan, Gary Paul 2013 Rooting Out the Causes of Disease: Why Diabetes is so Common Among Desert Dwellers. In Food and Culture: A Reader. 3rd edition. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik, ed. Pp. 329-340. New York: Routledge.

Swinburn, Boyd A., Gary Sacks, Kevin D. Hall, Klim McPherson, Diane T. Finegood, Marjory L. Moodie and Steven L. Gortmaker 2011 The Global Obesity Pandemic: Shaped by Global Drivers and Local Environments. Lancet 378:804-814.

Ulijaszek, Stanley and Daniel Schwekendiek 2013 Intercontinental Differences in Overweight of Adopted Koreans in the United States and Europe. Economics and Human Biology 11:345-350.

12 WEEK 3 OBESITY AND NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES

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Monday, July 18th ‘Obesity’ Vs. ‘Obesities’

Barbieri, Marco A., André K. Portella, Patrícia P. Silveira, Heloísa Bettiol, Marilyn Agranonik, Antônio A. Silva, and Marcelo Z. Goldani 2009 Severe Intrauterine Growth Restriction Is Associated With Higher Spontaneous Carbohydrate Intake in Young Women. Pediatric Research 65(2):215-220.

Barker, David J.P. 2012 Developmental Origins of Chronic Disease. Public Health 126:185-189.

Mannella, Julie A., Coren P. Jagnow and Gary K. Beauchamp 2001 Prenatal and Postnatal Flavor Learning by Human Infants. Pediatrics 107(6):1-12.

Perälä, Mia-Maria, Satu Männistö, Niina E. Kaartinen, Eero Kajantie, Clive Osmond, David J. P. Barker, Liisa M. Valsta and Johan G. Eriksson 2012 Body Size at Birth Is Associated with Food and Nutrient Intake in Adulthood. PLOS ONE 7(9):1-6.

Portella, A.K., E. Kajantie, P. Hovi, M. Desai, M.G. Ross, M.Z. Goldani, T.J. Roseboom and P.P. Silveira 2012 Effects of in utero Conditions on Adult Feeding Preferences. Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease 3(3):140-152.

Wells, Jonathan C.K. 2007 The Thrifty Phenotype as an Adaptive Maternal Effect. Biological Reviews 82:143-172.

13 Tuesday, July 19th Epigenetics, Nutrition and Growth

Bordo, Susan 2013 Not Just ‘a White Girl’s Thing’: The Changing Face of Food and Body Image Problems. In Food and Culture: A Reader. 3rd edition. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik, ed. Pp. 264-275. New York: Routledge.

Featherstone, Mike 2010 Body, Image and Affect in Consumer Culture. Body and Society 16(1):193-221.

Parasecoli, Fabio 2013 Feeding Hard Bodies: Food and Masculinities in Men’s Fitness Magazines. In Food and Culture: A Reader. 3rd edition. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik, ed. Pp. 283-298. New York: Routledge.

Wednesday, July 20th ‘Healthy’ Bodies, Food and Aesthetics

Brownell, Kelly D. and Mark S. Gold 2012 Food and Addiction: Scientific, Social, Legal and Legislative Implications. In Food and Addiction: A Comprehensive Handbook. Kelly D. Brownell and Mark S. Gold, eds. Pp. 439-446. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Offer, Avner 2001 Body Weight and Self-Control in the United States and Britain Since the 1950s. The Society for the Social History of Medicine 14(1):79-106.

Reinarman, Craig 2007 Policing Pleasure: Food, Drugs, and the Politics of Ingestion. Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture 7(3):53-61.

Sedgwick, Eve 1994 Tendencies. London: Routledge. Chapter ‘Epidemics of the Will’ Pp. 130-142.

14 Thursday, July 21st Eating Disorders and ‘Addictions’ to Food

Preparatory readings for Friday:

Readings related to group projects: ‘What we will be eating in fifty years and why’.

Friday, July 22nd Conclusion: Applying Sociological and Anthropological Concepts of Food and Eating to Global Health Governance