ANT 480H1S The Anthropology of Corn Thursdays 12-2 pm, Classes begin January 12 and end April 5, 2012 Instructor: Lauren Classen Contact Details:
[email protected] Class Location: Sidney Smith 2101 Office Hours: Thursdays 2-3:30pm Drop Box for late papers: 19 Russell, Located outside the administrative offices (in the corner to the right of the elevator and stairs) Course Description: Corn is one of the most important grains in the world. It is in everything from pop, granola bars, pasta sauces, yogurt, and brandy, to toothpaste, concrete, wallboard and bio-fuels. Domesticated an estimated 6,000 – 10,000 years ago in Central America, corn is the staple food in much of Latin America and Africa today. Tracing a single food from production to consumption is a common method used in anthropology of food to explore cultural, political, economic and environmental factors related to food culture and health. See for example Mintz (1985) on sugar, Smith (1994) on the tomato, Willard (2001) on saffron, and Jenkins (2000) on bananas. Due to its global significance and increasing demands for its use (from food to fuel for example), corn provides a valuable tool for examining anthropological perspectives on the history, political economy, identity politics, globalization, nutrition and cultures of food. This course draws on socio-cultural anthropology, medical anthropology, the anthropology of food, the anthropology of gender, and the anthropology of development and examines contemporary patterns of globalization, food cultures, food trade, and health and nutrition implications of international food policies. Approach: This course is structured in seminar format.