Food Consumption in Global Perspective

The globalization of food consumption has often been equated with the loss of culinary traditions and the homogenization of cuisines. By contrast, the anthropologists, historians and sociologists contributing to this collection reveal both rapid changes and also profound and sometimes surprising con [...]
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The globalization of food consumption has often been equated with the loss of culinary traditions and the homogenization of cuisines. By contrast, the anthropologists, historians and sociologists contributing to this collection reveal both rapid changes and also profound and sometimes surprising continuities in local food consumption practices in the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and use these to shed light on shifting social boundaries and cultural identities. The volume combines ethnographic, historical and comparative analyses, situating local practices of eating, cooking and sharing food within transnational processes and contexts. In so doing, the volume celebrates and furthers approaches developed in Jack Goody's seminal 1982 book, Cooking, Cuisine and Class: A Study in Comparative Sociology. With studies of China, India, West Africa, South America and Europe, the book provides a truly global perspective on the social dynamics of food consumption in the modern world.