Overview

Unlike food publications that have been more organized along regional or disciplinary lines, this edited volume is distinctive in that it brings together anthropologists, archaeologists, area study specialists, linguists and food policy administrators to explore the following questions: What kinds of changes in food and foodways are happening? What triggers change and how are the changes impacting identity politics? In terms of scope and organization, this book offers a vast historical extent ranging from the 5th mill BCE to the present day. In addition, it presents case studies from across the world, including Asia, the Pacific, the Middle East, Europe and America. Finally, this collection of essays presents diverse perspectives and differing methodologies. It is an accessible introduction to the study of food, social change and identity. Cynthia Chou is Professor of Anthropology, C. Maxwell and Elizabeth M. Stanley Family Chair of Asian Studies and Director of the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies at the University of Iowa, USA. She received her Ph.D. in Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, U.K. in 1994 and was awarded in 2011 the highest Danish academic degree of dr. phil. by the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, in recognition of her work on the sea nomads of Indonesia. Susanne Kerner is Associate Professor in Near Eastern Archaeology in the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. She was the director of the German Protestant Institute for Archaeology and History in Amman, Jordan until 1996. Since that time, she has directed and co-directed several excavations and surveys in Jordan from the Neolithic to the Classic periods.