Environments and Peoples: The Geography of Food
GEOG 4742
Terroir and Identity Class Notes
Office: Guggenheim 103B
Office Phone: 492-5388
Office Hours: by appointment
Home phone: 303 875 3078 (please don’t call 6-8pm or after
10 pm)
Email:elizabeth.dunn@colorado.edu
Audrey
Richards, the great British anthropologist, once pointed out that the need to
eat is the most basic and important of all human drives. We need food more frequently and more
urgently than we need even sex. The
central place of food in our lives has made food one of the major foci of human
existence. How we grow, process,
distribute, and consume our food often defines us as a society.
Human
beings often organize societies around food production. By hiring or enslaving others to produce
food, members of one social group exert power over other groups. Human beings from one culture are connected
to people in far away places and vastly different cultures because they trade
food with them: for example, Americans are connected to people all over the
world through the export of Coca-Cola.
People cement our social connections to one another by exchanging food,
as Americans do at Thanksgiving dinner, or Polynesians do at a ritual pig roast. And food is one of the most deeply symbolic
of all substances. The French or the
Italians define their nationality partially through their cuisine, for example,
so that to "be Italian" is to eat pasta. Lovers symbolize the sweetness of their
affections by giving one another chocolate, and Christians symbolize their
relationship to their Savior by consuming bread and wine.
In this
course, we are going to study two broad elements of food. The first is the political economy of food.
We will look at food as a commodity,
study where it comes from, how it connects members of different societies
and social groups as it travels along the commodity chain, and how it creates
social and geopolitical inequalities. We
will also study food as culture,
including the symbolic meanings of different foods in various world cultures,
the role of food in defining gender and ethnicity, and the role of food in
religious practice.
LOGISTICS
Course
Requirements
(1)
Midterm Exam: There will be a midterm examination, which will be essay
based. It will be based on---but not
identical to—the questions you’re given to write on each week.
(2)
Final Exam: There will
be an in-class final exam. It will be
essay-based. You may wish to think about
the questions that you do not write about, and perhaps outline an answer for
them, as they are highly likely to turn up on the final.
(3)
Thoughtful, active participation in class. Participation is
worth 10% of your grade. Merely
attending class does not count as “participation”—you must come prepared and
join in the discussion and you must do the activities in a thoughtful, involved
manner. Activities will not be graded,
but I will note whether or not you complete them in a satisfactory manner and
apply this to your participation grade.
I will also note your verbal participation. Please note how important your participation
is to your grade!!
GRADING
Assignment Unit points Total
points
Midterm 1 at 40 points 40
Final 1 at 50
points 50
Participation 1 at 10 points 10
This
course will be graded on a curve. If you
do not understand what a bell curve is, or how curved grades are determined,
please see me by May 14 for an explanation.
(1) Please arrive on time. When we’re all in
the classroom on time, we all stay on the same page and the flow of class
discussion is vastly improved. Coming
late disrupts other students, breaks the flow of discussion, and disturbs
me. For that reason, I will lower your
participation grade if you are habitually late.
(2) Please treat one another respectfully. In this class, we will often deal with
controversial issues and have spirited debates and discussions. Two people in the class may have positions
which are precisely opposite from one another, and each may be equally
passionately held. It is okay—and even encouraged—for you to disagree with each other and
with me, as long as it is done respectfully.
(3)Always write in your own words. Do not plagiarize---EVER! Plagiarism is an endemic problem in the
academy, but it cheats the student and it cheats the people students plagiarize
from. If I discover you have
plagiarized, you will be reported to the dean as a plagiarist. The university’s statement on plagiarism is
as follows:
Plagiarism is defined as the use of another's ideas or words
without acknowledgment. Examples of plagiarism include: failing to use
quotation marks when quoting from a source; failing to document distinctive
ideas from a source; fabricating or inventing sources; and copying information
from computer-based sources.
Violations
of the ban on plagiarism include plagiarizing from other students. Do not, under any circumstances, copy papers
written by another student. If you copy
someone else’s work, or allow someone to copy yours, you will receive an
automatic F and be reported to the dean.
If you
have any questions about how to properly cite an author’s work, check out the
Chicago Manual of Style or the American Anthropological Association’s style
guide, which is available online at: www.ameranthassn.org/pubs/style_guide.htm
(4) Honesty: I expect you to adhere to the CU honor
code. Any violations will be reported to
the Honor Board and
you will be dismissed from this course.
If you have any questions about the Honor Code, please look at the
following website: http://www.colorado.edu/academics/honorcode/
(5) Attendance
and
6) Religious Observances:
I will accommodate anyone who must
miss class due to a religious observance.
Please contact me in writing by January 30 to inform me of which courses
you will miss, and I will arrange a makeup.
(7) Disabilities :If you qualify for accommodations because of a
disability please submit to me a letter from Disability Services by May 14 so
that your needs may be addressed. Disability Services determines accommodations
based on documented disabilities (303-492-8671, Willard 322, www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices).
(10)Communication: I believe that the most important learning you will do will
happen outside this classroom. For that reason, I want to make it easier for
us to communicate with one another outside classroom hours. I will endeavor to return all emails within
48 hours, but please be advised that I reserve my weekends for my family and
don’t check email.
You
should also know how to get in touch with at least two of your classmates to
get notes, check facts, and discuss issues.
Please write down the names, telephone numbers, and email addresses of
two of your classmates here:
Classmate1:______________________________________________________________
Classmate
2:_____________________________________________________________
The books by Schlosser, Friedberg and Belasco are available at the bookstore. Articles with the notation (B) after them are in the Belasco reader. Articles with CV after them are in the Counihan/Van Esterik reader. All other articles are available on electronic reserve at Norlin Library.
PART ONE: THE POLITICAL
ECONOMY OF FOOD
May 12: Introduction
Film: Modern Meat
Assignment: Food Diaries
May 13: Food Safety and Quality
May 14: Globalizing
Agribusiness and Commodity Chains
Heffernan
and Constance, "Transnational Corporations"
Friedland,
"The New Globalization: The Case of Fresh Produce."
Bestor,
“Supply Side Sushi”
May 15: Grades and Standards in the World Economy
Dunn, “Trojan Pig”
Goldman,
"The World According to Fruit"
May 16: Agriculture
in the World System
May 19: Agriculture in the World System
May 20: MIDTERM EXAM
PART TWO: CULTURES AND
CUISINES
May 21: Organics: The Quest for "Pure" Food
Buck, et. al., "From Farm to Table”
Guthman, "Fast Food/Organic Food"
Wurgaft, "East of
May 22: Eating Identity I
Mintz, "Eating American"
May 23: Eating Identity II
Gabbaccia, “As American as Budweiser and Pickles?” (B)
Penfold,
“Eddie Shack was No Tim Horton” (B)
Activity: ALBA RISTORANTE,
May 27: Feeding
Children: Gender and Food
Allison, “Japanese Mothers and Obentos”
Wright, et. al., “Cultural Interpretations and Intracultural Variability in Navajo Beliefs about Breastfeeding”
May 28: Undernourishment: Fasting and Anorexia
Bordo, "Anorexia Nervosa"
Bynum, "Fast, Feast and
Flesh"
May 29: Undernourishment: Famine
Sen, “Food and Freedom”
May 30: FINAL EXAM