Teaching
Cultural Anthropology
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Unit 4
Food
Food is vital for our survival as human beings, but it also plays a major role in how people determine where they fit in their society, remember their collective histories, and shape their lives. In this unit, students are encouraged to consider the implications of anthropological findings on how culture determines what people consider food and how politics shapes what people consume and how we do so.
Sapiens articles
Food Is About Far More Than Bodily Sustenance
The North American food system prioritizes food that is inexpensive and fills the belly, without nourishing families, cultures, or social networks. We have much to learn.
Why Don’t More Humans Eat Bugs?
Around the world, at least 2 billion people routinely consume insects. One anthropologist believes geography and colonization can explain why some populations are too squeamish to stomach such foods.
Keywords
View All in Culture
![A photo shows the back of a person in a dark suitcoat standing at a podium and speaking to a large, captive, seated audience. Most onlookers wear red MAGA hats and Trump T-shirts.]()
![A gnarled tree stands on a reddish cliff, beyond which stretches a landscape of deeply hued sandstone plateaus that an ox-bowed river cuts through.]()
![A black painted hand covered in red paint holds a skull figure decorated with floral patterns in shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Painted white with black accents to resemble a skull, the face—and also gray hair and flower headband—of the person holding the skull are blurry in the background.Cindy Ord/Getty Images]()
![A stream of clear water pours into an orange bucket. Behind it, two slightly out-of-focus women and a child look on.]()
![Two pairs of scissors, two rocks, and two slips of paper rest on a pale-yellow surface.]()
![A man in a t-shirt, jacket, and jeans sits comfortably with a leg folded, on a stage. A microphone extends in front of him.]()
Five Reasons Why Trump Won Again
In an effort to address toxic polarization in the U.S., an anthropologist of the “Trumpiverse” explains MAGA supporters’ thinking in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
Gathering Firewood—and Redefining Land Stewardship—at Bears Ears
At Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, a new co-management plan brings together federal agencies and a consortium of Native American tribes—revealing deep tensions over land rights and demands for environmental justice.
Harvest Song
A poet-anthropologist celebrates relatedness across difference in a poem that honors the festivals of Navratri, Durga Puja, Kali Puja, Day of the Dead, and Halloween—all of which draw on otherworldly connections and mysteries.
How Water Insecurity Impacts Women’s Health
Anthropologists and local activists in Indonesia and Peru uncover links between water scarcity and gendered violence, and work together to lessen the harms of gender inequality.
Playing Rock, Paper, Scissors Across the Red-Blue Divide
As toxic polarization deepens in the U.S., some global conflict prevention experts are now addressing political violence at home. An anthropologist shares three key insights from a community action program in Wisconsin.
Revisiting the Spiritual Violence of BS Jobs
Anthropologist David Graeber’s celebrated theory of “bullshit jobs” continues to provide a critical window into why modern work is often so useless, soul-sucking, and absurd.
View All in Environment
![A large moose stands in the shallow waters of a lake at sunset, with the water reflecting vibrant golden and orange hues.]()
![A gnarled tree stands on a reddish cliff, beyond which stretches a landscape of deeply hued sandstone plateaus that an ox-bowed river cuts through.]()
![A whale’s tail appears above the water, creating white foam as it splashes on the ocean’s surface. A small bird flies in the background.]()
![A large metal sign with the letters S.O.S. carved through it stands in a shallow lake in front of a blue sky with pink clouds.]()
![People wearing brown and tan coats shop in front of a woman in a pink outfit beneath a neon blue sign that reads SHEIN (pronounced “she-in”).]()
![A person wearing a snorkel, wetsuit, and flippers floats underwater as sunlight streams into the ocean. In the background, another diver swims near the surface.]()
Do Moose “Belong” in Colorado?
As moose populations multiply in the Southern Rocky Mountains, decision-makers are questioning whether the animals are endemic or invaders. Archaeology can offer answers—and potential solutions.
Gathering Firewood—and Redefining Land Stewardship—at Bears Ears
At Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, a new co-management plan brings together federal agencies and a consortium of Native American tribes—revealing deep tensions over land rights and demands for environmental justice.
Protecting Ancestral Waters Through Collaborative Stewardship
The proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, along California’s Central Coast, would be the first of its kind in the U.S. to be nominated by Native peoples.
Can Art Save the “Post-Apocalyptic” Salton Sea?
In this Mad Max–like California landscape, artists and activists are inventing renewable alternatives to the capitalist system that’s developing but also destroying the region.
Can “Made in China” Become a Beacon of Sustainability?
In the epicenter of fast fashion, a small cohort of Chinese eco-friendly designers is amplifying the call for a less wasteful and environmentally destructive clothing culture.
A Freediver Finds Belonging Without Breath
An anthropologist takes us on a journey “down the line” to explore what freediving can teach us about ourselves and kinship with the sea.
View All in Evolution
![An ape-like mannequin, with protruding facial features and a body covered in fur, stands in a museum exhibition under dramatic lighting. Next to it, a text panel starts, “The human story begins.”]()
![A bearded man in a vest and red scarf holds up his two hands in loose blue gloves, with a small tooth in each hand.]()
![A historic black-and-white photograph shows a small group of workers on the floor of a pin manufacturing plant tending to rows of machines.]()
![A person with short gray hair wearing a blue shirt holds a black camera up to their face and points it at a figure that looks like a hairy unclothed person with one hand on their lap and the other on its chin.]()
![In a dark and rainy forest, a large Tyrannosaurus rex stares into a green car with its headlights on. The car has a yellow and black graphic on its hood with text that reads, “Jurassic Park.”]()
![On a paved city street fenced off and lined with people, three people wearing colorful clothing stand and hold signs. These read: “Monogamy is not for everyone,” “I love my girlfriend’s boyfriend,” and “Sharing is Caring.”]()
Lessons From Lucy
Fifty years ago, the remains of an Australopithecus afarensis ancestor, named “Lucy” by archaeologists, rewrote the story of human evolution.
Unraveling a “Ghost” Neanderthal Lineage
Remains in France found by archaeologists and geneticists suggest at least two lineages—not just one—of late Neanderthals in Europe.
How Allocating Work Aided Our Evolutionary Success
Societies divide labor by gender and age. A biological anthropologist considers when and why this behavior arose.
What’s Behind the Evolution of Neanderthal Portraits
Since the 1800s, Neanderthal depictions have evolved not only with changing science but also due to social views. An archaeologist explains why visualizations of our evolutionary cousins matter.
Celebrity Status Almost Ruined Ancient DNA Research
An evolutionary anthropologist draws lessons from paleogenetic’s journey from Jurassic Park fiction to Nobel Prize reality.
What Is “Natural” for Human Sexual Relationships?
A biological and anthropological researcher explains how humans' diverse ways of mating might have evolved.
View All in Food
![The ruins of a gray stone building stand below a cerulean sky with fluffy white clouds.]()
![An image shows a tan llama’s head and torso against a beige, sandy ground.]()
![An aerial photograph features a landscape of circular bodies of water connected by thin land bridges covered with trees. A mountain range spans the background.]()
![A photograph features a large body of water with a cityscape visible in the distance. On the left side, a person stands on a wooden pier near a white sign that reads: “PLEASE KEEP YOUR PIER CLEAN. USE TRASH CANS.”]()
![A photograph features a person wearing a collared shirt and apron in a large kitchen pouring coffee from a kettle into one of several white mugs on a wooden counter.]()
![A photograph features a person wearing torn beige clothing kneeling in the front of a cave over a stone, rubbing wooden sticks together atop the latter to create sparks. Another brown-haired person in beige clothing is barely visible in the background on the right side of the image.]()
How Colonialism Invented Food Insecurity in West Africa
Archaeological evidence and Oral Histories show people in what is today Ghana lived sustainably for millennia—until European colonial powers and the widespread trade of enslaved people changed everything.
Unearthing Culinary Pasts—With Help From Llama Poop
A food archaeologist investigates everyday eating and lean times among the ancient Moche of Peru through a remarkable discovery of thousands of llama “beans.”
Why These Hong Kong Urbanites Are Farming
An anthropologist takes readers inside a Hong Kong ecovillage, revealing a small but thriving movement built around food, sustainability, and community.
Planting Seeds for a More Ethical Future
Three contributors to a special series reflect on why slowing down and building trust between community partners is fundamental to decolonizing anthropology—and our shared future.
When Coffee Is Like Angel Cake With Strawberry Jam
An anthropologist delves into the rarefied ritualistic world of specialty coffee, where highly trained brewers and judges compete to determine which beans reign supreme.
The Paleolithic Age Cooked Up Creative Chefs
An archaeologist explains how new evidence stands to change what we thought about how ice age humans prepared food.
Professor Talking Points
- Anthropological studies have long demonstrated the significance of food in human societies.
- Within the realm of food studies, anthropologists work on a variety of themes cross-culturally: for example, how people determine which living creatures, plants, and animal byproducts are food; how people acquire and prepare food; what food says about power, spiritual beliefs, rites of passage, life, and death; and how and why people’s diets change in conjunction with politics, culture, economics, history, and their evolving identities.
- Anthropologists contemplate and critique how changes in economic and political patterns, social configurations (for example, due to war or illness), or climate affect access to food. They also examine how food traditions are reproduced or die out over time, today, and into the future.
Academic Articles
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Goodman, Alan, and Thomas L. Leatherman. 2005. “Coca-Colonization of Diets in the Yucatan.” Social Science and Medicine 61 (4): 833–846.
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Mintz, Sidney W., and Christine M. Du Bois. 2002. “The Anthropology of Food and Eating.” Annual Review of Anthropology 31: 99–119.
Student Discussion Questions
- Why do anthropologists care so much about food? Use examples from this unit’s readings to justify your responses.
- How do we know that food consumption is not just about acquiring the nutrition we need for our bodies to continue to function?
- What have you learned about the trajectory of the study of food and eating in anthropology?
- Do you believe that an aversion to specific foods is the result of biological factors? Why or why not?
- What have you learned about the effects of globalization on food consumption in the Yucatan? Can you draw parallels between what Goodman and Leatherman (2005) argue and your own lives?
- What do Goodman and Leatherman (2005) argue or imply about the role of power in food consumption?
Activities
- Bring in a range of different foods and invite the students to sample them. Then ask them to share their emotions and reactions as they consume various items.
Additional Resources
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Podcast Episode: SAPIENS’ “Eating Insects and the Yuck Factor”
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Web Journal: French Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences’ Anthropology of Food
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Video Series: PBS’ The Meaning of Food
Unit By
Eshe Lewis (2020)
Teaching
Cultural Anthropology
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Unit 5
Medical Anthropology
