Uncertain Tastes

Uncertain Tastes
Author: Jon Holtzman
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2009-10-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0520944828

This richly drawn ethnography of Samburu cattle herders in northern Kenya examines the effects of an epochal shift in their basic diet-from a regimen of milk, meat, and blood to one of purchased agricultural products. In his innovative analysis, Jon Holtzman uses food as a way to contextualize and measure the profound changes occurring in Samburu social and material life. He shows that if Samburu reaction to the new foods is primarily negative—they are referred to disparagingly as "gray food" and "government food"—it is also deeply ambivalent. For example, the Samburu attribute a host of social maladies to these dietary changes, including selfishness and moral decay. Yet because the new foods save lives during famines, the same individuals also talk of the triumph of reason over an antiquated culture and speak enthusiastically of a better life where there is less struggle to find food. Through detailed analysis of a range of food-centered arenas, Uncertain Tastes argues that the experience of food itself—symbolic, sensuous, social, and material-is intrinsically characterized by multiple and frequently conflicting layers.

Uncertain Tastes

Uncertain Tastes
Author: Jon Holtzman
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2009
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0520257367

This richly drawn ethnography of Samburu cattle herders in northern Kenya examines the effects of an epochal shift in their basic diet-from a regimen of milk, meat, and blood to one of purchased agricultural products. In his innovative analysis, Jon Holtzman uses food as a way to contextualize and measure the profound changes occurring in Samburu social and material life. He shows that if Samburu reaction to the new foods is primarily negative--they are referred to disparagingly as "gray food” and "government food”--it is also deeply ambivalent. For example, the Samburu attribute a host of social maladies to these dietary changes, including selfishness and moral decay. Yet because the new foods save lives during famines, the same individuals also talk of the triumph of reason over an antiquated culture and speak enthusiastically of a better life where there is less struggle to find food. Through detailed analysis of a range of food-centered arenas, Uncertain Tastes argues that the experience of food itself--symbolic, sensuous, social, and material-is intrinsically characterized by multiple and frequently conflicting layers.

The Language of Humour

The Language of Humour
Author: Walter Nash
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 178
Release: 2014-01-14
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1317887832

The broad aim of this lively and engaging book is to examine relationships between the linguistic patterns, the stylistic functions, and the social and cultural contexts of humour. The material used in illustration is of corresponding breadth: schoolyard jokes, graffiti, aphorisms, advertisements, arguments, anecdotes, puns, parodies, passages of comic fiction, all come under Dr Nash's scrutiny.

Grevillea

Grevillea
Author: Mordecai Cubitt Cooke
Publisher:
Total Pages: 214
Release: 1889
Genre: Cryptogams
ISBN:

Routledge International Handbook of Food Studies

Routledge International Handbook of Food Studies
Author: Ken Albala
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 425
Release: 2013-05-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1136741666

Over the past decade there has been a remarkable flowering of interest in food and nutrition, both within the popular media and in academia. Scholars are increasingly using foodways, food systems and eating habits as a new unit of analysis within their own disciplines, and students are rushing into classes and formal degree programs focused on food. Introduced by the editor and including original articles by over thirty leading food scholars from around the world, the Routledge International Handbook of Food Studies offers students, scholars and all those interested in food-related research a one-stop, easy-to-use reference guide. Each article includes a brief history of food research within a discipline or on a particular topic, a discussion of research methodologies and ideological or theoretical positions, resources for research, including archives, grants and fellowship opportunities, as well as suggestions for further study. Each entry also explains the logistics of succeeding as a student and professional in food studies. This clear, direct Handbook will appeal to those hoping to start a career in academic food studies as well as those hoping to shift their research to a food-related project. Strongly interdisciplinary, this work will be of interest to students and scholars throughout the social sciences and humanities.

Cured, Smoked, and Fermented

Cured, Smoked, and Fermented
Author: Helen Saberi
Publisher: Oxford Symposium
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2011
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 1903018854

Essays on cured, smoked, and fermented foods from the Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cooking, 2010.

Food Words

Food Words
Author: Peter Jackson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2013-06-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 147252103X

Food Words is a series of provocative essays on some of the most important keywords in the emergent field of food studies, focusing on current controversies and on-going debates. Words like 'choice' and 'convenience' are often used as explanatory terms in understanding consumer behavior but are clearly ideological in the way they reflect particular positions and serve specific interests, while words like 'taste' and 'value' are no less complex and contested. Inspired by Raymond Williams, Food Words traces the multiple meanings of each of our keywords, tracking nuances in different (academic, commercial and policy) contexts. Mapping the dynamic meanings of each term, the book moves forward from critical assessment to active intervention -- an attitude that is reflected in the lively, sometimes combative, style of the essays. Each essay is research-based and fully referenced but accessible to the general reader. With a foreword by eminent food scholar Warren Belasco, Professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland-Baltmore County, and written by an inter-disciplinary team associated with the CONANX research project (Consumer culture in an 'age of anxiety'), Food Words will be essential reading for food scholars across the arts, humanities and social sciences.

Staying Home and Being Rotten

Staying Home and Being Rotten
Author: Shonagh Koea
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand Limited
Total Pages: 191
Release: 1992-01-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1869798759

This novel is a compelling, black comedy of manners and relationships. When the parcel first reaches Rosalind's mail box she is unable to take it out or even to contemplate opening it. It throws her into a series of painful recollections and comic-tragic events, which gradually reveal the nature of the unfortunate experience she has undergone, and eventually leads to an unexpected and, for the reader, superbly satisfying resolution of her pain and distress. The novel combines the robust good humour of Henry Fielding, with the sensitivities of Jane Austen and the satirical playfulness of Evelyn Waugh. This delightful combination produces a black comedy of manners, which, once taken up, can't be put down. 'This is not merely a good book, but a work of brilliance. It establishes Shonagh Koea as a leading New Zealand novelist and a writer of international significance.' - Alistair Paterson