Why Do (Some) Humans Love Chili Peppers?
An anthropologist traces the origins and world travels of one of his favorite kinds of plants. ✽ As someone who grew up in the Philippines, I have always…
Tag: food
Book Review: ‘Abject Relations: Everyday Worlds of Anorexia’ (2009) by Megan Warin
From screens and tabloids, we are fed images of slender bodies. For decades sleek and angular silhouettes were said to be icons of style, fashion, beauty, youth, and…
Food is neither love nor salvation
HE ZHANG Professor Linying Li Beijing Institute of Technology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences China Women’s Health Network No. 5 Zhongguancun South Street, Haidian District,…
Looking Into the World of Frog Gigging
Frog hunters, known as “giggers,” search for bullfrogs in southern Indiana. Saish Solankar The moon emerged out of the clouds at a few minutes past midnight, reflecting on…
Looking Into the World of Frog Gigging
The moon emerged out of the clouds at a few minutes past midnight, reflecting on the murky water of a forest pond. I watched as Wyatt*, the organizer…
Emily Contois and Zenia Kish discuss their edited volume, Food Instagram
https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=58mye9fd9780252044465 Until recently, if you perused the scholarship on Instagram, the app might have appeared to be a relatively benign, homogenous stepc…
Five Turning Points in the Evolution of Wine
Archaeologists have investigated Greek wine containers shipwrecked in the Mediterranean. Cristian Umili/Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images Contrary to popular belief, the evolution of wine …
Cooking Debris in an Australian Cave Tells a Story of Resilience
Starting around 4,000 years ago, Bininj (Aboriginal people in Australia) adapted their diets to include more freshwater plants from wetlands, such as those in the Kakadu region (shown…
Do Children Need Special Foods?
Ultraprocessed breakfast cereals, sometimes touted as “healthy” thanks to vitamin fortification, are one of the most popular foods targeted toward kids. Education Images/Getty Images In c…
Here’s How to Make Olive Oil Like an Ancient Egyptian
“Hand Clutching an Olive Branch,” 1353–1323 B.C., New Kingdom, Amarna Period. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Norbert Schimmel, 1981 This article was originally published at The…
Slavery, Sustenance, and Resistance
Archaeology helps re-imagine a fuller range of experiences, including how people ate, innovated, and rebelled. In this episode, “slave cuisine” opens a window to honor the legacy of…
Netlicks and Chill: Digitalization and Food Politics in Taste the TV (TTTV) Technology
Listen to an audio recording of this post read by Antonio Oraldi This browser does not support HTML5 audio Digital technologies have increasingly penetrated asp…
“We are not brains on sticks!” Teaching Anthropology with the Senses
Jess Auerbach is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at North-West University in South Africa. Her innovative ethnography, From Water to Wine: Becoming Middle Class in Angola, is a…
David Sutton on his book, Bigger Fish to Fry
Interview by Ariana Gunderson https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/SuttonBigger Ariana Gunderson: You write that “cooking involves a code and its instantiations,” (Sutton 2021, 15). Do you c…
How Filipino Sailors—and Coconuts—Helped Create Mexico’s National Drink
While visiting Oaxaca, Mexico, last year, I joined a mezcal tasting tour. The guide, Antonio, asked participants to introduce ourselves. When I told everyone I was an anthropologist…
Five Ways Native American Communities Honor Turkeys
Ancient Indigenous peoples who lived in what is today the U.S. Southwest carved turkey bones into flutes, such as these from the site of Pecos Pueblo in New…
The Diet of the Future Is a Menu That Draws From the Ancient Past
The author wears an outfit he made using ancient tools, methods, and materials while filming the National Geographic TV show The Great Human Race in Alaska. Brent Meske/Courtesy…
5 Questions About Eating Like a Human
In this free live event, SAPIENS Media and Public Outreach Fellow Yoli Ngandali asks archaeologist, primitive technologist, and chef Bill Schindler about his new book, Eat Like a…
How Pottery Offers Glimpses Into Ancient Foodways
[no-caption] The Archaeological Mission in the Sahara This article was originally published at Knowable Magazine and has been republished under Creative Commons. Unearthed from the graves…
The Resistance and Ingenuity of the Cooks Who Lived in Slavery
This plate features a traditional meal of fish and provisions (tubers and vegetables) served on the Caribbean island of Dominica. Diane Wallman Garlic sizzles in a big Dutch…
When the Guinea Pig Goes Gourmet
“Do you eat guinea pig?” I asked Leonardo. We were perusing the menu in a restaurant in Lima, and I wanted to know what my Peruvian friend thought…
The Macabre and Magical Human-Canine Story
Researchers found this dog skull in a Czech Republic site inhabited by humans some 28,500 years ago, offering a clue to understanding the ancient story of domestication. Mietje…
A Five Course Degustation for the Changing “Australian” Palette
To this day, I love fried Spam and eggs. The crunchy and salty slice of processed mystery meat dipped in just cooked egg yolk is one of my…
Centavitos Against Food Insecurity: Structural Violence, Charity, and Technical Fixes in Guatemala
On March 23rd, 2021, the 2020 yearly results for the “Gran Cruzada Nacional por la Desnutrición” (Great National Crusade for Malnutrition) were presented in a press conference held…