Overview

From Eve's apple to Proust's madeleine to today's culinary tourism, food looms large in culture. Sociologists and anthropologists study cooking and eating practices across the globe. Debates about health and nutrition are common in news reports. Yet despite its fundamental relationship to food, taste is mysteriously absent from most of these discussions. The flavors of foods permeate social relations, religious and other occasions. Charged with memory, emotion, desire and aversion, taste is arguably the most evocative of the senses. The Taste Culture Reader explores the sensuous dimensions of eating and drinking, from the physiology of the tongue to the embodiment of social identities and enactment of ceremonial meanings. A cornucopia of historical, cross-cultural and theoretical views is offered, drawing from anthropology, sociology, history, philosophy, science - and more. This book will interest anyone seeking to understand more fully the importance of food and flavor in human experience.

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9781845200602

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Reviews

the best general food studies reader that I've come across to date. ... an excellent introduction to the diverse field of food studies, showcasing both new texts as well as classical pieces. ... more wide-ranging than the many themed food anthologies available ... very well-suited to introductory food studies courses. Food, Culture and Society 'A timely and valuable resource on the wide-ranging topic of taste across the disciplines, from biology to sociology to gastronomic literature and philosophy, by pathbreaking writers in these fields.' Denise Gigante, Stanford University 'A rich range of disciplinary perspectives, both western and nonwestern, that engages taste as at once innate and profoundly cultural.' Jennifer Fisher, York University, Toronto 'This volume presents an extensive and comprehensive collection of essays on 'ambivalence' and 'paradox' in meanings given to the tasting of food and drink. It constitutes an enjoyable and accomplished mulstidisciplinary journey from

Author Information

Carolyn Korsmeyer is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Buffalo.

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