The Cultural Politics of Food, Taste, and Identity - by Steffan Igor Ayora-Diaz (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The Cultural Politics of Food, Taste, and Identityexamines the social, cultural, and political processes that shape the experience of taste. The book positions flavor as involving all the senses, and describes the multiple ways in which taste becomes tied to local, translocal, glocal, and cosmopolitan politics of identity. Global case studies are included from Japan, China, India, Belize, Chile, Guatemala, the United States, France, Italy, Poland and Spain.

Chapters examine local responses to industrialized food and the heritage industry, and look at how professional culinary practice has become foundational for local identities. The book also discusses the unfolding construction of "local taste" in the context of sociocultural developments, and addresses how cultural political divides are created between meat consumption and vegetarianism, innovation and tradition, heritage and social class, popular food and authenticity, and street and restaurant food.

In addition, contributors discuss how different food products-such as kimchi, quinoa, and Soylent-have entered the international market of industrial and heritage foods, connecting different places and shaping taste and political identities.

Review Quotes

A showcase for the best contemporary writing on food and politics, taste and heritage. Each chapter tells us something new about how foods are in constant motion between global markets and local identities.
Richard R. Wilk, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Indiana University, USA

This book points to the centrality of taste in establishing our identities as individuals and as members of communities. Presenting cases from around the world, it offers significant reflections on how the way we cook, eat, and think of food has far-reaching political implications and contributes to determining who we are and who we want to be as societies.
Fabio Parasecoli, Professor of Food Studies, New York University, USA

This edited collection explores the social construction of taste from a range of disciplinary perspectives in a variety of settings in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Sixteen experts examine the intersubjective development and political implications of taste through cases including dashi in Japan, tea in China, cheese in alpine Italy, and corn and coconuts in Belize. The book makes an invaluable contribution to the growing social science literature on taste.
Carole Counihan, Professor Emerita of Anthropology, Millersville University, USA

About the Author

Steffan Igor Ayora-Diaz is Professor at the Faculty of Anthropological Sciences of the Autonomous University of Yucatan, Mexico.