This course examines and compares cultures through materials and practices embedded in everyday life with anthropological perspectives.  One of the most important subjects of everyday life is food.  Food is more than sustenance; it is our lifestyle, a nexus among people, it brings memories and nostalgia.  Through food we create and present our identities (e.g., national, regional, religious, ethnic, gender and class); for example, tamales are significant food among Mexicans and South Americans.  Does it follow that the consumption of tamales signifies regionalism or nationalism?  Are all pizza Italian?  Is pizza served at American franchised restaurants Italian or American cuisine?  Is barbeque for men more than for women and sweets for women more than men?  How do people feel nostalgic for foreign originated food?  Do people consume no meat for good health or for political statement?  The relationships between food and people are complex.  And, it is an individual researcher’s goal to discover, analyze and interpret the complexity.

By exploring foodways—the traditions and customs in production, consumption and distribution of food—of others and ours, we will learn the different ways of using food to create and present identities; how and in what circumstances people use food to distinguish them from one another as well as connect with others?  How do they recreate new identities or diminish old ones in order to be accepted in new places or by new people?  The primary goal of this course is to develop a critical awareness of cultural similarities as much as differences.  Throughout the course, you should always ask yourself: What is culture?

We study food as an academic subject through readings, films and class/group discussions.  There are no right and wrong opinions as each of us have a different background, which has shaped our perspectives.  However, you should be thinking about food in terms of anthropology.  As a final project, you will do a food-based research paper—to examine food of other culture rather than your own, such as outside your region, ethnicity, religion, class, and gender.  In your paper, you should pose a central research question, for example, “How do people in America present their class identity through sushi consumption?” or “How is simit significant to everyday life in Turkey?”  By examining the ways by which others shape their identity through food, you learn about their culture and people.  This helps you to be self-reflective with your own culture as well.  In your research paper, you should discuss how a particular food impacts people’s everyday life and the ways by which they form their identities.