Odysseys of Plates and Palates: Food, Society and Sociality

Book excerpt: This volume was first published by Inter-Disciplinary Press in 2014. Is food merely fuel to keep us alive? Consuming food is not simply about biological and nutritional needs. Rather, food, like anything people engage with, is inherently multi-faceted. The context of food and its discourses involve an interplay of our cognition and is a medium for our memory and identity. Food, from its mundane modes of production to the consumption of a single meal or even to the global networks which bring foods from distant lands to one’s plate, reflects and creates hegemonic relations between groups and individuals, defining ‘good’ and ‘bad’ behaviour. Food has been discussed since ancient times, appearing in numerous ancient texts. It has both been described as art and is the subject of art. Food then, is an expression of how we understand our world and humanity’s place in it.