Fall 2024 Anthropology UN3663 section 001

The Ancient Table: Archaeology of Cookin

ANCT TBL: ARCH COOKING &

Call Number 00100
Day & Time
Location
W 12:10pm-2:00pm
214 Milbank Hall (Barnard)
Points 4
Grading Mode Standard
Approvals Required None
Instructor Camilla Sturm
Type SEMINAR
Course Description

Prerequisites: None Humans don’t just eat to live. The ways we prepare, eat, and share our food is a complex reflection of our histories, environments, and ideologies. Whether we prefer coffee or tea, cornbread or challah, chicken breast or chicken feet, our tastes are expressive of social ties and social boundaries, and are linked to ideas of family and of foreignness. How did eating become such a profoundly cultural experience? This seminar takes an archaeological approach to two broad issues central to eating: First, what drives human food choices both today and in the past? Second, how have social forces shaped practices of food acquisition, preparation, and consumption (and how, in turn, has food shaped society)? We will explore these questions from various evolutionary, physiological, and cultural viewpoints, highlighted by information from the best archaeological and historic case studies. Topics that will be covered include the nature of the first cooking, beer-brewing and feasting, writing of the early recipes, gender roles and ‘domestic’ life, and how a national cuisine takes shape. Through the course of the semester we will explore food practices from Pleistocene Spain to historic Monticello, with particular emphasis on the earliest cuisines of China, Mesoamerica, and the Mediterranean.

Web Site Vergil
Department Anthropology @Barnard
Enrollment 15 students (15 max) as of 9:05PM Wednesday, December 4, 2024
Status Full
Subject Anthropology
Number UN3663
Section 001
Division Barnard College
Note Previous coursework in anthropology or a related field prefe
Section key 20243ANTH3663W001