Ebook: Ways of Eating: Exploring Food through History and Culture

What we learn when an anthropologist and a historian talk about food.

From the origins of agriculture to contemporary debates over culinary authenticity, Ways of Eating introduces readers to world food history and food anthropology. Through engaging stories and historical deep dives, Benjamin A. Wurgaft and Merry I. White offer new ways to understand food in relation to its natural and cultural histories, and to the social rules that shape our meals.

Wurgaft and White use vivid storytelling to bring food practices to life, weaving stories of Panamanian coffee-growers, medieval women beer-makers, and Japanese knife-forgers. From Venetian spice traders to the Columbian Exchange, from Roman garum to Vietnamese Nước chấm, Ways of Eating provides an absorbing account of world food history and anthropology. Migration, politics, and the dynamics of group identity all shape what we eat, and we can learn to trace these social forces from the plate to the kitchen, the factory, and the field.