Food for Thought: An Introduction

Abstract

This book proposes a collective reflection on the relation between food (nourishment) and thought (culture and meaning), calling into action various theoretical approaches and analytical methodologies, and also offers new insights on how the study of food can help us understand better what we call “culture”. The work is structured into three main sections: Food, Taste, and Global Cultures; Law, Power, and Media; and Nutrition and Culture. The essays that follow also encompass a series of crucial methodological issues concerning the study of food as a bearer of senses and sense, of value and culture, allowing leading scholars and young researchers from different fields (including semiotics, anthropology, sociology, history of food and media studies) to engage in a fruitful interdisciplinary dialogue.