ANTH 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Columbian Exchange, Social Reproduction, Marvin Harris
Document Summary
Food chains- tracing food from its origins to its consumption. Foods and cooking styles associated with class and caste. Food surplus and the foundation of states. Through most of human history, people have grown, hunted and gathered their own food or traded for it with neighbors. Because most foods weren"t easily preserved, the chain from production to consumption was relatively short. Long food chains: regions to the global system. Society- the industrialization of food and shift of population to cities. Change- from the local production to international exchange. Functionalist approaches: exchange theory- frederik barth, cultural ecology- roy rappaport, cultural materialism- marvin harris, a latent function of redistributive feasts is assuring that all members in a community have access to enough food to survive lean periods. Ethnoscience- the study of how people classify things in different languages: in many cultures, groups identify with particular animals and plants ( totems ) which they respect by refraining from eating.
