HIST 328: Cuisine, Culture, and Power

Physically, culturally, and socially, humans live through food and drink. Spanning the globe, as nearly limitless omnivores, humans have developed myriad ways of collecting and cultivating food and taking advantage of local environments. We also put food to work socially by creating cuisine. Through cuisine, humans have forged and nourished relationships, communed with deities, and through luxury choices, demonstrated "taste" and laid claim to status. Through the cultural practices of production and consumption of food and drink, individuals and groups have wielded power locally and globally. Food and drink consumption patterns have sustained slavery, poverty, malnutrition, and migration, and have laid waste to the environment. In this global history of food and cuisine, we will explore the physical, cultural, social, political, and economic dimensions of consumption and production and become more aware of how private, intimate acts connect us to the rest of humanity.