UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA



UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTADuluth CampusDepartment of Sociology -Anthropology228 Cina Hall1123 University DriveCollege of Liberal ArtsDuluth, Minnesota 55812-3306Office:218-726-7551Fax: 218-726-775906 January 2011Welcome to Anthropology 3888 Anthropology of FoodSection 001 Face-to-FaceSection 350 On-lineAvailable online in your HomePage <; On-line Course Calendar Spring 2011< Course Calendar Spring 2011<; This will be a great course, and a great experience. You will see. . . .Interest in food and culture has never been higher. You can see that in the editorial pages of the weekly papers and the other news media. Yesterday (05 January 2011), for e.g., the Star Tribune ran an important article on "the first major overhaul of the nation's food safety system since the 1930s, a bill that President Obama signed on Tuesday. The article suggested, however, that "the fight is still on the table" to fund the $1.4 billion the bill calls for (p. A4, Obama signs bill to improve nation's food safety.) Just last September, in a related article, for e.g., Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times (5 September 2010) suggests in an editorial, "For the Sake of Cheap Food, We Risk Our Safety (p. OP 3 in the Star Tribune) ["Cleaning the Henhouse" online] <; some structural problems relating to food safety.? (Is one-plus death a week from salmonella in a "normal" week OK?)? (What do you think? Congress fund the bill? Weigh in on-line in the "News Forum" at the beginning of the course information in your folder.) Whether or not you agree with the various commentators, and there are many these days, representing all sides of the food industry and all food interest groups, food IS in the news.? And some weeks food IS the news.? And that's true year 'round.In the last year or so, for example, four important films appeared in the United States: FOOD, Inc., one of the most talked about of the year, FRESH, Food Fight, and The Cove, the latter winning the 2010 Oscar for the Best Documentary. We will have a look at all four of these important films--and more. More information on the films is available on-line, the f2f schedule is at <; and the on-line schedule is at < of course, the big event of last October was the Nobel Conference 46 "Making Food Good," held at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, MN. The conference was world-class. You can access the main speakers on YouTube < do it for extra credit in the course.So lots of things are happening on the food front?.?.?.?virtually every week.I am looking forward to "meeting" you in class and as you check in on-line. In the meantime, you might want to have a look at the information in your folder, or on the Anthropology of Food syllabus, which you can also find on the web; the f2f Course Calendar Spring 2011 is at <;, the on-line Course Calendar Spring 2011 is at at <;. Right off the bat you might be interested in the textbooks for the course. Information on the texts for Anthropology of Food can be found at < more general textbook information can be found at < course anchor text, The Cultural Feast: An Introduction to Food and Society, 2nd Edition, is currently (02 January 2011) selling online new for $98.43 and used from $49.65 used (plus standard-rate shipping). The price after "Book Buyback" is $21.15.And one of the very best textbook "deals" of your college career will probably be The Meaning of Food: The Companion to the PBS Television Series Hosted by Marcus Samuelsson. (Currently selling online new for $5.49 and used from $00.01 [plus standard-rate shipping, but with a free shipping offer from Amazon with the new one and a qualifying order]).Excellent inexpensive books in many fields are often available online. Today, for example, one can get a very good used copy of Sophie D. Coe’s America's First Cuisines—a “master text” and a genuine classic in the study of the Anthropology of Food—for $4.73, plus standard shipping and handling.(In addition, thousands of books are available free online, full text versions <;, and might occasionally be useful in one or more of your other courses. For example, Brillat-Savarin’s The Physiology of Taste, often called the first modern work on gastronomy—the study of the relationship between culture and food—is available free online both in English <; and in the original French, Physiologie du gout, <;. You’re probably already familiar with some of it, like Brillat-Savarin’s dictum: “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.")Exams will be open-book essays, so it would be a good idea for you to have your own copy of each text you plan to use in the exams (see below), and it is a good idea that you take your reading notes right in your copy of the text itself. Sample exams from past offerings of this course are available on-line. The exams for this semester will be similar in content. The Spring Semester 2009 final exam sample on-line is at <;; the midterm sample on-line exam is at <;. One thing that you should keep in mind when approaching these readings, which I will "talk" more about as the class progresses, is that as mentioned above the exams are open-book. And for that you should normally just need to read the books carefully and be able to discuss them intelligently. That is, you should read these as if you had picked it/them up at an airport or neighborhood bookshop because you were interested in the subject and wanted to know more about it, like literally millions of people are doing in everyday life with Michael Pollan’s books. Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore's Dilemma was one of the top five books on college campuses in the United States for fall 2010.And Pollan is there virtually every year: for e.g., Food Rules: An Eater's Manual was 6th in the "Top 10 Books That College Students are Reading" in February <;.? PLEASE NOTE: Some students are used to principally memorizing facts in classes. This class is not one where that is the focus. It is about investigating new topics, reading, listening, synthesizing ideas, thinking, exploring, and becoming familiar enough with the various subjects, peoples and places to carry on an intelligent conversation in modern-day society.With reference to what I was saying about reading the textbooks, Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore's Dilemma is a good example of what I am talking about. It has been on the New York Times Best Paperback nonfiction list for two years. The Omnivore's Dilemma is a book that people in the United States are still currently reading, and talking about, just because they're interested in the topic. I doubt if too many of those folks are sitting up nights just memorizing facts from it. It is currently available on-line new for $7.71, or used at $6.88 (plus standard-rate shipping, but also with a free shipping offer from Amazon).(A parenthetical note: When you see the used price of a book almost the same as a new copy [on Amazon] that generally indicates the book is popular, which often means it is also very good.) Pollan’s latest work, In Defense of Food, another influential work, was selected as the University of Wisconsin system as the “Big Read” for last academic year. That means a sale of about 8,000 copies just for the University of Wisconsin alone.(At Case Western Reserve this year the "big read" for the campus is Elizabeth Royte's, Bottlemania: Big Business, Local Springs, and the Battle Over America's Drinking Water--an area usually considered part of the Anthropology of Food, and a topic that you will encounter in the video materials in the course.)For the first four weeks of the course much of the material for the week will be presented in the form of text materials and on-line slide materials. In the second half of the course, once you have mastered the basic information relating to the Anthropology of Food, we will look (generally comparatively, cf., Main Characteristics of Anthropology) at a series of film materials from around the world.One of the four main characteristics of American Anthropology is fieldwork, "a primary research technique, involving “participant observation," which usually means living among the people one is interested in learning from and about. It would be wonderful if for anthropology classes we could just rent a bus or charter a plane and fly off for a year or more to learn first-hand from the people themselves. Money, time, and practicality prohibit that, so the next best things--when it comes to studying anthropology--is going to places and viewing subjects by film. More information on Visual Anthropology is available on-line at < all of these materials you will be expected to share your ideas and comments with others in the Class Forum and wikis. I'm looking forward to that.You will find that there is "an awful lot" of materials on-line--maybe even too many! But don't worry. You will find the required materials center stage in your folder. Most of the rest of the materials are optional, but you may find that material useful in working on your class project.Where to start? Probably the best place is with the "First Day Handout" on-line at (f2f <;) and (on-line <;).Then have a look at your Gradebook folder, which gives a nice listing of the actual requirements and due dates for the course. (You'll find the link for that in the upper-left-hand corner of the top of page one.)Then have a look at the "Course Overview" in Block 1 (the top of page one) of your folder.?So once again, welcome to Anth 3888 Anthropology of Food. This will be a great course, and a great experience. You will see. . . .And the great end-of-the-year Méditerranéen Keabs Diffa on the 2nd of May 2011 will be here before you know it.?.?.?.Have a great Martin Luther King, Jr., Day. . . .If you have any questions right now, please do not hesitate to post them on the "Messenger" or e-mail troufs@d.umn.edu.Best Wishes, Tim RoufsDuluth, MN2 January 2011P.S. If you are new to the world of "technology" don't worry too much about that. Things may not "work" for you at first, but hang in there and we'll help you along. ................
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