Everyone Eats: Understanding Food and Culture [Paperback]

E.N. Anderson (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 1, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0814704964 | ISBN-13: 978-0814704967

Everyone eats, but rarely do we ask why or investigate why we eat what we eat. Why do we love spices, sweets, coffee? How did rice become such a staple food throughout so much of eastern Asia? Everyone Eats examines the social and cultural reasons for our food choices and provides an explanation of the nutritional reasons for why humans eat, resulting in a unique cultural and biological approach to the topic. E. N. Anderson explains the economics of food in the globalization era, food's relationship to religion, medicine, and ethnicity as well as offers suggestions on how to end hunger, starvation, and malnutrition.

Everyone Eats feeds our need to understand human ecology by explaining the ways that cultures and political systems structure the edible environment.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Anderson's book is a solid introduction to the anthropology of food for students and general readers. It is clear, well-written, spiced with interesting examples, and illustrated with many evocative photographs taken by the author and by Barbara Anderson.”
-Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

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“Anderson's view of the relationship between the biological and the cultural is nicely provocative, and his rich personal fieldwork experiences greatly enliven the pages of Everyone Eats.”
-Sidney W. Mintz,author of Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom: Excursions into Eating, Culture, and the Past

“Plenty of cultural insights and background history lend to a survey particularly recommended for college-level students of anthropology and social science.”
-The Bookwatch, The Midwest Book Review

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“Everyone Eats is anthropology at its best, an exceptional blend of biological and cultural explanation that reveals our relationship with food and eating. Anderson's personal ethnographic experience as a nutritional anthropologist among cultures from around the world will leave the reader with a sense of wonderment about the fundamental human act of eating. Throughout the book Anderson develops a deep social conscience about the problems of over—and under-nutrition—that face the world today.”-Barrett P. Brenton,Associate Editor of The Encyclopedia of Food and Culture

“Although intended for the general public and not as a textbook, this book is recommended for higher education, especially advanced courses.”-CHOICE,Highly Recommended

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About the Author

E. N. Anderson is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Riverside. His previous books include The Food of China and Ecologies of the Heart: Emotion, Belief, and the Environment.

Product Details

• Paperback: 295 pages
• Publisher: NYU Press (March 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814704964
• ISBN-13: 978-0814704967
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.7 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #63,382 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #71 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Customs & Traditions

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Plenty of cultural insights and background history July 3, 2005

By Midwest Book Review

Format:Paperback

There's a strong relationship between biological need and culture: a relationship emphasized by E.N. Anderson, professor of anthropology at University of California Riverside, in his survey Everyone Eats: Understanding Food And Culture. Discussions range from the aesthetics of eating and different sensory perceptions between cultures to the needs for foods as displayed in differing literature of cultures, and surveys of how food fads change over time. Plenty of cultural insights and background history lend to a survey particularly recommended for college-level students of anthropology and social science.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Plenty of cultural insights and background history July 3, 2005

By Midwest Book Review

Format:Paperback

There's a strong relationship between biological need and culture: a relationship emphasized by E.N. Anderson, professor of anthropology at University of California Riverside, in his survey Everyone Eats: Understanding Food And Culture. Discussions range from the aesthetics of eating and different sensory perceptions between cultures to the needs for foods as displayed in differing literature of cultures, and surveys of how food fads change over time. Plenty of cultural insights and background history lend to a survey particularly recommended for college-level students of anthropology and social science.

5 of 13 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but... January 28, 2011

By James F. Rendek

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm not a food or anthropology expert and the author definitely seems well educated and includes many interesting facts but I must say I was looking for some cross between Andrew Zimmern (Bizarre Foods) and Alton Brown (Good Eats) and what I got seemed heavily slanted to "We should all stop eating meat and feed the world." Not to sound cold hearted but assuming you actually bought this book because you care about feeding the world it should be noted that you will find nothing accept vague notions and catch 22 situations regarding how to go about it. Maybe the topic is too complex to really lay out a plan but it certainly is sickening to read without one after a while.