HOW WE EAT

Spring 2015 Frey 102

MWF 9:00-9:53 AM
Professor K. C. Twiss
Katheryn.twiss@stonybrook.edu
OH: Mon. 1-3:30, Wed. 12:30-1; SBS S-533

TA Ryan Gardener-Cook
Ryan.Gardner-Cook@stonybrook.edu
OH: W 11-12 & 2:30-3:30, F 10-11; SBS S-526

This course explores how peoples food habits are shaped not only by their biological needs, but also by the economic,
political, ecological, and social worlds in which they live. The breadth of anthropology (biological anthropology,
cultural anthropology, and archaeology) is brought to bear on issues including the economic and political underpinnings
of American as well as other food cultures; the relationship between food habits and health (both over-and undereating); the environmental impacts of various methods of food production; the relationship between food and social
status; gendered food production as well as food consumption; foods role in religion; ethical eating; the limits of
current knowledge (e.g., changing dietary recommendations); and the socioeconomic pressures that keep individuals
eating according to cultural norms.
The class discusses foodways in a variety of present and past cultures, but the emphasis is on modern American food
culture and the cultural, economic, ecological, and political realities that shape it. Students will explore how these
realities affect their own lives and eating habits.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Participation
(3x 3%): 9%
Students will be expected to participate in 3 class discussions.
For each discussion, the class will be broken up into smaller discussion groups; each
group will keep notes which they will hand in at the end of class.
Food diaries
(2 x 8%): 16%
Students will be required to keep a weeklong food diary at two different points in the course.
The first diary will be used in an in-class activity exploring your personal identities
(gender, place of birth, ethnicity, residence) shape your eating habits.
The second will again be used in-class, as a basis for discussing a) how and why
eating habits change over the course of a semester, and b) and the ethics of various
consumption practices.
Quizzes SBS, USA Learning Outcomes below
15%
Students will take 3 online quizzes (via Blackboard). Each quiz is worth 5% of your grade.
Midterm Exam SBS, USA Learning Outcomes below 20%
Final Exam SBS, USA Learning Outcomes below
40%
- NOTE: THE FINAL IS A ONE HOUR EXAM
SBS: Understand the major concepts and phenomena that form the basis of knowledge in the social sciences; Understand methods of inquiry
into the social world and the methods social and behavioral scientists use to explore social phenomena including observation, hypothesis
development, measurement and data collection, experimentation, and the evaluation and application of evidence; Understand various types of
theory (e.g., behavioral, political, economic, linguistic) that organize predictions and evidence in the social sciences; Skillfully interpret and
form educated opinions on social science issues.
USA: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, and the workings of federal, state, and
municipal governments in the United States. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of U.S. history and society. Demonstrate knowledge
of a subculture or relationships among subcultures within U.S. society.

CLASS RULES
Cell phones must be turned off.

Each student must pursue his or her academic goals honestly and be personally accountable for
all submitted work. Representing another person's work as your own is always wrong. Faculty
ANT 260 2013 syllabus

are required to report any suspected instances of academic dishonesty to the Academic
Judiciary. ... For more comprehensive information on academic integrity, including categories
of academic dishonesty, please refer to the academic judiciary website at
http://www.stonybrook.edu/uaa/academicjudiciary/. Faculty who suspect a student of academic
dishonesty must report the instance to the appropriate academic judiciary committee and not
make an independent judgement about guilt or a penalty.
It is Stony Brook University policy that [a]ssigning additional work to individual students who
wish to improve their grades, during or after the semester, is prohibited.
http://sb.cc.stonybrook.edu/bulletin/current/policiesandregulations/policies_expectations/min_instructional_student_resp.php

Stony Brook University expects students to respect the rights, privileges, and property of other
people. Faculty are required to report to the Office of Judicial Affairs any disruptive behavior
that interrupts their ability to teach, compromises the safety of the learning environment, or
inhibits students' ability to learn.
If you have a physical, psychological, medical, or learning disability that may impact your
course work, please contact Disability Support Services, ECC (Educational Communications
Center) Building, room 128, at (631) 632-6748 or http://studentaffairs.stonybrook.edu/dss/. They
will determine with you what accommodations are necessary and appropriate. All information and
documentation is confidential. Students who require assistance during emergency evacuation are
encouraged to discuss their needs with their professors and Disability Support Services. For
procedures and information go to http://www.sunysb.edu/ehs/fire/disabilities.shtml.
Make-Up Tests
If you can provide evidence that you missed a test (or activity) due to illness or to a death in the
immediate family, you may weight the value of your other exams to compensate. There will be no
makeup tests. Prof. Twiss reserves the right to reject excuses. Submitting a fraudulent excuse is
academic dishonesty and will be reported to the Academic Judiciary.
**IF YOU ARE ILL, GO TO STUDENT HEALTH SERVICES AND GET A NOTE.
WITHOUT DOCUMENTATION THERE CAN BE NO ACCOMMODATION.**

Advisory prerequisites
One or more introductory Anthropology courses: ANT 102, ANT 104, or ANP 120.
TEXTS
Required text: Schlosser, E. 2005. Fast Food Nation. Harper Perennial.
Book excerpts and articles:
Articles are available in pdf form on the class Blackboard site unless otherwise noted.
Articles marked ** = available online through the SBU library system.
o Add the prefix http://libproxy.cc.stonybrook.edu/login?url= to the stable URL to
access the article from off-campus.
## = on reserve at the Main Library.
Copyright Notice
Unless otherwise noted all materials in this course [ANT 260 Spring 2015] are the intellectual property of Katheryn C. Twiss and you
may not reuse and/or duplicate the material in printed or electronic form without prior written permission from the owner. The
University requires all members of the University Community to familiarize themselves and to follow copyright and fair use
requirements. YOU ARE INDIVIDUALLY AND SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR VIOLATIONS OF COPYRIGHT AND FAIR USE
LAWS. THE UNIVERSITY WILL NEITHER PROTECT NOR DEFEND YOU NOR ASSUME ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR
EMPLOYEE OR STUDENT VIOLATIONS OF COPYRIGHT AND FAIR USE LAWS. Violations of copyright laws could subject
you to federal and state civil penalties and criminal liability as well as disciplinary action under University policies.

ANT 260 2013 syllabus

To help you familiarize yourself with copyright and fair use policies, the University encourages you to visit its copyright
web page at: http://guides.library.stonybrook.edu/copyright.

ANT 260 2013 syllabus

CLASS SCHEDULE AND ASSIGNMENTS

Week
1. Jan. 26-30
2. Feb. 2-6

3. Feb. 9-13

4. Feb. 16-20

Topics
INTRODUCTION
I. GREETINGS, SYLLABUS
II. FILM: KING CORN
III. WHAT IS FOOD? (Definitions of food)
IV. THE STORY OF MILK

FOOD AND THE BODY

I. NUTRITION
1. Universally needed nutrition components
i. Carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, etc.
2.Differentially appropriate nutrition
i.
Male vs. female; different ethnic groups
3.The variety of perceptions/definitions of healthy nutrition
i. Scientific
ii. Cultural/traditional
II. FOOD IN EVOLUTION
1. The primate diet
i. Guest lecturer: Prof. A. C. Markham (feb.
16)
2.
Human evolution and diet
i. Guest lecturer: Prof. F. Grine
III. THE OMNIVORES DILEMMA:
1. Paul Rozin & neophobia
2. How we learn what to eat (socialization into cooking
and eating traditions)

Readings
-

Kingsolver, B., C. Kingsolver & S.L. Hopp. 2007. Animal, Vegetable,

Miracle: A Year of Food Life. Harper Collins. pp. 1-22 (Ch. 1); 332-333.

Fast Food Nation. Part I, pp. 1-110.

** Rapaport, L.G., Brown, G.R., 2008. Social influences on foraging

behavior in young nonhuman primates: Learning what, where, and how
to eat. Evolutionary Anthropology 17, 189-201.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/evan.20180.

** Hockett, B., Haws, J., 2003. Nutritional ecology and diachronic

trends in Paleolithic diet and health. Evolutionary Anthropology 12, 211216. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/evan.10116.

KEEP FOOD DIARY #1

FEB. 16-22 (i.e. 1 WEEK; ACTUAL DATES MAY BE DIFFERENT)
QUIZ 1 Feb. 20

FOOD AND IDENTITY

5. Feb. 23-27

a. In-class exercise & discussion: you are what you eat

*** Bring complete food diaries
b. Social pressure/realitiesconforming

Fast Food Nation. Part II: pp. 111-254

Harris, Jessica B. 2011. We shall not be moved. From High on the

Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America. Pp. 197-219.
Bloomsbury.
HAND IN

FOOD DIARY #2

MONDAY, FEB. 23

ANT 260 2013 syllabus

6. March

2-6

FOOD AND HEALTH

II. Problems

of scarcity: malnutrition
The physical effects/symptoms of
malnutrition
2.
Malnutrition in America, historical
and current-day
iii. Problems of abundance: diabetes and obesity
1.
The physical effects/symptoms of
overeating
2.
Overeating in America, historical
and current-day
iv. Social relations and health
1.
Who is malnourished? Who is
overweight? The social distribution of these
problems
2.
Globalization and the spread of
American food and food habits
v. Alternative definitions of health/medicine
1.
Revisit nutrition and its definitions
a.
Eating for health:
scientific/holistic/traditional approaches
2.
How healthy a food is depends on
where/who it came from
1.

Mar. 1622
7. March

Anderson, E. 1997. Traditional medical values of food, pp. 80-91 in

Counihan, C. & P. Van Esterik (eds.), Food And Culture: A Reader.
Routledge, New York.

Hewitt, B. (2011). Making Supper Safe: One Man's Quest To Learn the
Truth About Food Safety, Rodale, New York. Chapter 5, pp. 73-93.

SPRING BREAK!!
9-13

FOOD AND ECONOMICS (1.5 weeks)

VI. Subsistence strategies: foragers,

agriculturalists, and
industrial food
1.
The variety of strategies that
historically characterized America
2.
The variety of strategies that are
currently present in America
VII. Labor mobilization
viii. Immigration brings new foods
ix. Who makes your food?
X. Economic underpinnings of the American industrial food
culture

Pollan, The Omnivores Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals: Ch.

3 Industrial: Garden City, Kansas (pp. 72-84) and Ch. 6 A Republic
of Fat (pp. 100-108).

Food Pantries on rise at colleges (AP Story ran in multiple

publications/outlets) ABC Network March 15, 2014
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/food-pantries-rise-us-collegecampuses-22924910
QUIZ 2 Mar. 13

ANT 260 2013 syllabus

8. March

23-27

9. Mar. 30-Apr.3

10. Apr. 6-10

11. Apr. 13-17

12. Apr. 20-24

FOOD AND THE ENVIRONMENT (1 week)

XI. Environmental limits on food

options
xii. What can we grow where, and why?
1. Where our food comes from
XIII. Environmental impacts of food production
XIV. Environmental modification and
sustainability
1. Native American farming (G. P.
Nabhan)
XV. Eating industrial, eating organic, eating
locally: monocultures, methane, and carbon
footprints
1. European-American industrial
production
FOOD AND POLITICS (2 weeks)
xvi. Politics of surplus, politics of scarcity
xvii. Politics shapes the food supply
xviii. Making friends (?) by feeding them: U.S.
foreign aid
xix. Conflict causes hunger; hunger causes
conflict
xx. Food nationalism
xxi. As American as apple pie: our food
symbols
xxii. Rice as a Japanese national symbol
xxiii. Corporations and food politics
XXIV. The American food lobby
FOOD AND STATUS (1 week)
XXV. The status of particular foods: luxury foods vs. everyday
foods
XXVI. Wealth vs. social status
XXVII. Feasting: competition and/or egalitarianism
XXVIII. Assertions of status: food strategies for climbing the
social ladder
FOOD AND GENDER; FOOD AND SEXUALITY (1 week)
XXIX. Food and the division of labor
XXX. Gendered eating
1. Gender and body shape (weight issues)
xxxi. Gendered manners and behavior
XXXII. Food and sexuality

Nabhan, G. P., A. M. Rea, K.L. Reichardt, E. Mellink, and C. F.

Hutchinson. (2000). Papago (Oodham) influences on habitat and biotic
diversity: Quitovac Oasis ethnoecology. Ethnobotany: A Reader. P.
Minnis. Norman, OK, University of Oklahoma Press: 41-64.

Moss. M., 2012. Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences
Nutrition and Health. University of California Press, Berkeley. Ch. 1.

Nestle, M., 2011. 2010 Dietary Guidelines, deconstructed.

http://www.foodpolitics.com/2011/02/2010-dietary-guidelinesdeconstructed/
MIDTERM April 8
APRIL 10: IN-CLASS PROJECT.
BRING FAST FOOD NATION!!!

Fitchen, J.M., 1988. Hunger, malnutrition, and poverty in the

contemporary United States: some observations on their social and
cultural context. Food and Foodways: 309-333.

- Brumberg, Joan Jacobs. 1988. The appetite as voice. In Fasting Girls: the
Emergence of Anorexia Nervosa as a Modern Disease, J. J. Blumberg, ed.,
pp. 164-188. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
- Hughes, M.H., 1997. Soul, Black women, and food. In Counihan, C., van
Esterik, P. (Ed.), Food And Culture: A Reader. Routledge, New York, pp.
272-280.

ANT 260 2013 syllabus

13. Apr. 27-May

1

KEEP FOOD DIARY #2

APR. 27-MAY 3

FOOD AND BELIEF

i.
II.
III.

Food in art and iconography

Foods roles in ritual: sacrifices, offerings, Communion
Prohibitions and prescriptions: Judaism & Islam

Feeley-Harnik, G., 1981. Excerpts from Chapters 3 (segment

Gluttony) and 4 (segments Blessing, Judgment, Acceptance and
rejection, and Doubt), pp. 63-82 in The Lord's Table: The Meaning of
Food in Early Judaism and Christianity (paperback edition).
Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.
QUIZ 3 MAY 1

14.

Finish Food and Belief

HAND IN
THANKSGIVING
Thurs.

15. May 4-8

CONCLUSION : ETHICAL EATING: 1 LECTURE, 2 DISCUSSION PERIODS

iv.
v.

Locavores
Vegetarians/vegans

MONDAY

No new readings

Kingsolver, B., C. Kingsolver & S.L. Hopp. 2007. Animal, Vegetable,

Miracle: A Year of Food Life. Harper Collins. pp. 220-237
Hesterman, Oran B. 2011. Fair Food: Growing a Healthy, Sustainable
Food System For All. New York: PublicAffairs, Chapter 2, pp. 21-45;
Engaging College Students, pp. 163-168; Sourcing Food With Public
Funds pp. 191-194.
McKinley, Jesse. A California Ballot Measure Offers Rights for Farm
Animals. New York Times (Oct. 24, 2008).
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/us/24egg.html?th&emc=tH
Pollan, Michael. An Animals Place. New York Times (Nov. 10, 2002).
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?
res=9500EFD7153EF933A25752C1A9649C8B63&sec=&spon=&page
wanted=all

Important themes to be discussed:

A. What is an ethical diet?
B. Who (what segments of the American population) has the
opportunity to follow that diet?
a. (Wealth; geographical locations; access to
information)
C. What (if any) is your ethical obligationnot just with regards
to how you personally eat, but with regards to how your fellow
citizens do?

FOOD DIARY #2

FINAL EXAM: WED., MAY 13TH, 8:30-9:30 PM

ANT 260 2013 syllabus