Researching Food Habits

The term ''Anthropology of Food'' has become an accepted abbreviation for the study of anthropological perspectives on food, diet and nutrition, an increasingly important subdivision of anthropology that encompasses a rich variety of perspectives, academic approaches, theories, and methods. Its multi-disciplinary nature adds to its complexity. This is the first publication to offer guidance for researchers working in this diverse and expanding field of anthropology.

The term 'Anthropology of Food' has become an accepted abbreviation for the study of anthropological perspectives on food, diet and nutrition, an increasingly important subdivision of anthropology that encompasses a rich variety of perspectives, academic approaches, theories, and methods. Its multi-disciplinary nature adds to its complexity. This is the first publication to offer guidance for researchers working in this diverse and expanding field of anthropology.

List of Figures
List of Tables
Preface
List of Contributors

Introduction: How to do Anthropologies of Food
Jeremy MacClancy and Helen Macbeth

Chapter 1. Anthropology of Food and Pluridisciplinarity
Igor de Garine

Chapter 2. Definitions, Concepts and Methods in the Ethnobotany of Food Plants
Attila T. Szabó

Chapter 3. Qualitative Research in the Anthropology of Food: A Comprehensive Qualitative/Quantitative Approach
Annie Hubert

Chapter 4. ‘Tell me what you eat and you will tell me who you are’: Methodological Notes on the Interaction between Researcher and Informants in the Anthropology of Food
F. Xavier Medina

Chapter 5. Food, Identity, Identification
Jeremy MacClancy

Chapter 6. Doing it Wrong: Why Bother to do Imperfect Research?
Gerald Mars and Valerie Mars

Chapter 7. Methods for Assessing Taste Abilities and Hedonic Responses in Human and Nonhuman Primates
Bruno Simmen, Patrick Pasquet and Claude Marcel Hladik

Chapter 8. Researching Food Preferences: Methods and Problems for Anthropologists
Helen Macbeth and Fiona Mowatt

Chapter 9. Dietary Intake Methods in the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition
Stanley J. Ulijaszek

Chapter 10. Studying Food Intake Frequency: A Macrosurvey Technique for Anthropologists
Jeya Henry and Helen Macbeth

Chapter 11. The Concept of Energy Balance and the Quantification of Time Allocation and Energy Expenditure
Patrick Pasquet

Chapter 12. Methods for Obtaining Quantitative Data on Food Habits in the First Half of the Twentieth Century
Isabel González Turmo and José Mataix Verdú

Chapter 13. Reconstructing Diets for Compensation for Nuclear Testing in Rongelap, Marshall Islands
Nancy J. Pollock

Chapter 14. Food, Culture, Political and Economic Identity: Revitalising the Food-systems Perspective in the Study of Food-based Identity
Ellen Messer

Epilogue: Some Final Hints
Helen Macbeth and Jeremy MacClancy

Glossary
Index