Warren James Belasco
Auteur de Appetite for Change: How the Counterculture Took on the Food Industry
A propos de l'auteur
Warren J. Belasco is Professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Œuvres de Warren James Belasco
Food Nations: Selling Taste in Consumer Societies (Hagley Perspectives on Business and Culture) (2001) 34 exemplaires
Food Chains: From Farmyard to Shopping Cart (Hagley Perspectives on Business and Culture) (2008) 11 exemplaires
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Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 9
- Membres
- 284
- Popularité
- #82,067
- Évaluation
- 3.7
- Critiques
- 4
- ISBN
- 29
- Langues
- 1
The two that stuck in my mind as readable were Richard R Wilk's "Food and Nationalism: The Origins of 'Belizean Food'" and Tracey Deutsch's "Untangling Alliances: Social Tensions Surrounding Independent Grocery Stores and the Rise of Mass Retailing." Wilk argues, "The indigenous Mayan culture of Belize was largely exterminated before the colony was established, so there was no existing tradition to refer back to, and the slaves did not have provision grounds on which to base a reconstructed African diet...From the time of its first settlement, Belize has also been a multiethnic polyglot place, which poses particular problems for the emergence of national culture...Also, Belize has legally been a nation only since independence in 1981, an event followed quickly by the arrival of satellite television, offshore banking, and hundreds of foreign tourists. How could there ever be a national cuisine when there was no national culture?" Wilk then proceeds to lay out the process of adaptations and combinations that created a shared, Creolized food practices. It's complicated by issues of class and race, naturally, and driven strongly by colonialism, and it is utterly fascinating. I've never been to Belize or eaten Belizean food, however, so I can't swear to accuracy.
Deutsch's essay also deals with race, class, and immigration, with a bunch of gender dynamics thrown in as well. Her argument is that grocery store chains were able to successfully wipe out small, locally owned stores in much of Chicago because shopping in the small stores was complicated, politicized, and fraught with tension. Members of minority groups were exhorted to buy from members of their group, even when it was less convenient or cheap to do so, while differences in race, ethnicity or religion between shop-keepers and their customers were a spark-point for a lot of expressions of xenophobia and anti-Semitism. The shopkeepers knew every customer, and what each customer bought, and so there was very little privacy--people would instantly and easily know what a new bride served her in-laws, for example. Chain stores de-personalized these interactions, defusing them, and this, Deutsch says, is an important component of their success.
I'm glad I read this book, but it was very much a mixed-bag.… (plus d'informations)