Book Review of Jack Goody's "Food and Love: A Cultural History of East and West"

While I was pondering over the tactical procession I should adopt to write this report on discreetness?s attempt to incorporate the anthropology of regimen into his reports, I was met with a winning surp splay when I received my subscription of time powder store in the mail. In bold letters, the cover of the newest issue of TIME (June 25 ? July 2, 2007) reads, ?We be What We Eat?. Indeed, as Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin?s notorious saying goes, ?Tell me what you eat and I entrust itemise you who you be?. fare is a fundamental man necessity, indispensable to the sustenance of the human body. At the same time, diet whitethorn be associated with pleasure, passion, up to now luxury. nourishment is besides essential to the friendly body. Who eats what, who eats with whom, and whose appetites are comfortable and whose denied, are altogether deeply social dynamics by which identities, relationships, and hierarchies are created and reproduced. As such(prenominal), i t has drawn much attention from the anthropological circle with the anthropology of feed becoming a legitimate fussyization. Here, an regard anthropologist attempts to look into a proportional determine of East and westerly with a incomplete focus on what, why, where and how masses eat. British anthropologist and historiographer dirt daintiness (1919 ? ), Emeritus William Wyse Professor of kind Anthropology at St. mob College of the University of Cambridge in the UK, is acknowledged as one and just(a) of the approximately varied intellectuals of contemporary times, especi all(prenominal)y in his contri plainlyion to elucidative the twisted view that the West has of East-West differences. Famous for his fieldwork carried out in Gonja (northern Ghana) and a series of studies in West Africa that essenceed from it in the mid-fifties and early on 1960s, treat used his knowledge of Africa to blood line the culture of that clean with that of Eurasia, an area which, a s he explains, substantial in a assorted d! irection after the rise of cities and writing caused by the Bronze Age ?revolution?. In his to a greater extent new-fashioned publications, discreetness has broadened his comparisons to embrace food and flowers, such as in Cooking,Cuisine and Class: A Study in proportional Sociology (1982), The purification of Flowers (1993), and, the case in point, delight and Food (1999). In Food and Love, discreetness extends his pursuits into the sphere of culture. Opening with a sustain sermon of the lexicon of such debates in the thought of classic theories such as that of Marxism (Marx?s general scheme of development), as intimately as contemporary historical and sociological notions of modernization, airiness goes on to plenty phenomena as diverse and fascinating as the uniqueness of the European family, the development of romantic love, the evolution of national and regional cuisines, the globalisation of Chinese food, and the histories of various taboos on certain types of food an d drink, at all times effortlessly ranging from Europe to Asia and to Africa. In a final bracing section challenging preponderant relativist conceptions, diplomacy considers the difficulties and complexities of cross-ethnical and comparative analysis, and he picks apart the questions conglomerate in the genuinely process of representation and symbolic communication. end-to-end the harbour, fineness demonstrates that the ethnocentricity of much of occidental scholarship has distorted not unaccompanied the comprehension of the East further also developments in Europes outgoing and present. I musical note Food and Love is a very(prenominal) holistic book which the only flaw is that it could generate an even denser book for there are a some areas Goody touched on that I hope could untune been flesh out further. As a student having canvas English belles-lettres for through middle school to exalted school, Goody?s incorporation of classical works such as porphyritic rock?s De Abstinentia as examples to his statements w! as some(prenominal) surprising and delightful. More importantly, Goody covers a rather coarse range of topics under the third main categories of family, food and doubt; and he makes use of a wide array of front works conducted by early(a)(a) researchers to build his cases. For example, when put upressing the concept of ?Love, hunger and Literacy?, Goody speaks about(predicate) the French mentalité school, the LoDagaa people of northern Ghana, China and japan over the plosive of times from the Middle Ages to the Reformation and spiritual rebirth to the present. He abstracts nurture from philosophical theories, literary works, fieldworks he conducted previously, as well as published works by other academics. Also, albeit with an almost unconscious emphasis on historical facts, Goody presents his research in different sectors such as social, cultural and a picayune on political consideration. Goody?s curiosity and comprehensive range may seem scare at first, but his el oquence as a writer makes his book an handsome read for all intellectuals as this mixed bag may be a little confusing for those who are not beaten(prenominal) with any of the examples Goody illustrates. Perhaps it really is a book meant for the more intellectually inclined audience. Food and Love, conflicting his ethnographic writings on culture of flowers, deals with a more wicked aspect of vitality. But in my opinion, one of the most corking bases proposed by Goody, amidst his comparative study of Asia and Europe, is that contrary to what sociologists, anthropologists and historian have assume, the West did not have a special sensitivity towards the development of capitalism or modernization.

He suggested that sort of of talk about the ?uniqueness of the West?, we should rather talk about the uniqueness of Eurasia, and especially about Asia?s sizable contribution. That is, that the idea of stagnant oriental societies, put forward by Marx and so many others, is really but a fiction of the West. Similarly, he undermined the claim to the uniqueness of the West and argued that it distorts our [here referring mostly to people of Western traditions] rationality of the past and present not only of the ?others? but also of ourselves. The idea of explaining modernity as the result of supposed Western singularities (like individualism, rationalism and family patterns) has prevented us from having a cabalistic understanding of the East as well as the West. As such, Goody?s writing is based heftily on comparative studies and he strives to abstain from committing the sin of ethnocentrism and that of leaving any lead astray notions. Remarkably , Goody hardly derails into the trap that many writers fall into sequence beguile with the comparative approach ? that is of comparing and contrasting ideas, objects and practices in different cultures but ignores the contest the gives them their meanings. When reading the book, I mat a constant nagging at the back of my distributor point as I wondered if Goody?s presentation of a indigenous view is scarce or that it is so profoundly weaved into the context that you could read it without knowing it. That is, while his occasional distinguish of his fieldnotes in Ghana are a clear quality of this essential perspective from an African culture, other times, I feel as though he is trying to incorporate all the entropy that he has and has slightly neglected this aspect of writing ethnography. Or perhaps ? and this is a high possibility ? I am too young and amateurish to realize their presence. On a more personal note, I found Food and Love a very pleasing read because it showed a crossway between the study of anthropology and the! study of bill, and produces a very edifying yet hardly dry piece of work. As a student still exploring the vast possibilities in a college education, Goody has proven to me that anthropology is indeed an all-encompassing field of study and I think it is this drop of anthropological essence that brought life and food color into this otherwise tedious read. In fact, I intend to add Goody?s The Culture of Flowers (1993) and The jejuneness of the Savage chief (1977) to my reading list. BibliographyGood, Jack. Food and love: a cultural history of East and West. London; New York: Verso, 1998We Are What We Eat. TIME. June 2007. If you require to get a full essay, rewrite it on our website: BestEssayCheap.com

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