Anthropology of Food

Food represents an integral part of human livelihoods, biology, identity, and culture. The practical dimensions and ramifications of food production, consumption and sharing, and the symbolic and ideological meanings attached to food, have relevance across all of anthropology’s subdisciplines – sociocultural anthropology, bioanthropology, archaeology and linguistics. As a theme it integrates aspects of all the four traditional fields of anthropology.

The anthropology department at Indiana University has unique strengths and capabilities in the study of food. The PhD concentration in the anthropology of food allows students to further their knowledge of the roles of food in (1) prehistoric, historic and modern societies, (2) human evolution and adaptation, (3) human health, (4) political economic relationships, (5) human-environment interactions including sustainability, (6) the representation, construction and maintenance of ethnicity, social class, and cultural identity. Students in this concentration will major in one of the four subfields of the discipline, while concentrating their coursework on food studies both within anthropology, and in other departments on campus.

Food Studies is organized as a concentration within anthropology, and each student will normally choose one of the four fields within the department within which to pursue food studies. We expect students to draw on as much of the diversity of knowledge of all anthropological fields as possible even while pursuing their degree in one of the existing four fields.

Prof. Rick Wilk-Director