Eating Culture

Use the Advanced Search feature with the "Library Catalog" option in HOLLIS to try some of the following subject headings related to the material, verbal, and customary lore of food:

• Cookery
• Cooking
• Diet
• Dinners and Dining
• Gastronomy
• Feeding Behavior
• Folk Literature
• Food
• Food Habits (in other databases, this subject heading may be described as "foodways." Foodways is a useful term in HOLLIS as a keyword term or a word in the title, but not as a subject heading)
• Joking
• Legends
• Mythology
• Nutrition
• Oral Tradition
• Proverbs
• Table
• Tales [Name of Country], e.g. Tales, Ireland
• Wit and Humor

Click on the following example to view a search and its results (once you click on the link, feel free to modify the search to your liking by adding key terms and/or refining the search using the facets provided on the right-hand side of the screen):

Click on the linked and highlighted text below to see the search construction and its results in HOLLIS:
Subject contains ("folk literature" OR legends OR mythology OR "oral tradition") AND Subject contains (cooking OR cookery OR diet OR dinners OR "food habits" OR food)

As you wish, try adding the name of a cultural group on an additional search line, for example: 
(Amish OR Mennonites)

If the addition of specific keywords fails to narrow results to your satisfaction, try the HOLLIS filters on the right side of the screen to refine them down to any of the following (you may need to clear your search filter between viewings to see clean results for each of the searches below):

• Peer-reviewed articles
• Form / Genre: Photographs

Adventures in Eating: Anthropological Experiences of Dining from Around the World (edited by Helen R. Haines and Clare A. Sammells, 2010)
This book on the anthropology of food is intended to prepare students for the sometimes uncomfortable dining situations they may encounter over the course of their careers. 

California Studies in Food and Culture
The California Studies in Food and Culture series considers the relationship between food and culture from a range of disciplines and approaches including anthropology, sociology, history, economics, philosophy, and women's studies. The series seeks to broaden the audience for serious scholarship as well as to celebrate food as a means of understanding the world.

Cooking with the Bible: Biblical Food, Feasts, and Lore (by Anthony Chiffolo, 2006)
Includes recipes for eighteen meals described in the Judeo-Christian bible. Each chapter begins with the menu for a Biblical feast, followed by a brief essay describing the theological, historical, and cultural significance of the feast. Next are separate recipes for the dishes served in the meal, followed by more commentary on the dish itself, preparation methods used in Biblical times, and how the dish was served.

Edible (Reaktion Books, Ltd.)
Each book in this series provides an outline for one type of food or drink, revealing its history and culture on a global scale. Key recipes as well as reference material accompany each title.

Food Access Research Atlas (United States Department of Agriculture)
A mapping tool that enables users to: Create maps showing food access indicators by census tract using different measures and indicators of supermarket accessibility; view indicators of food access for selected subpopulations; and, download census-tract-level data on food access measures.

Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating (by Norman Wirzba, 2011)
This book, published by Cambridge University Press, provides a comprehensive theological framework for assessing eating's significance, demonstrating that eating is of profound economic, moral, and theological significance.

Food Culture Around the World (Greenwood Press)
A wonderful series of titles focused on food culture in specific geographic regions.

Food Through History; and Food in American History (Greenwood Press)
Two wonderful series of titles focused on food through history and food in American history.

Foods and Nations (Reaktion Press)
"Foods and Nations explores the history – and geography – of food. Books in the series reveal the hidden history behind the food eaten today in different countries and regions of the world, telling the story of how food production and consumption developed, and how they were influenced by the culinary practices of other places and peoples. Each book in the Foods and Nations series offers fascinating insights into the distinct flavours of a country and its culture." Full title list.

Heartland Foodways (University of Illinois Press)
works that define and celebrate Midwestern food traditions and practices. The series is open to foods from seed to plate and to foodways that have found a home in the Midwest of the United States.

Native Foodways: Indigenous North American Religious Traditions and Foods (edited by Michelene E. Pesantubbee and Michael J. Zogry, 2021)
The first scholarly collection of essays devoted exclusively to the interplay of Indigenous religious traditions and foodways in North America.

Testamentum Porcelli [Testament of the Piglet]: There is a splendid English translation of this controversial Medieval pamphlet, with legal commentary, by D. Daube in Roman Law. Linguistic, Social and Philosophical Aspects (Edinburgh 1969) p. 78-81.

Browse through these publisher's lists of resources for ideas. If you find anything of interest, be sure to check HOLLIS to see if Harvard has a copy (and if not, you may order a copy through interlibrary loan).

• Oxford University Press's list of titles on Cookery, Food, and Drink
• Routledge's list titles on Food Studies
• University Press of Mississippi's list of titles on Cooking and Foodways
• University of Arkansas Pres's list of titles on Food and Foodways
• Rowman & Littlefield's list of titles on Food and Gastronomy

Or, take a look at recent symposiums:

• Oxford Food Symposiums
  The Oxford Food Symposium exists to celebrate, explore, and share leading food research from around the world in a collaborative, collegial, and inclusive environment. We are an evolving community of writers, academics, chefs, scientists, producers, and passionate amateurs whose members bring a diverse host of experiences and perspectives to the study of food and cookery. Our goal is to change the conversation around food, expand the table and improve the plate, through lively debate and the annual publication of our Symposium Proceedings.