Uncertain Tastes Memory, Ambivalence, and the Politics of Eating in Samburu, Northern Kenya |
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Author:
| Holtzman, Jon |
ISBN: | 978-0-520-25737-5 |
Publication Date: | Oct 2009 |
Publisher: | University of California Press
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Book Format: | Paperback |
List Price: | AUD $49.95 |
Book Description:
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This richly drawn ethnography of Samburu cattle herders in northern Kenya examines the effects of an epochal shift in their basic diet-from a regimen of milk, meat, and blood to one of purchased agricultural products. In his innovative analysis, Jon Holtzman uses food as a way to contextualize and measure the profound changes occurring in Samburu social and material life. He shows that if Samburu reaction to the new foods is primarily negative_they are referred to disparagingly as...
More DescriptionThis richly drawn ethnography of Samburu cattle herders in northern Kenya examines the effects of an epochal shift in their basic diet-from a regimen of milk, meat, and blood to one of purchased agricultural products. In his innovative analysis, Jon Holtzman uses food as a way to contextualize and measure the profound changes occurring in Samburu social and material life. He shows that if Samburu reaction to the new foods is primarily negative_they are referred to disparagingly as _gray food_ and _government food__it is also deeply ambivalent. For example, the Samburu attribute a host of social maladies to these dietary changes, including selfishness and moral decay. Yet because the new foods save lives during famines, the same individuals also talk of the triumph of reason over an antiquated culture and speak enthusiastically of a better life where there is less struggle to find food. Through detailed analysis of a range of food-centered arenas, Uncertain Tastes argues that the experience of food itself_symbolic, sensuous, social, and material-is intrinsically characterized by multiple and frequently conflicting layers.