The Anthropology of Food

Welcome to my blog, The Food Anthropologist.
What is anthropology? Anthropology is the study of humankind or humanity. The field of anthropology is generally divided into four subfields which includes, biological anthropology, archaeology, cultural anthropology, and linguistics. Many of these subfields of course overlap. My main field of interest is in biological anthropology which studies the physical aspects of humankind. Topics of study may include the evolution of the human diet or how the development of agriculture has affected our health as a population. I also consider myself to be a Food Anthropologist, which is someone that studies the human relationship to food and eating. The Anthropology of Food is generally studied bio-culturally and as you can imagine there are many topics that can be explored. If it relates to food you just might read about it here since that is what my blog is all about.
Check out SAFN: Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition http://www.nutritionalanthro.org/index.php

A friend of mine once described two types of people, those that "live to eat" and those that "eat to live." Think about that for a moment.....which person are you? I most certainly "live to eat!" I am always thinking about my next meal. A delicious meal gives me energy, brings me pleasure and satisfaction with each bite. I look forward to meals shared with friends and family. Which brings me to my first official topic, cooking meals.

Do you enjoy a home cooked meal? Thank a hominid.
I recently read Richard Wrangham's book, Catching Fire: How cooking made us human. Wrangham's theory proposes that cooking is responsible for our evolutionary success as a human race. Once our early hominid ancestors acquired the ability to manipulate and control fire then they were able to cook their food. Wrangham argues that the ability to cook food increased human brain growth and the shrinking of our digestive tract. " Cooking increased the value of our food. It changed our bodies, our brains, our use of time, and our social lives."

Tubers are nutritious!
What foods did our early ancestors cook? Plant foods (mostly tubers) were the main item on the menu for early hominids. Cooking tubers helped to increase calorie intake and provided more energy. Some anthropologists believe that the extra calories plus larger brains allowed our early ancestors to start hunting.