The Cultural Feast: An Introduction to Food and Society

THE CULTURAL FEAST looks at the impact of evolution, geography, environment, social structure, and religion on food practices around the world. The text is comprised of three units. The first unit explains the myriad influences on human diet and examines the role of evolution on contemporary food practices. The second unit looks at factors that influence current food practices, such as dietary revolutions that accompany advancements in agricultural practices; the influence of culture in what, how, when, and why we eat; and the influence of religion, social organizations and industrialization on foodways. The third unit of the text looks at nutrition problems and solutions to those problems. The text explores global and domestic hunger, examines diseases of under- and over-nutrition, and looks at dietary behavior change and large-scale programs to change dietary practices.