This week introduces Food Anthropology as a sub-discipline, considering how Anthropology enables us to critically examine the mundane acts of eating and cooking. It builds on previous weeks where we explored alternative forms of Anthropological expression through poetry, film, and dance, to consider cooking as a widely accessible mode of Anthropology. Ultimately, arguing that finding ways of doing Anthropology at home is necessary to make the field more accessible. 

As an introduction to Food Anthropology, we can only begin to scratch the surface of this rich subfield. What we will focus on this week is a fundamental appreciation of cooking as more than just the preparation of food. We will consider how food is an expression of our self-identity, and question whether it constructs a national identity.

To demonstrate this, we have created a cookbook to accompany the module, with three important family recipes contributed by faculty members. Each dish teaches us something different about cooking and cultural practices, asking: can cooking recipes simply pass on and reproduce culture? Who teaches these recipes to the next generation; what gendered obligations might be involved in cooking? And, what do the chosen recipes say about building an Australian national cuisine?

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To conclude, Anthropology is not limited to expeditions in far-away, foreign lands… it can be done right here in your own kitchen. No longer do Anthropologists need to be able-bodied, white, and male to do fieldwork that matters (Berry et al., 2017).