GEOGRAPHY
This book discusses many geographic concepts such as suburbanization and agriculture. However, the book's focal point is human-environment interaction, one of the five major themes of geography. This idea addresses the ongoing interaction between people and the environment and is fairly broad, as it encompasses everything from mountain top mining to building houses to farming. Oftentimes, when we think of this relationship, we consider how humans affect the environment around us. However, Harris focuses more on an equally important dimension of this idea: the environment impacting the lifestyles and cultures of humans. |
Human-Environment interaction plays a big role in modern society, particularly in cultural landscapes. Cultural landscapes are the visible imprint of human activity on a landscape. Look at the difference between the landscape of New York and the cultural landscape of New York. This is how humans have affected their environment. The environment, however, also influences human behavior.
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This map depicts the prevalence of the lactase gene which allows adults to drink milk.
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Through this concept, the book explains specific food habit examples. The climate affected pig domestication in the Middle East, ultimately leading to pig taboos. Biodiversity in Europe was such that Europeans needed cow milk for calcium, thus leading to their lactose-tolerance (which they eventually spread to many of the countries they settled).
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A process of analysis similar to that which Harris used can be applied to better understand non-food related social features as well. For example, climate (as it affected pig eating) might also affect clothing and houses in a region. Following the same logic as Harris', we can decipher that humans will wear clothing that most practically and efficiently serves the needs that the climate demands. For example, long white robes were the most practical for protecting skin from the sun while still remaining as cool as possible in the Middle East. Essentially, a greater understanding of human-environment interaction through food can help readers apply a similar logic to a wide array of human-environment topics.
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This is an image of Middle Eastern men wearing long white robes, also called thawbs.
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Food and culture is generally a positive thing. People identify strongly with their culture's cuisine, and its often a good way of integrating new members into a community or experiencing part of another place's culture. It's a particular source of cultural pride that doesn't fuel identifying against other cultures as much as, for example, political or historical pride, which can lead to conflicts with other countries or cultures. The effects of a new culture's food when entering a new place are often welcoming, and food generally tends to ease rather than fuel tensions, fear, and culture shock.
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"You have to taste a culture to understand it."
-Deborah Cater, travel writer |
This map depicts the percent of undernourished people by country.
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Food and culture has manifold positive aspects, although there is a negative side. There are huge global disaparities between food availability among different places and cultures. For example, the percent of undernourished people in Central African Republic is almost 240 times the percent of undernourished people in Argentina.
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This is an economic and social, rather than cultural, problem, stemming from poor food distribution and the recent period of violence and social unrest that sporadically resurges as the Central African Republic tries to recover. This is not caused by food and culture, but it pertains directly to food and culture, as it undermines people's abilities to efficiently reap foodstuffs and practice food-related culture. The study of food and culture can help combat this.
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This violence in the Central African Republic Civil War continues and makes it very difficult for the country to rebuild.
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Aside from complex analytical skills, this book, on its most basic level, teaches about global food phenomena. Readers learn about different parts of the world. Harris provides specific examples that give cultural (as well as historical) insight into faraway places.
It gives readers general knowledge about food habits around the world. As food plays a central role in culture, knowing food habits improves cultural awareness.
For example, knowing about the Pig Taboos in the Middle East is important to being a well-rounded citizen, as it often comes up in cultural, political, or religious discussions. |
This is still applicable today! Click here to read about some trends that were predicted to become popular sometime in 2016, most likely developed using some of the logic Harris' uses when discussing food phenomena.
Black raspberries were one of these trends. Click on the link above to find out why!
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