ABSTRACT
Both in contemporary contexts and in remote antiquity, food – and the ‘stuff’ of food – is central to people’s daily experiences, as it is to social reproduction, and their sense and expression of identity. Myriad aspects of the materiality of food, and how it is socialized, have been extensively researched by both anthropologists and archaeologists. Within anthropology, the emphasis has been on the actual food, in particular highlighting its symbolic meaning (Lupton 1994; Miller 1998; Mintz and du Bois 2002) and its place within the political economy (Mintz 1985; Watson and Caldwell 2004). More recently there has been increasing emphasis placed on the relationship between the human body and edible substances; there is a focus on the physical transformative relationship between people and the food they eat – how the biological act of ingestion makes and transforms a body (cf. Hayes-Conroy and Hayes-Conroy 2008; Lavis 2016; Lupton 1996; Mol 2008). This perspective is increasingly informed by the agency of food, the concept of edible matter as actant (cf. Bennett 2010, 39-51). The visceral sensuality of food, as well as the importance of taste and smell in constructing memory and meaning, comprises another fruitful area of enquiry (Holtzman 2006; Lupton 1994; Sutton 2001; see also Wilk, this volume).
