In this book, contributors examine the many meanings of the term 'nomad' through the study of food habits. Food and beverage products have become just as nomadic as other objects, such as telephones and computers, whereas in the past only food and money were able to move about with their carriers. Food industries have seized control of this trend to make it the characteristic feature of consumption outside the home - always faster and more convenient, the just-in-time meal: 'what I want, when I want, where I want', snacks, finger food, and street food. The terms reveal the contemporary modernity and spread of food practices, but they are only modified versions of older and more uncommon forms of behavior. Mobility, in the sense of multiple forms of moving about using public or individual, and possibly intermodal, means of transport, on spatial scales and temporal rhythms which are frequent and recurring but variable, responding to professional or leisure needs, can serve as a basic premise in order to gain insight into the concept of food nomadism.
Isabelle Bianquis is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Tours and in the Research team Citeres (UMR 7324). She studies the social and ritual life of the nomads of Mongolia and currently heads a research program on food mutations of the northern peoples in collaboration with the North-Eastern Federal University of Yakutsk (Russia). Jean-Pierre Williot is Professor of Contemporary History at Sorbonne University, Paris. He is author or co-author of twenty books about various topics (history of gas industry, history of railways, food history). His main research interests history of consumption and innovation.
1 From Noun (the Food of the Nomads) to Adjective (Nomadic Eating) Isabelle Bianquis 2 Mongolian Nomadic Herders are Sedentary Eaters Sandrine Ruhlmann 3 McDonald's in the Desert: Bedouins, Fast-Food, and Modernity in Southern Israel Nir Avieli 4 Nomadism in the Food Culture of the Yakuts and the Indigenous Peoples of Yakutia Izabella Borisova and Antonina Vinokurova 5 Circulating Food Practices and Food Representations on Senegalese Inhabitants of Bordeaux and Dakar Chantal Crenn 6 Space-Food: Food in Mobile Technological Environments of Late High-Modernity Alwin Cubasch 7 Eating on Corsica's GR Footpaths and Trails: Choosing between Hi-tech and Tradition Philippe Pesteil 8 Italian-Sounding: A World Carrier of a Traveling Cuisine Giovanni Ceccarelli and Stefano Magagnoli 9 Imagining Culinary Nomadism: Food Exchanges Shaped by Global Mixed Race, Diasporic Belongings, and Cosmopolitan Sensibilites Jean Duruz 10 The Traveling Priest: Food for the Spirit and Food for the Body Luciano Maffi 11 Conclusion: From Anthropology to History Jean-Pierre Williot Notes Index About the Editors and Contributors
This eclectic collection of essays treats nomadism and mobile populations around the globe, ranging across Senegal, Italy, Mongolia, Israel, Australia, Corsica, and Russian Siberia; one chapter even explores the ways NASA missions functioned as laboratories for nutrition in long-range space exploration. Thematically and topically interesting, the chapters link specific nomadic practices to food cultures within the context of globalization and late modernity. This collection takes a very wide view of what can be counted as nomadism: transnational, tourist, and migratory mobility are all covered under the same umbrella term. . . this has the advantage of pointing out certain similarities between different forms as they exist, have existed, or can be imagined to exist. . . these chapters will likely be useful in anthropology, migration, food studies, and food security courses; in classes covering specific populations and/or geographic areas; and those covering the forms of mobility mentioned above. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through graduate students; professionals. * Choice * By smartly juxtaposing the gustatory practices of Bedouins, pilgrims, tourist and astronauts this Nomadic Food: Anthropological and Historical Studies around the World forces us to rethink the relationship between material culture and mobility, ecology and anthropology, biology and culture, to productively re-theorize nomadic eating. -- Krishnendu Ray, Chair of the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies, New York University, author of "The Ethnic Restaurateur" (2016) What a rich and fascinating offering! This unique volume provides engaging and insightful perspectives on an important, yet uncommonly studied foodway. It shines light on places and cultures that are too often left out of food studies scholarship. -- Stephen Wooten, PhD, Associate Professor, Global Studies, Director, Food Studies Program, University of Oregon
