Everyone Eats

"Plenty of cultural insights and background history lend to a survey particularly recommended for college-level students of anthropology and social science." (The Midwest Book Review). "Anderson's book is a solid introduction to the anthropology of food for students and general readers. It is clear, well-written, spiced with interesting examples, and illustrated with many evocative photographs taken by the author." (Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute). Everyone eats, but rarely do we investigate why we eat what we eat. Why do we love spices, sweets, coffee? How did rice become such a staple food throughout so much of eastern Asia? Everyone Eats examines the social and cultural reasons for our food choices and provides an explanation of the nutritional reasons for why humans eat what they do, resulting in a unique cultural and biological approach to the topic. E. N. Anderson explains the economics of food in the globalization era; food's relationship to religion, medicine, and ethnicity; and offers suggestions on how to end hunger, starvation, and malnutrition. This thoroughly updated Second Edition incorporates the latest food scholarship, most notably recognizing the impact of sustainable eating advocacy and the state of food security in the world today. Anderson also brings more insight than ever before into the historical and scientific underpinnings of our food customs, fleshing this out with fifteen new and original photographs from his own extensive fieldwork. A perennial classic in the anthropology of food, Everyone Eats feeds our need to understand human ecology by explaining the ways that cultures and political systems structure the edible environment. E. N. Anderson is Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus, at the University of California, Riverside.