Food and Identity in the Caribbean

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This compelling volume brings together original essays that explore the relationship between food and identity in everyday life in the Caribbean. The Caribbean history of colonialism and migration has fostered a dynamic and diverse form of modernity, which continues to transform with the impact of globalization and migration out of the Caribbean. One of the founders of the anthropology of food, Richard Wilk provides a preface to this exciting and interdisciplinary collection of essays offering insight into the real issues of food politics which contribute to the culinary cultures of the Caribbean. Based on rich contemporary ethnographies, the volume reveals the ways in which food carries symbolic meanings which are incorporated into the many different facets of identity experienced by people in the Caribbean. Many of the chapters focus on the ways in which consumers align themselves with particular foods as a way of making claims about their identities. Development and political and economic changes in the Caribbean bring new foods to the contemporary dinner table, a phenomenon that may subsequently destabilize the foundations of culinary identities. Food and Identity in the Caribbean reveals the ways in which some of the connections between food and identity persist against the odds whilst in other contexts new relationships between food and identity are forged.

Reviews

Plays well on the dynamics between wisely chosen general notions and the particular examples depicted so colourfully. The writing style makes it widely accessible not only to scholars within the field of anthropology and social sciences, but also to a wider range of possible readers outside academia, driven by a keen interest be it even only in the Caribbean, or in food. -- Gabriela Radulescu * Allegra Laboratory *
The Caribbean has long been a place where people come and go, ingredients migrate, dishes are invented and evolve. This fascinating volume shows how amidst this remarkable fluidity, Caribbean people have used what they cook and eat as a means of grounding and self definition. The articles here are among some of the best new scholarship in food. * Ken Albala, University of the Pacific *
Offering fascinating insights into the relationships between Caribbean identities and foodways at home and in the diaspora, this volume contributes new understandings of how people manipulate food practices and meanings to stay grounded in their continuously changing and globalizing worlds. * Carole Counihan, Professor Emerita of Anthropology, Millersville University, and Visiting Professor of Food Anthropology, Boston University *
A tightly-written, academically-focused book ... an interesting collection of curiosities. * Yum.fi *

Author Bio

Hanna Garth, MPH, MA is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Anthropology at UCLA, USA.