Uncertain tastes : memory, ambivalence, and the politics of eating in Samburu, northern Kenya / Jon Holtzman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Holtzman, Jon.

Series:

ACLS Fellows' Publications.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Samburu (African people)--Food.

Samburu (African people).

Samburu (African people)--Domestic animals.

Samburu (African people)--Social conditions.

Food habits--Kenya--Samburu District.

Food habits.

Food preferences--Kenya--Samburu District.

Food preferences.

Food--Symbolic aspects--Kenya--Samburu District.

Food.

Culture conflict--Kenya--Samburu District.

Culture conflict.

Social change--Kenya--Samburu District.

Social change.

Samburu District (Kenya)--Social conditions.

Samburu District (Kenya).

Samburu District (Kenya)--Economic conditions.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (297 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Memory, ambivalence, and the politics of eating in Samburu, northern Kenya

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This richly drawn ethnography of Samburu cattle herders in northern Kenya examines the effects of an epochal shift in their basic diet-from a regimen of milk, meat, and blood to one of purchased agricultural products. In his innovative analysis, Jon Holtzman uses food as a way to contextualize and measure the profound changes occurring in Samburu social and material life. He shows that if Samburu reaction to the new foods is primarily negative-they are referred to disparagingly as "gray food" and "government food"-it is also deeply ambivalent. For example, the Samburu attribute a host of social maladies to these dietary changes, including selfishness and moral decay. Yet because the new foods save lives during famines, the same individuals also talk of the triumph of reason over an antiquated culture and speak enthusiastically of a better life where there is less struggle to find food. Through detailed analysis of a range of food-centered arenas, Uncertain Tastes argues that the experience of food itself-symbolic, sensuous, social, and material-is intrinsically characterized by multiple and frequently conflicting layers.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part 1. Orientations

Part 2. Worlds of Food

Part 3. Histories of Eating

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612359958

9781282359956

1282359959

9780520944824

0520944828

OCLC:

609850084