Skip to content

Posts from the ‘Foodways’ Category

Jan 9

Material Culture Journalism, 6

The new year has promoted a lot of material culture journalism related to lifestyle changes and consumption habits. Some of the items here fit into this frame, including older stores being recirculated on social media.

“The Norwegian Art of the Packed Lunch” by Zaria Gorvett for BBC. http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20190103-the-norwegian-art-of-the-packed-lunch #foodways #work

“210-Foot Fatberg Blocks Sewers of English Seaside Town” by Iliana Magra in the New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/08/world/europe/uk-fatberg-sidmouth.html #infrastructure #consumption #habits

“The Mysterious, Stubborn Appeal of Mass-Produced Fried Chicken. Why do so many accomplished chefs call Popeyes their favorite fried chicken?” by Adam Clair for Vice. https://munchies.vice.com/en_us/article/8xppqv/the-mysterious-stubborn-appeal-of-mass-produced-fried-chicken #foodways #industrialprocess

“The Unbearable Heaviness of Clutter. A cluttered home can be a stressful home, researchers are learning” by Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi for New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/03/well/mind/clutter-stress-procrastination-psychology.html #consumption #psychology

“The Economics of Tidying Up” by Bourree Lam for The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/05/an-economist-reads-marie-kondo/392921/ #consumption #economics

“What We Gain from Keeping Books – and why it Doesn’t Need to be ‘Joy’” by Anakana Schofield for The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jan/07/what-we-gain-from-keeping-books-and-why-it-doesnt-need-to-be-joy-marie-kondo #consumption #culture

24079524087_22c0be5a28_o

Dec 25

Material Culture Journalism, 5

Material culture journalism, continued. Thanks to those who share stories…

“Gritty’s Evolution from Googly-eyed Hockey Mascot to Meme to Leftist Avatar, Explained | On our burning hunger for moral clarity and the unexplainable heart of the universe” by Todd VanDerWerff in Vox. (HT/AZ) #antisystemicmovements #mascots #costume

“Smithsonian Secretary David J. Skorton to Step Down from Top Spot in June” by Peggy McGlone and Maura Judkis in The Washington Post #museums

“Missouri Family Hand-makes Cookie Cutters in any Shape you can Imagine” by AOL/In The Know (HT/Missouri Folk Arts Program) #smallbusiness #foodways

“The Juul Fad Is Far Bigger Than I Ever Would Have Guessed” by Kevin Drum in Mother Jones. #capitalism #publichealth

“Year End Obituary: Charles Harrison, Inventor Of The Plastic Garbage Can” by NPR/All Things Considered. #AfricanAmericanHistory #Sears #IndustrialDesign

cc7

Dec 23

Material Culture Journalism, 4

“Five Siblings Run the U.S.’s Only Baijiu Distillery in Their Mom’s Backyard” by Anne Ewbank in Atlas Obscura. (HT/TL) #foodways

“Chanel Shoes, but no Salary: How One Woman [Anthropologist] Exposed the Scandal of the French Fashion Industry” by Stefanie Marsh in The Guardian. (HT/MB) #exploitation #precarity #fashion

“New App Uses Indigenous Basketry Patterns to Teach Math Concepts” by Diane Luckow in Simon Fraser University News. (HT/KH?) #basketry #technology #ethnomathematics

“The Dollar Store Backlash Has Begun” by Tanvi Misra in Citylab. #inequality #retail

“Dollar Stores Are Targeting Struggling Urban Neighborhoods and Small Towns. One Community Is Showing How to Fight Back” by Marie Donahue and Stacy Mitchell at Institute for Local Self-Reliance. #inequality #retail #urban&rural

14615894956_b6a4f515bb_o

Mar 1

Southern Foodways Alliance: 2017 Summer Oral History Workshop

An organization whose work I am enthusiastic about is the Southern Foodways Alliance. Here I share news of its next oral history workshop. I quote from the call for participants and end with a link to the webpage where more information can be found.

SFA’s 2017 oral history workshop will be held in Atlanta, Georgia. Geared toward those who are new or moderately new to oral history methods and fieldwork, participants will think critically and creatively about the dissemination of oral histories and the impact recorded narratives have on communities and audiences.

This summer’s workshop will study and document stories along Buford Highway, collaborating with We Love BuHi, a nonprofit community organization that catalyzes and supports an inclusive and sustainable Buford Highway through creative place-making collaborations.

Open to undergraduate and graduate students, professors, educators, and SFA members, participants will learn SFA-devised methods and approaches to oral history, audio recording skills and techniques, an intro to digital photography, and hear guest lecturers from documentarians and community organizations documenting Atlanta foodways. The week will culminate in the collection and processing of oral history interviews using foodways as a way to open the door to life stories and experiences.

We strongly encourage people of color to apply.

SFA documents stories of the diverse communities throughout the South, and we believe it to be equally important for oral historians to represent that diversity.

For dates, more information, pictures, and the broader SFA context, start online here: http://www.southernfoodways.org/scholarship/workshops-2/

Oct 4

1 Comment

Collaborative for Cultural Heritage Management and Policy

The Collaborative for Cultural Heritage Management and Policy (aka CHAMP) is a very active initiative at the at the University of Illinois. Led by anthropologist Helaine Silverman, it involves a huge number of Illinois faculty and organizes a wide range of conferences, talks, and projects. CHAMP has announced a busy series of lectures for October. Check out its website for more information on CHAMP’s activities. Here are the upcoming lectures.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16
3 p.m.
DAVENPORT HALL, room 109A
Food, heritage and intellectual property in Europe
Lecture by Dr. Erica Farmer (James Smithson Postdoctoral Fellow, Smithsonian Institution)

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17
4 p.m.
DAVENPORT HALL, room 109A
Negotiating the “increase and diffusion of knowledge”: Policy, practice, and values around cultural heritage at the Smithsonian Institution
Lecture by Dr. Erica Farmer (James Smithson Postdoctoral Fellow, Smithsonian Institution)

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21
5 p.m.
GSLIS 126 (501 E. Daniel)
Why UNESCO Matters: The Destruction of Cultural Heritage around the World
A panel presentation:
Lynne Dearborn (Architecture): The destruction of vernacular architecture
Laila Moustafa (LIS): The loss of Islamic manuscripts
Helaine Silverman (Anthropology): Looting the archaeological record
Kari Zobler (Anthropology): The devastation of Syria’s cultural heritage
Co-sponsored with the UNESCO Center for Global Citizenship

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22
4 p.m.
Lucy Ellis Lounge, first floor in FLB
Vikings in America? Swedes in the American Ethno-Racial Hierarchies in the 19th Century
Lecture by Dr. Dag Blanck (English Department, Stockholm University)

MONDAY, OCTOBER 28
4:30
Lincoln Hall room 1064
The Colonial Occupation of Piura: The Historical Archaeology of the First Spanish Settlement in Peru
Lecture by Dr. Fernando Vela (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)

Aug 24

What Marketers Can Learn from the Food-Truck Trend – Grant McCracken – Harvard Business Review

What Marketers Can Learn from the Food-Truck Trend – Grant McCracken – Harvard Business Review.

Jun 29

Looplore: DIY/Crafts Summer Camp for Grownups

Folklorist Kelley Totten (MA, U Oregon) will soon join the Ph.D. program in folklore at Indiana University. (Welcome Kelley!)  Before arriving here, she and some colleagues are organizing the second Looplore event on July 22-24, 2011 at the Indian Henry Campground near Estacada, Oregon.  The first such gathering was held last year and it looks like it was a great success.  This DIY/crafts/music/food  summer camp for grownups looks to be even better this year.  To secure the longer term future of the gathering, the organizers have a Kickstarter campaign underway.  Even if you are unable to make a small donation to support them, seeing the excellent Kickstarter video that they made is a great way to learn both about the event and about what a wonderful resource Kickstarter is.  Check it out at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/looplore/the-looplore-experiment .  Learn everything you might wish to know about the Looplore event at their website:  http://thelooploreexperiment.wordpress.com/

Nov 24

Daniel Swan on Osage Uses of the North American Lotus

Ethnobotany Research and Applications is an important gold open access journal in the field of ethnobotany. It is now in the midst of publishing its 8th volume. I am pleased to note that my friend and collaborator Daniel C. Swan has just published a paper in this journal. “The North American Lotus (Nelumbo lutea Willd Pers.) – Sacred Food of the Osage People” draws upon his long-term research with Osage people in present-day Oklahoma and grows out of his studies of both Osage cultural performance and expressive culture and his interest in plant use in Native North America. The paper also reflects Dan’s commitment to open access publishing. It has been a good month for him in this connection, as earlier this month another paper of his appeared in Museum Anthropology Review, this one on the decorated boxes made and used by members of the Native American Church.

Congratulations Dan!  Congratulations too to all those countless folks who would like to read such papers but who usually cannot afford to access them.

%d bloggers like this: