Cultural Factors in Food Habits: Reflections in Memory of Christine S. Wilson

Abstract

Nutrition and anthropology have a long history of collaboration in studies of food and changing food habits. Adopting Christine Wilson's (1973) Handbook of References as a starting point, this analysis considers changing nutrition and anthropology institutional contexts for food and culture studies, the increase in available data bases, the ways politics enter into anthropological and nutritional studies of food, and positive versus negative orientations toward the value and significance of cultural dimensions of food habits. A final section considers some new ways anthropologists and nutritionists are collaborating on studies of the construction and health implications of transcultural diets, with special reference to Mexico.

KEYWORDS:

• food habits
• nutritional anthropology
• dietary change

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank Sheila Cosminsky and two anonymous reviewers for their comments and bibliographic suggestions.