Concluding Thoughts and Marginal Provocations

Abstract

Richard Wilk, Professor of Anthropology and Co-Director of the Indiana University Food Institute, provides final comments, placing this collection of articles on less-tasty crops nevertheless of social importance in anthropological and food studies contexts, and drawing out questions for future research.

Keywords:

• marginalized foods
• taste
• consumption
• boundaries
• temporality
• anthropology
• meaning

Notes

1. I should probably make an exception for those who pursued the extreme materialist side of the protein–calorie debate in Amazonia. The materialist argument rested on the assumption that there were no high civilizations in Amazonia as a consequence of its low protein potential, an argument that is no longer tenable now that archaeologists have found the remains of ancient earthworks, roads, and bioengineering under the forest canopy.

2. Even the most benign substance can become a poison at a high dosage. Anthropologists attacked the question of balancing diversity and stability in the diet long before the invention of the “omnivore’s dilemma.” Modern food manufacturers know how to play on the attractions of salt, sugar and fat to sell us a diet that kills us in far greater numbers than any communicable disease.

3. Rath (2010) discusses many kinds of food that the medieval Japanese elaborately prepared for ceremonial presentations to the Emperor or to deities. He also discusses cooked animals that were cut apart and then reassembled in front of a group of diners as a demonstration of knife skills when there was no intention of actually eating them.

4. One of my favorite examples is a brief analysis of the wine collection buried with Tutankhamen, which identifies vineyards and vintages as well as the name of the vintner (Lesko 1977).