ANTH 108 - Food, Drink and Culture

Credits: 5
Food and drink are essential components to human survival and as such the center of a myriad of human activities throughout human history. This course provides a cross-cultural and global view of food and drink that examines these essentials of life from the cultural, biological, archaeological, and linguistic perspectives of Anthropology. Students will develop and enhance their intercultural competence by examining various cross-cultural perspectives of food, while also building a foundation in methodological approaches to studying culture.

Prerequisite: Eligible for ENGL& 101; or instructor’s permission.

Satisfies Requirement: Social Science

Course Outcomes:
Students who successfully complete this class will be able to:

Explain the role that nutritional anthropology plays in understanding human consumption of food and drink.
Develop an understanding of some of the main methodological techniques of anthropology and identify appropriate uses of these methods in the study of food, drink, and culture.
Assess the human diet from a human biological evolutionary perspective, especially the influences that our primate origins have on our overall nutritional needs.
Demonstrate an understanding of the complexity and origins of world cuisines and beverages from a cross-cultural perspective.
Connect various aspects of culture to the choice and consumption of food and drink.
Identify the symbolic aspects of food and drink in various cultures and how these items convey values and norms.
List or recognize major global food challenges, such as sustainability and food inequalities, that the world faces today and develop an expanded awareness of different world views while challenging ethnocentrisms.
Analyze one’s own diet through the lens of nutritional anthropology.

Program Outcomes

Define the anthropological concept of cultural relativism.
Identify the holistic perspective.

College-wide Outcomes

Critical Thinking - Critical thinking finds expression in all disciplines and everyday life. It is characterized by an ability to reflect upon thinking patterns, including the role of emotions on thoughts, and to rigorously assess the quality of thought through its work products. Critical thinkers routinely evaluate thinking processes and alter them, as necessary, to facilitate an improvement in their thinking and potentially foster certain dispositions or intellectual traits over time.
Responsibility - Responsibility encompasses those behaviors and dispositions necessary for students to be effective members of a community. This outcome is designed to help students recognize the value of a commitment to those responsibilities which will enable them to work successfully individually and with others.
Written Communication - Written Communication encompasses all the abilities necessary for effective expression of thoughts, feelings, and ideas in written form.