The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating offers an ethnographically informed perspective on the ways in which people use food to make sense of life in an increasingly interconnected world.

• Uses food as a central idiom for teaching about culture and addresses broad themes such as globalization, capitalism, market economies, and consumption practices
  
• Spanning 5 continents, features studies from 11 countries—Japan, China, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, France, Burkina Faso, Chile, Trinidad, Mexico, and the United States
  
• Offers discussion of such hot topics as sushi, fast food, gourmet foods, and food scares and contamination

James L. Watson is Fairbank Professor of Chinese Society and Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University. His books include Golden Arches East: McDonald’s in East Asia(edited 1998), Village Life in Hong Kong (with Rubie Watson, 2004), and Between Two Cultures (edited, Blackwell, 1977).

Melissa L. Caldwell is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at University of California, Santa Cruz. She is the author of Not by Bread Alone: Social Support in the New Russia (2004).