Events

CHAIRPERSON

Dr Connor Graham, Asia Research Institute, and Tembusu College, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

Today it seems “natural” to identify particular foodstuffs with geographic locations, ethnic groups and nations, and to establish their authenticity and value through local designations. It has not always been so. How did location branding develop in human history, and how did it become so deeply embedded in culture that today we no longer question it? Beginning in an ancient Egyptian wine cellar and the Roman Mediterranean, I discuss the relationship between Galenic theories of health, humoral medicine, food and cultural identity. I contrast this with the work of early Protestant clerics and alchemists like Paracelsus, which grounded cultural identity and health in specific natural settings, turning cultural identity into a scientific project. I argue that by connecting geography and temporality these theorists took a crucial step that led to modern conceptions of terroir, local and national cuisines, and the pervasive power of brands in consumer cultures.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Richard Wilk completed his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Arizona and is currently Distinguished Professor and Provost’s Professor Emeritus at Indiana University. He has also taught at the University of California (Berkeley and Santa Cruz), New Mexico State University, and has held visiting professorships at University College London, Gothenburg University, the University of Gastronomic Sciences and Birkbeck College. He has lived and worked in Belize for 45 years, but began to do research in Singapore with a visiting professorship at Tembusu College in 2016 and a Fulbright teaching and research fellowship in 2017. He will be comparing colonial food policies in Singapore, Belize and Guyana. Trained as an economic and ecological anthropologist, his research has covered many different aspects of global consumer culture. Much of his recent work has turned towards the global history of food and the prospects for sustainable consumption as a means to minimize climate change. He has published over 200 papers, chapters and reviews, and writes a regular opinion column for Anthropology News. His most recent books are a textbook on the anthropology of everyday life, co-authored with Orvar Lofgren and Billy Ehn, a co-edited collection with Candice Lowe Swift, “Teaching Food and Culture,” and “Seafood: From Ocean to Table” with Hamada Shingo,to be published by Routledge on August 19, 2018.

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