Beauty and the feast: Official and visceral nationalism in Belize

This article discusses two nationalizing projects in the recently independent Caribbean country of Belize. Beauty pageants, promoted by political parties as an explicit effort to build unified national consensus in a multi‐ethnic society, have failed to do so. In practice they dramatize difference more than identity. In the meantime other forms of national identification have flourished, often in sites completely outside of state intervention. An example is provided in the growth of a Belizean cuisine.     

Barossa Dreaming: Imagining Place and Constituting Cuisine in Contemporary Australia

Regional cuisines have become a prominent feature in the consumer landscape of modernised societies. This article describes how a regional cuisine is being socially constituted in the Barossa Valley, one of the most important wine-growing areas in Australia. Initially, I detail how small farmers, winegrowers and other entrepreneurs idealise the Barossa landscape and fabricate the heritage that is integral to the idea of a distinctive cuisine. This is followed by examination of how the notion of Barossa food as having distinctive qualities because of the artisanal ways it is produced is constantly being elaborated by the valley's small-scale enterprises. Lastly, I explore the contribution of wider influences to this cultural process, from the role played by an internationally recognised celebrity chef through to the recent arrival of the Slow Food movement. Local factors and global influences contribute to the social manufacture of the Barossa's regional cuisine, the overall appeal of which to middle class consumers is as much cultural as it is culinary.     

Like Water for Chocolate: Feasting and Political Ritual among the Late Classic Maya at Xunantunich, Belize

Subtle differences in the context of feasting and manners of food consumption can point to underlying levels of civil and social competition in state-level societies. Haute cuisine and high styles of dining are characteristic of societies with fully developed civil and social hierarchies such as Renaissance Europe and the Postclassic Aztec. Competitive yet socially circumscribed political and social organizations such as the Classic lowland Maya may have prepared elaborate diacritical meals that marked status, but the nature of feasting remained essentially patriarchal. Ancient Maya feasting is recognizable through archaeologically discernible pottery vessel forms that were used to serve festival fare such as tamales and chocolate. Comparison of ceramic assemblages across civic and household contexts at the site of Xunantunich, Belize, demonstrates that drinking chocolate, more so than eating tamales, served as a symbolic cue that established the political significance of events among the Classic Maya. [ feasting, ancient Maya, pottery analysis, chocolate ]     

Cognizing "Cognized Models"

In his later work Rappaport acknowledged that his earlier efforts had overemphasized organic and ecological functions in the explanation of cultural phenomena. He then distanced himself from both idealism and reductive materialism and set out to understand the complexities of cultural understandings and ritual. Specifically, he shifted from functionalism to formalism in an effort to understand ritual and its language in relation to cultural norms. Ultimately his analysis was implicitly structural, understanding the part as a constituent of an overarching arrangement and in terms of what Althusser would have called "structural causality." Although his work benefited from this shift from function to structure, Rappaport did not use it to explore the political dimension. However, a holistic ecology such as the one Rappaport essayed must ultimately embrace both political ecology and historical ecology, [cognized models, ritual, political ecology, structural causality-]     

The Taste of Nationalism: Food Politics in Postsocialist Moscow

In this article I consider how Muscovites cultivate and express nationalist sentiments through their food choices. During the last ten years of the post-socialist transition, Russian consumers have encountered an expanding and increasingly transnational commodity market. Locally produced elements of Russian cuisine both compete with and imitate foreign food products. In response to perceptions that foreign cultures are displacing or subsuming local cultural forms, Russian officials have launched a 'Buy Russian' campaign. Domestic food producers, store clerks, and customers collaborate to classify foods and other products as either 'Ours'(Nash) or 'Not Ours' (Ne nash) and describe local goods as superior to foreign goods in terms of taste, quality, and healthfulness. In their own narratives about consumption choices, Muscovites echo these nationalist themes by explicitly linking their personal food experiences with broader political issues. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork on foodpractices in Moscow(1995-2001), I suggest that consumption strategies mediate Muscovites' experiences with growing nationalist sentiments in the context of a globalizing Russia.     

Imagining the Highway: Anticipating Infrastructural and Environmental Change in Belize

ABSTRACT

This article examines the social and political, as well physical, construction of infrastructure, by attending to the implications of a highway yet to be built. In southern Belize, where the development of rural road networks figures strongly in historical narratives of political and environmental change, the recent paving of a major domestic highway has had distinctive implications for livelihoods and land rights among the predominantly Maya population of rural Toledo district. At the time of research, a plan for a new paved highway to the Guatemalan border animated longstanding debates over territoriality, environment and development, even as the details remained elusive. Bringing political ecology into conversation with attention to the perception of sensory environments, and the affective power of anticipation, I argue for extending anthropological conversations about infrastructure to encompass the meanings and consequences of imagined infrastructures for the ways people encounter, experience and enact social and environmental change.     

Culture,Conflict, and Translocal Communication: Mobile Technology and Politics in Rural West Bengal,India

As media reports of political movements from various locations have shown, mobile technology can be a powerful political instrument. This paper examines how political activists in West Bengal, India use mobile phones for their daily political work. I seek ways to recognize the disruptive and political potential of mobile technology without ignoring its social and cultural rootedness. I illustrate how riots and protests relate to the increase in translocal communication enabled by phones. I also demonstrate how the political use of mobile technology for extra ordinary events is grounded in the social and political processes of ordinary everyday life and draws from the local understanding of politics by emphasizing certain aspects of it. My article confirms the cultural continuity amidst the increase in translocal relationships but it also pinpoints how cultures harbour conflicts and alternative discourses which translocal communication helps to amplify.     

Anecdotal,Historical and Critical Commentaries on Genetics: Darwin and Darwinism: The (Alleged) Social Implications of The Origin of Species

Most scientific theories, even revolutionary ones, change the practice of a particular science but have few consequences for culture or society at large. But Darwinism, it has often been said, is different in this respect. Since the publication of The Origin of Species, many have claimed that Darwinism has a number of profound social implications. Here, I briefly consider three of these: the economic, the political, and the religious. I suggest that, for the most part, these supposed implications have been misconstrued or exaggerated. Indeed, it is reasonably clear that the chain of implication sometimes primarily ran in the opposite direction—from, for instance, economics and political theory to Darwinism.THE appearance of The Origin of Species launched one of the greatest, and most justly celebrated, revolutions in the history of science. But in the 150 years since the appearance of Darwin''s book, many scholars, scientists, and pundits have claimed that Darwinism did more than revolutionize biology. Darwinism, they claim, also had a number of social and cultural consequences: economic and political, medical, eugenic, educational, and religious. Some of these consequences are to be applauded and others regretted, but all, it is said, can be traced to important strands of thought in The Origin of Species. One of the ironies of modern history would thus seem to be that the close scientific study of pigeons, mockingbirds, and barnacles could have such consequences.But while the case for the scientific importance of Darwinism is incontestable, the case for its presumed social and cultural consequences is far more complex and, in places, dubious. Here I consider three of these supposed consequences: the economic, the political, and the religious. Because the economic and religious cases have been widely discussed, I focus on the political one. I should note that I am not an expert on economics, political theory, or religion, but a biologist. Perhaps fortunately, then, little that I have to say is new but reflects the efforts of many social scientists and historians. Because their ideas seem little known among biologists, they may be worth recounting here.     

An evolutionary theory of cuisine

The evolution of human diet is the product of both biological and cultural adaptations to various plants and animals in the environment. This paper develops a new theory for the evolution of cuisine practices which attempts to account for how food processing provided a critical link in enhancing the nutrient balance of major domesticated plants. Dr. Katz is a Professor of Anthropology and Director of the W. M. Krogman Center for Research in Child Growth and Development at the University of Pennsylvania. He first became interested in food and cuisine research as a result of his work with minerals in the diets of Inuit (Eskimo) peoples of the Alaskan Arctic and then with maize in the diets of the Lacandon Maya Indians in the early 1970s. Since then he has published numerous books and papers on developing the theory of cuisine presented in this paper.     

Hope, Arkansas to Hope, Albania: naivete and idealism to reality and tragedy

The wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo were perpretrated by a radical nationalist Serbian cultural political consciousness that the American cultural political consciousness and leadership had difficulty responding to and understanding. There is a great cultural divide between a 'pathology' in Serbian culture, Milosevi?'s radical nationalism, and a humane 'naivete' in American cultural consciousness. I discuss why, finally, American political leadership, Bill Clinton from Hope, Arkansas, responded to the tragedy of these wars. However, we are still left with the question of good vs evil: What is the course of human history; psychotic political leadership causing repetitive human tragedy or can there be a higher humane and moral order to human cultural events?     

When "humanitarianism" becomes "development": the politics of international aid in Syria's Palestinian refugee camps

In recent years, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has attempted to go beyond its role as a provider of relief and basic services in Palestinian refugee camps and emphasize its role as a development agency. In this article, I focus on the Neirab Rehabilitation Project, an UNRWA-sponsored development project taking place in the Palestinian refugee camps of Ein el Tal and Neirab in northern Syria. I argue that UNRWA's role as a relief-centered humanitarian organization highlights the everyday suffering of Palestinian refugees, suffering that has become embedded in refugees’ political claims. I show that UNRWA's emphasis on “development” in the refugee camps is forcing Palestinian refugees in Ein el Tal and Neirab to reassess the political narrative through which they have understood their relationship with UNRWA.     

Effective Solutions for Howler Conservation

All species of howlers are at risk due to habitat destruction. I review the three most serious threats to howler survival—agricultural disturbance, logging disturbance, and hunting—both in a general context and in species accounts. Withal, the adaptability of howlers has allowed them to be a widespread genus throughout Central and South America. Alouatta is especially adaptable due to its generalized folivorous diet. I discuss how this adaptability relates to survival in situations of habitat destruction. In addition, I examine howler preference for riverine habitats and their ability to capitalize on secondary forests and secondary growth. I take a practical approach, suggesting some solutions for species survival, which include habitat management and reintroductions. Successful conservation models highlighted are the Community Baboon Sanctuary in Belize, in which villagers manage their lands for the benefit of the black howler and for their own economic benefit from ecotourism, and a village-sustainable logging system in Quintana Roo, Mexico, which has reduced levels of deforestation while benefiting both villagers and howlers, as well as other wildlife. A successful translocation of black howlers in Belize in order to reestablish a viable population is also described. The paper concludes with further suggestions to encourage howler conservation.     

Social and River Networks for the Trees: Wounaan's Riverine Rhizomic Cosmos and Arboreal Conservation

ABSTRACT   The effects of environmental conservation and development are of significant anthropological interest. Recent focus on the politics of knowledge and translation has shown the importance of cosmology in conservation encounters. I examine how Wounaan indigenous peoples and extralocal conservation practitioners "translate" eastern Panama based on their own cosmologies. ¹ Specifically, I explore how Wounaan's social and river-networked rhizomic cosmos is overlooked in the practice of forest-focused conservation. This results from Panama's environmental history, in which actors simplified early representations of a complex landscape to one characterized by forests, as well as a Western bias toward forests with scant attention paid to cosmology. Finally, I note how Wounaan negotiate this cultural disconnect by emphasizing their ties to forests. In so doing, they buttress the arboreal bias, in turn reinforcing power relations, but also giving themselves political leverage in conservation activities. These results inform recent discussion about politics and scientific praxis in conservation.     

‘No Asians working here’: racialized otherness and authenticity in gastronomical Orientalism

Orientalist discourse relies on the relational epistemology in which the authenticity of the self co-emerges with the authenticity of the other. The cultural definition of authentic ethnic cuisine is discursively constructed through the identification of racialized otherness which also implies the ‘de-racialized’ cultural competency of cosmopolitan consumers. A critical discourse analysis of online restaurant reviews in selected US cities reveals that claims to authenticity in the gastronomical experience involving East Asian cuisine are predicated on the deployment of a racialized Orientalist narrative. We examine five themes: (1) racialized authentic otherness, (2) generalized racial temperament, (3) Orientalist destinations, (4) the authenticity of whiteness, and (5) self-Orientalism by the racialized alterity. We conclude that the production of a racial signification of the ‘Oriental other’ is linked to the authenticity of cultural otherness which, in turn, is connected to the authenticity of the consumer experience.     

How Do Real Indians Fish? Neoliberal Multiculturalism and Contested Indigeneities in the Colorado Delta

ABSTRACT   There has been a growing interest in anthropology regarding how certain political conditions set the stage for "articulations" between indigenous movements and environmental actors and discourses. However, relatively little attention has been paid to how these same conditions can suppress demands for indigenous rights. In this article, I argue that the pairing of neoliberalism and multiculturalism in contemporary Mexico has created political fields in which ethnic difference has been foregrounded as a way of denying certain rights to marginalized groups. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in northern Mexico, I analyze how the arguments of a group of Cucapá for fishing rights in the Colorado Delta have been constrained within these political circumstances. I argue that cultural difference has been leveraged by the Mexican federal government and local NGOs to prevent the redistribution of environmental resources among vulnerable groups such as the Cucapá.     

Physical strength predicts political violence

Research has revealed an association between individual physical strength and attitudinal support for modern war. Physical strength of one individual has an infinitesimal effect on the outcomes of state-level aggression involving large-scale armies and complex military technology. The fact that stronger individuals do support such aggression hints at an evolved psychology specialized for small-scale coalitional aggression, where strength of coalition members non-negligibly contribute to the net coalition strength. Here, I examined whether strength also accounts for participation in modern political aggression, as contrasted to mere support. Given that contemporary political aggression primarily occurs within—not between—states, I focused on intra-state forms of political violence, specifically violent antigovernment protests. To enhance external and ecological validity, I relied on large probability samples from both non-WEIRD and WEIRD countries experiencing political violence (N = 6283; interviewees were quota-sampled from YouGov online panels to generate representative samples of online adult populations). Multinational analyses revealed that self-perceived strength significantly predicts intentions to participate in political violence and self-reported participation, and that this association is stronger among young interviewees, but not among men (compared to women). The predictive power of strength was modest but comparable to that of gender, an established predictor of aggression. I discuss why the fact that strength—a physiological variable—relates to political violence—a complex modern phenomenon—is remarkable. Subsequently, I suggest a new research agenda that draws on insights from evolutionary research to study modern political violence.     

Ethnicity and Ethnically "Mixed" Identity in Belize: A Study of Primary School-Age Children

This article focuses on the ehtnic identity of children in Belize. Belizean nationalism, as taught in the primary schools, is both pan-ethnic and multiethnic. However, because the increasingly widespread practice of ethnic mixing is unacknowledged, there is a discrepancy between what is taught in school and the daily life of children. This has resulted in a paradox. Whereas the overt intent is to recognize and celebrate difference, the result has been to silence children's voices.     

The "Hawaiian Cultural Revolution": Some Political and Economic Considerations

Acculturation, culture fatigue, and cultural evolution have all been offered as explanations of the Hawaiian Cultural Revolution. All of these are concerned with cultural processes. The relevant historical and ethnographic data on this unique event are summarized here, and a different interpretation of them is offered. This interpretation is that the events that precipitated the so-called Cultural Revolution can also be regarded as political responses deliberately made by the legitimate government of Hawaii to alleviate a severe political and economic crisis.     

"Change yourself and the whole world will become kinder": Russian activists for reproductive health and the limits of claims making for women

This article views reproductive health activism as a fruitful site for analyzing the cultural logics through which legitimate claims for women's needs become expressed and circumscribed. It begins from the observation that in the United States and Britain, reproductive health has been a key arena for feminist political claims and struggles for women's rights, bodily integrity, access to health care, and demands for authority in relations with experts. These concerns and struggles have not, however, emerged in all postsocialist contexts, and new activism in Russia reveals strikingly different agendas. Innovative groups of health providers seeking to increase women's access to birth control methods and safe sex, home birth opportunities, and improved health services work outside of feminist perspectives and reject political paths for change. By examining the ideological inspirations, cultural logics, and political-economic constraints shaping the outreach work of Russian health practitioners, the article explains how and why health activism became a site for personal "spiritual" revival and the strengthening of nuclear families. It also explores how conditions following the collapse of socialism have further legitimized activists' rejection of political agendas for change.     

Analysis of Food Pairing in Regional Cuisines of India

Any national cuisine is a sum total of its variety of regional cuisines, which are the cultural and historical identifiers of their respective regions. India is home to a number of regional cuisines that showcase its culinary diversity. Here, we study recipes from eight different regional cuisines of India spanning various geographies and climates. We investigate the phenomenon of food pairing which examines compatibility of two ingredients in a recipe in terms of their shared flavor compounds. Food pairing was enumerated at the level of cuisine, recipes as well as ingredient pairs by quantifying flavor sharing between pairs of ingredients. Our results indicate that each regional cuisine follows negative food pairing pattern; more the extent of flavor sharing between two ingredients, lesser their co-occurrence in that cuisine. We find that frequency of ingredient usage is central in rendering the characteristic food pairing in each of these cuisines. Spice and dairy emerged as the most significant ingredient classes responsible for the biased pattern of food pairing. Interestingly while individual spices contribute to negative food pairing, dairy products on the other hand tend to deviate food pairing towards positive side. Our data analytical study highlighting statistical properties of the regional cuisines, brings out their culinary fingerprints that could be used to design algorithms for generating novel recipes and recipe recommender systems. It forms a basis for exploring possible causal connection between diet and health as well as prospection of therapeutic molecules from food ingredients. Our study also provides insights as to how big data can change the way we look at food.