Course Description
It is impossible to fully understand a culture's history without studying its food. Examination of the complex relationship between food and cultures. Specifically, how people have produced, prepared, and preserved food and the effects on cultures, national and international politics, social interactions, economics, and the environment.
Athena Title
Food in History and Culture
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
1. Describe the impact of food production and the migration of food and food preservation practices through history from local cultures to multicultural environments. 2. Describe how food has impacted art and how art documents eating habits and food preservation through history from prehistoric cave art to modern marketing. 3. Explain how food supply, culinary traditions, and food processing has impacted human cultural exchange, health, politics, urbanization, the environment, and legal systems. 4. Discuss how the evolution of food technology has impacted our food choices and culture. 5. Explain the permeation of food terms across languages. 6. Analyze the symmetry between access to safe and abundant food and the abundance and complexity of cultural outputs.
Topical Outline
1. The beginnings of agriculture and its impact on culture 2. Dimensions of food security 3. Historical famines and today’s food challenges around the world 4. Moving food around the world: Cause and consequences 5. Nutrition, diet, and lifestyle; the role of education 6. Food maps of the world through history 7. Cooking’s role in civilizations 8. Canning of foods 9. Pasteurization of foods 10. Refrigeration and freezing of foods 11. Fermentation – alcoholic beverages 12. Fermentation – non-alcoholic beverages/foods 13. Curing of meats and history of the U.S. meat packing industry 14. Commodities: coffee, tea, and cocoa 15. International foods and their impact on cultures
General Education Core
CORE IV: World Languages and Global CultureSyllabus