Food and Language ― Discourses and Foodways Across Cultures

Food and Language: Discourses and Foodways across Cultures explores in innovative ways how food and language are intertwined across cultures and social settings. How do we talk about food? How do we interact in its presence? How do we use food to communicate? And how does social interaction feed us? The book assumes no previous linguistic or anthropological knowledge but provides readers with the understanding to pursue further research on the subject. With a full glossary at the end of the book and additional tools hosted on an eResources page (such as recommended web and video links and some suggested research exercises), this book serves as an ideal introduction for courses on food, language, and food-and-language in anthropology departments, linguistics departments, and across the humanities and social sciences. It will also appeal to any reader interested in the semiotic interplay between food and language.

Kathleen C. Riley teaches linguistic anthropology at Rutgers University, USA. She has conducted fieldwork on foodways and language socialization in French Polynesia, France, Quebec, and New York City. She has co-edited (with Christine Jourdan) a special issue of Anthropologie et Societes on food glocalization and (with Jillian Cavanaugh) a special issue of the Semiotic Review on food and language.

Amy L. Paugh is a Professor of Anthropology at James Madison University, USA. Her research investigates language and food, language socialization, and children’s cultures in Dominica, Caribbean, and the United States. She is the author of Playing with Languages: Children and Change in a Caribbean Village.