Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors1) Introduction, Susanne Kerner (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) and Cynthia Chou (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)Part 1. Everyday Commensality2) Commensality and the Organization of Social Relations, Tan Chee-Beng (The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China)3) Commensal Circles and the Common Pot, Penny van Esterik (York University, Canada)4) Commensality between the Young, Boris Andersen (Aalborg University, Denmark)5) Activism through Commensality: Food and Politics in a Temporary Vegan Zone, Yvonne le Grand (University of Lisbon, Portugal)6) Cooking in the Fourth Millennium BCE: Investigating the Social via the Material, Maria Bianca D'Anna (Eberhard Karls University, Germany) and Carolin Jauss (Free University Berlin, Germany)Part 2. Special Commensality7) Methodological and Definitional Issues in the Archaeology of Food, Katheryn C. Twiss (Stony Brook University, USA)8) Medieval and Modern Banquets: Commensality and Social Categorization, Paul Freedman (Yale University, USA)9) It is Ritual, isn't it? Mortuary and Feasting Practices at Domuztepe, Alexandra Fletcher (British Museum, UK) and Stuart Campbell (University of Manchester, UK)10) Drink and Commensality, or How to Hold onto Your Drink in the Chalcolithic, Susanne Kerner (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)Part 3. The Social and Political Aspects of Commensality11) How Chicken Rice Informs about Identity, Cynthia Chou (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)12) Feasting on Locusts and Truffles in the Second Millenium BCE, Hanne Nyman (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)13) Commensality and Sharing in an Andean Community in Bolivia, Cornelia A. Nell (University of St Andrews, UK)14) Dissolved in Liquor and Life: Drinkers and Drinking Cultures in Mo Yan's Novel, Liquorland, Astrid Møller-Olsen (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)15) Justifications for Foodways and the Study of Commensality, Jordan D. Rosenblum (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA)16) The Role of Food in the Life of Christians in the Roman Empire, Morten Warmind (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)17) Ritual Meals and Polemics in Antiquity, Ingvild Saelid Gilhus (University of Bergen, Norway)NotesBibliographyIndex

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A truly global book which brings together a wide range of international scholars and topics to offer a tremendous contribution to discussions of ‘world anthropologies’.

About the Author

John Gledhill is Emeritus Professor at Manchester University, UK.

Reviews

This is a superb book. John Gledhill’s initiative shows how the cooperation of national and international institutions and anthropologists may generate different anthroscapes. It is a practical demonstration of some of the world anthropologies movement’s central tenets: the value of the discipline’s internal diversity, of new conditions of conversability and of heterodox cross-fertilizations. Hopefully other volumes will follow.

Gledhill has managed to distill a terrific sample of the plethora of anthropological papers presented at the world (IUAES) congress he convened in Manchester in 2013. The event absorbed the annual ASA gathering that year, and this volume aptly illustrates both the huge diversity of issues and approaches our field can boast, and the commonality we nevertheless share.

This volume opens up the anthropological conversation and challenges the contention that 'dominant anthropology' can contain the vibrancy and intellectual power of a pluralistic and diverse approach to knowledge production and dissemination. This collection of thoughtful and well-researched papers illustrates the strength of a world anthropologies approach and offers the creativity and reflexivity required for a more inclusive and engaged disciplinary future.