The Importance Of Diet In Anthropology

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B. Why is this Topic important to understand?
It is important to study diet in different cultures in anthropology as food is essential in human existence. Food is insufficient commodity and thus offers a good platform for debate and advancing anthropological theories and research methods (Hockett & Haws, 2003). In addition, the study of diet brings about light on societal processes like political economic value creation, social construction of memory as well as symbolic value creation (Dirks & Hunter, 2013). This topic has created a good arena for debating cultural and historical importance in relationship to structural and symbolic explanations of human behavior. Through this, it is possible to respond to ethnographical questions as our understanding …show more content…

Food ethnography include food and social change, eating and identities, food insecurity as well as eating and rituals (Montgomery & Bennett, 1979). This will help in understanding how and why each culture used a certain type of food. It will also explain how this diet helped that culture propagate and thrive in certain prevailing conditions as well as knowing reason for diet evolution.
2) Anthropology is a four-field approach. (Discuss at least two subfields)
The topic will be explored mainly through Archaeology and Human Ecology. Through archaeology, study of bones, tools and fossils will be used to study what people ate. On the other hand, human ecology will also be useful in ensuring that evolution of human diet as well as their variations are understood (Takacs, & Cline, 2015).
A. Methods and evidence used by Archaeology
Archeology of food relied on the fact that food was one of the most essential occupation that each culture used for various reasons (Takacs & Cline, 2015). First it was an essential commodity for their survivor as well as a unifying factor in various community. Therefore, through archaeology, the method used to identify the type of food a certain culture used was by looking at its ingredients. It would also look at resources that were used in preparation of such foods. Through this, human ecology, economic systems and food procurement method would be

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