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Rating: 
Summary: Underwhelming--best for undergrads
Review: I enjoy Sidney Mintz' work quite a bit, though this book left me a bit underwhelmed. It in no way compares to his _Sweetness and Power_, which is a wonderful work. Instead, _Tasting Food_ offers some nice little essays. The title essay, on slave/creole cuisines of the Caribbean, is by far an away the best, and it is well worth reading. The other essays are just okay, or in the case of the last two (about national and American cuisines), quite bad. Nice, light reading as a complement to other anthropological writing about food. Carole Counihan's edited volumes are better.
Rating:
Summary: Sugar, power, class, and meaning
Review: This is an uneven book of essays on the anthropology of food by the well-known anthropologist, Sidney Mintz. Like many anthropologists these days, Mintz interprets local cultural phenomena within a broader global context, but without losing track of their insider meanings. Several of the essays in this book concentrate on things sweet--sugar and its predecessor, honey. Mintz traces the history of rising sugar consumption and ties its wider availablity to perceptions of increased social status by the working class that consumed this former luxury item. In the title essay, he proposes a relationship between cooking choices and a sense of freedom among Caribbean slaves. In another piece, Mintz explores symbolic links between sugar and perceptions of morality and naturalness. Not all of the essays are equally successful. The "Introduction" and the title essay are the best, in my opinion. "The Conquest of Honey by Sucrose" is also intriguing. The last two essays, one on high and low cuisine and the other on American food, are a bit muddled. One of the best things in the book is totally non-academic. Mintz's wonderfully evocative preface about his father and his memories of food while growing up is a joy to read and almost worth the price of the book itself.
Rating:
Summary: Sugar, power, class, and meaning
Review: This is an uneven book of essays on the anthropology of food by the well-known anthropologist, Sidney Mintz. Like many anthropologists these days, Mintz interprets local cultural phenomena within a broader global context, but without losing track of their insider meanings. Several of the essays in this book concentrate on things sweet--sugar and its predecessor, honey. Mintz traces the history of rising sugar consumption and ties its wider availablity to perceptions of increased social status by the working class that consumed this former luxury item. In the title essay, he proposes a relationship between cooking choices and a sense of freedom among Caribbean slaves. In another piece, Mintz explores symbolic links between sugar and perceptions of morality and naturalness. Not all of the essays are equally successful. The "Introduction" and the title essay are the best, in my opinion. "The Conquest of Honey by Sucrose" is also intriguing. The last two essays, one on high and low cuisine and the other on American food, are a bit muddled. One of the best things in the book is totally non-academic. Mintz's wonderfully evocative preface about his father and his memories of food while growing up is a joy to read and almost worth the price of the book itself.
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