Edible identities: Food, cultural mixing and the making of identities on the Swahili Coast

مرکز و کتابخانه مطالعات اسلامی به زبان های اروپایی

منو

" Edible identities: Food, cultural mixing and the making of identities on the Swahili Coast "
Louise Rolingher

Document Type	:	Latin Dissertation
Language of Document	:	English
Record Number	:	54202
Doc. No	:	TL24156
Call number	:	‭NR55605‬
Main Entry	:	Louise Rolingher
Title & Author	:	Edible identities: Food, cultural mixing and the making of identities on the Swahili Coast\ Louise Rolingher
College	:	University of Alberta (Canada)
Date	:	2009
Degree	:	Ph.D.
student score	:	2009
Page No	:	309
Abstract	:	French sociologist Claude Fischler has said that food is central to our sense of identity as individuals, as family members and as members of larger groups. This dissertation examines the relationship between food and identity in the context of the culture and history of the people who have inhabited the Swahili Coast of East Africa for millennia. For more than one hundred years scholarly and political debates about the nature of Swahili identity have centered on whether they were Arab implants on the East African coast or indigenous to the region. Through the lens of food and food habits (cultural practices related to food), this dissertation argues for a more complex and nuanced understanding of that identity, one that recognizes both differences and commonalities in specific historical contexts over time. Following the lead of scholars who study the history of mixed cultures in Latin America and other regions of Africa, I draw from a variety of sources (travel accounts, archival materials, cookbooks from the East African mainland, coast and islands, and interviews with Zanzibari women) and many disciplines (history, anthropology, sociology, post-colonial and cultural studies) to explore multiple methodologies suggested by the sources themselves for examining some of the many ways in which food and food habits facilitated mixing and reflected people's sense of who they were and are.
Subject	:	Social sciences; Food; Cultural mixing; Swahili Coast; Kenya; Tanzania; Madagascar; Identity; Culture; Mozambique; Cultural anthropology; 0326:Cultural anthropology
Added Entry	:	University of Alberta (Canada)