Food for Health, Food for Wealth: The Performance of Ethnic and Gender Identities by Iranian Settlers in Britain

Front Cover
Berghahn Books, 2004 - Medical - 184 pages
Food and eating practices are central to current sociological and anthropological concerns about the body, health, consumption, and identity. This study explores the importance of these themes as they intersect with processes of globalization and cultural production within a specific group of consumers, British Sh'ite Iranians. Through the analysis of the consumption practices of this particular migrant group, this book illustrates how both the nutritional value and symbolic significance of food contribute to its health-giving properties and how gender and ethnic identities are preformed and reinforced through the medium of food-work in public and private spheres. At the same time, as this study demonstrates, migration modifies and transfigures such identities and produces hybrid cultures and cuisines. Lynn Harbottle is a medical anthropologist and nutritionist, with a particular interest in the food habits and health of ethnic minorities in Britain. She was awarded the Frankenberg prize for her Masters dissertation on which this book is based.
 

Contents

List of Figures
1
Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Food and Consumption
17
Food the Body and Taste
29
Iranian Women and their Domestic Foodwork
41
Traditional and Modern Influences
51
Incorporation Identity and Health
61
Iranian Entrepreneurs in the FastFood Trade
71
The Restaurant Trade and the Invisibility of Iranian Cuisine
85
Men women and Food
97
Women Food and Power
107
Childhood Acculturation and Food
123
Youth Food and Identities
133
Conclusion
149
Bibliography
171
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Bibliographic information