Remembrance of Repasts: An Anthropology of Food and Memory

by David E. Sutton, Daniel Miller (Series Editor), Paul Gilroy (Series Editor)

Prousts famous madeleine captures the power of food to evoke some of our deepest memories. Why does food hold such power? What does the growing commodification and globalization of food mean for our capacity to store the past in our meals in the smell of olive oil or the taste of a fresh-cut fig?

This book offers a theoretical account of the interrelationship of culture, food and memory. Sutton challenges and expands anthropologys current focus on issues of embodiment, memory and material culture, especially in relation to transnational migration and the flow of culture across borders and boundaries. The Greek island of Kalymnos in the eastern Aegean, where Islanders claim to remember meals long past -- both humble and spectacular provides the main setting for these issues, as well as comparative materials drawn from England and the United States. Despite the growing interest in anthropological accounts of food and in the cultural construction of memory, the intersection of food with memory has not been accorded sustained examination. Cultural practices of feasting and fasting, global flows of food as both gifts and commodities, the rise of processed food and the relationship of orally transmitted recipes to the vast market in speciality cookbooks tie traditional anthropological mainstays such as ritual, exchange and death to more current concerns with structure and history, cognition and the anthropology of the senses. Arguing for the crucial role of a simultaneous consideration of food and memory, this book significantly advances our understanding of cultural processes and reformulates current theoretical preoccupations.

Genres: Food, Nonfiction, Anthropology, Theory, History, Food Writing

192 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2001

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its always struck me as absolutely essential to the way people remember their pasts, food memories! The British-Indian women remembering ice-cold nimbu pani on hot days, Alibhai-Brown's bright dripping Chutney on the flight out of Uganda or the Caribbean fish and apple crumble that transports me back to lunch-breaks at school. :)

This book takes us to the Greek island of Kalymnos, where nostalgic elders remember the pre-capitalist right to fresh air, the sun on your face, the lapping waves and FIGS. Your neighbour will not only let you cut them from the tree, but he will come striding out and encourage you. Then you lie contentedly beneath it.

Olive trees as permanent features, slowly twisting and gnarling into the beauty of familial roots and patience. Although Sutton does not draw the link, the stripping away or even burning of these groves in Palestine seems deeply traumatic in a similar clime.

Diaspora. The custom officer as its most basic student, watching families bedecked in Tupperware taking dishes, spices and food across the border. The white gold of FETA, for Greek and Cypriot Londoners before it became a staple of the contemporary supermarket. Tins and tins of it brought back and eaten with reverence by students on Christmas breaks. (Seems preferable to me than the slightly terrifying practice of people taking laundry home for their mum).

I love, love, love, the discussion of Basil. Little pots springing up in Greek London. Old man grabbing up bits of it and smelling it and tumbling home in their minds. Or Russian elders linking hunger to the pleasure of having contributed to the 'great patriotic war'. There are so many possibilities in this under used historical approach. Okay I should cook dinner.

[Rebecca Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent academic source for anthropologists and those interested in food studies. Connects you to other important scholars and authors in the field. Delightful academic read.