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Home Cooking in the Global Village: Caribbean Food from Buccaneers to Ecotourists
Winner of the Society for Economic Anthropology Annual Book Prize 2008.
Belize, a tiny corner of the Caribbean wedged into Central America, has been a fast food nation since buccaneers and pirates first stole ashore. As early as the 1600s it was already caught in the great paradox of how can you stay local and relish your own home cooking, while tasting the delights of the global marketplace? Menus, recipes and bad colonial poetry combine with Wilk's sharp anthropological insight to give an important new perspective on the perils and problems of globalization.
Belize, a tiny corner of the Caribbean wedged into Central America, has been a fast food nation since buccaneers and pirates first stole ashore. As early as the 1600s it was already caught in the great paradox of how can you stay local and relish your own home cooking, while tasting the delights of the global marketplace? Menus, recipes and bad colonial poetry combine with Wilk's sharp anthropological insight to give an important new perspective on the perils and problems of globalization.
- GenresFoodAnthropology
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
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December 18, 2024
It's rare to read a somewhat-academic anthropology book with a recipe at the end of every chapter, but Wilk served up something different with "Home Cooking in the Global Village." Wilk argues that our dichotomous view of globalization and local food is incorrect, using Belize as an example to complicate black-and-white narratives. While I think Wilk is in the introduction too dismissive of thinkers like Wendell Berry, he takes a more thoughtful and nuanced approach towards the end. Overall, this is a worthwhile read.
Belize isn't a country we hear a lot about in the US. If you've been on a cruise, you may have stopped by at one of its resorts, but you might not know that it has a fascinating history and an incredible diversity of ethnic groups. Belize has many descendants of enslaved Africans. There are also Garifuna, a mix of Carib-Arawak peoples and escaped slaves who immigrated long ago from St. Vincent. Hispanic Belizeans are also prominent, and Mayans still live there, giving it some similarities to other parts of Central America. But, Belize also has a significant Mennonite population, and might just be the most Mennonite country in the world. And like many Caribbean nations, it has an East Indian population. This blend of peoples lends Belize a fascinating flavor, and an interesting food history too.
Wilk takes readers through this complex history, from the Belize of egalitarian pirates to the Belize of enslaved peoples to the 20th Century Belize striving for independence to the Caribbean cruise itinerary Belize, demonstrating in each era how globalization influenced the development of what might be considered "traditional Belizean" cooking. Global economic trends were never something set apart from the development of foodways on the ground. Throughout its history, Belize has relied on imported foods, which acquired early on (43) and never fully gave up an elite status. The foreign and the processed have long been seen as desirable. (126) Food became an important element of class, as it is in many cultures. This social stratification of food signified status, but also ended up playing a more active role. Slaveholders would sometimes employ imported food and feasts as a way to domineer and create dependence. (60)
Dependence is a common thread throughout this work. Belize, as a lumber-producing colony, never became self-sufficient, remaining tied to the global economy because it always imported a significant quantity of food. (69). Even as colonialism wound down, Belizean nationalism was not autarkic, embracing some aspects of globalization. In fact, when Belizean nationalists sought independence from the UK, their rhetoric often included the freedom to import more goods from the US. (151) Rural Belizean recipes were looked down on and not featured in the official narrative of Belizean "cuisine." However, they remained common in Belizean day-to-day life, which the author labels "cooking." As with global and local, Wilk argues that there is fluidity between these labels; cuisine influenced cooking and vice versa.
Ironically, as Wilk points out, the recent resurgence in interest in "local" food was partly a modern creation. (166) Tourism brought money to the country and fed a growing number of small restaurants and street eateries catering to employees and curious tourists. (181-82) Belizean emigrants often cooked more "traditional" foods abroad than chefs within the country's borders, bringing nostalgia to Belize for the foods they grew up with. (172-73) In this way, while modern tourism brought threats, or at least roadblocks to the prominence of Belizean cuisine, it also created opportunities to revive Belizean cooking as cuisine. While rejecting what he portrays as scaremongering on globalization and food, Wilk recognizes that countries like Belize should take more steps towards food sovereignty and preserving cultural heritage.
Wilk argues convincingly that creolization is not automatic, but instead represents a constantly shifting push and pull between cultures; tradition and culture too exist in this state of flux. (122) Advancing this argument, Wilk provides a few (cleverly named) models for post-colonial culinary development, comparing Belize to a "lumpy stew" where "the national culture is like a broth made of the mixed essences of all the separate ingredients: it is the unifying flavor that harmonizes the separate lumps" which in turn represent different cultures within Belize. (162). Wilk also proposes a useful set of categories for how creole cusines form, employing cooking as a metaphor--blending, submersion, substitution, wrapping/stuffing, compression, and alternation and promotion. (113-120) Each of these methods helped create what we know as Belizean cuisine. Ingredients, methods, techniques, and dishes were blended in some contexts. Other foods were submerged, effectively disappearing into the cuisine without distinction, like bullion cubes. Others were wrapped and stuffed, innovating and localizing foreign foods, or exoticizing local ones. Some foodways were simplified through compression, with distinct Latin cooking becoming "Spanish food" in Belize. Finally, foods like rice and beans were altered and promoted, taking on higher status and thus becoming incorporated into the cuisine. Reading this section was particularly illuminating, as Wilks' metaphors brought to mind other cuisines and how they might have developed.
While Belize may not be a typical example, with its unique blend of ethnicities and longtime dependence on lumber, "Home Cooking in the Global Village" complicates overly simplistic narratives of globalization and gave me new ways to think about global and local food. The scholarly format paired well with Wilk's accessible writing style, and I look forward to trying some of the recipes soon!
Belize isn't a country we hear a lot about in the US. If you've been on a cruise, you may have stopped by at one of its resorts, but you might not know that it has a fascinating history and an incredible diversity of ethnic groups. Belize has many descendants of enslaved Africans. There are also Garifuna, a mix of Carib-Arawak peoples and escaped slaves who immigrated long ago from St. Vincent. Hispanic Belizeans are also prominent, and Mayans still live there, giving it some similarities to other parts of Central America. But, Belize also has a significant Mennonite population, and might just be the most Mennonite country in the world. And like many Caribbean nations, it has an East Indian population. This blend of peoples lends Belize a fascinating flavor, and an interesting food history too.
Wilk takes readers through this complex history, from the Belize of egalitarian pirates to the Belize of enslaved peoples to the 20th Century Belize striving for independence to the Caribbean cruise itinerary Belize, demonstrating in each era how globalization influenced the development of what might be considered "traditional Belizean" cooking. Global economic trends were never something set apart from the development of foodways on the ground. Throughout its history, Belize has relied on imported foods, which acquired early on (43) and never fully gave up an elite status. The foreign and the processed have long been seen as desirable. (126) Food became an important element of class, as it is in many cultures. This social stratification of food signified status, but also ended up playing a more active role. Slaveholders would sometimes employ imported food and feasts as a way to domineer and create dependence. (60)
Dependence is a common thread throughout this work. Belize, as a lumber-producing colony, never became self-sufficient, remaining tied to the global economy because it always imported a significant quantity of food. (69). Even as colonialism wound down, Belizean nationalism was not autarkic, embracing some aspects of globalization. In fact, when Belizean nationalists sought independence from the UK, their rhetoric often included the freedom to import more goods from the US. (151) Rural Belizean recipes were looked down on and not featured in the official narrative of Belizean "cuisine." However, they remained common in Belizean day-to-day life, which the author labels "cooking." As with global and local, Wilk argues that there is fluidity between these labels; cuisine influenced cooking and vice versa.
Ironically, as Wilk points out, the recent resurgence in interest in "local" food was partly a modern creation. (166) Tourism brought money to the country and fed a growing number of small restaurants and street eateries catering to employees and curious tourists. (181-82) Belizean emigrants often cooked more "traditional" foods abroad than chefs within the country's borders, bringing nostalgia to Belize for the foods they grew up with. (172-73) In this way, while modern tourism brought threats, or at least roadblocks to the prominence of Belizean cuisine, it also created opportunities to revive Belizean cooking as cuisine. While rejecting what he portrays as scaremongering on globalization and food, Wilk recognizes that countries like Belize should take more steps towards food sovereignty and preserving cultural heritage.
Wilk argues convincingly that creolization is not automatic, but instead represents a constantly shifting push and pull between cultures; tradition and culture too exist in this state of flux. (122) Advancing this argument, Wilk provides a few (cleverly named) models for post-colonial culinary development, comparing Belize to a "lumpy stew" where "the national culture is like a broth made of the mixed essences of all the separate ingredients: it is the unifying flavor that harmonizes the separate lumps" which in turn represent different cultures within Belize. (162). Wilk also proposes a useful set of categories for how creole cusines form, employing cooking as a metaphor--blending, submersion, substitution, wrapping/stuffing, compression, and alternation and promotion. (113-120) Each of these methods helped create what we know as Belizean cuisine. Ingredients, methods, techniques, and dishes were blended in some contexts. Other foods were submerged, effectively disappearing into the cuisine without distinction, like bullion cubes. Others were wrapped and stuffed, innovating and localizing foreign foods, or exoticizing local ones. Some foodways were simplified through compression, with distinct Latin cooking becoming "Spanish food" in Belize. Finally, foods like rice and beans were altered and promoted, taking on higher status and thus becoming incorporated into the cuisine. Reading this section was particularly illuminating, as Wilks' metaphors brought to mind other cuisines and how they might have developed.
While Belize may not be a typical example, with its unique blend of ethnicities and longtime dependence on lumber, "Home Cooking in the Global Village" complicates overly simplistic narratives of globalization and gave me new ways to think about global and local food. The scholarly format paired well with Wilk's accessible writing style, and I look forward to trying some of the recipes soon!
January 19, 2014
This was a fantastic book. Will is very thorough and frames the effect of globalization through a historical perspective. I thought Wilk's theory that globalization has been a force operating historically, rather than primarily in the 20th and 21st centuries. This will be a great secondary source for my thesis. Wilk's thoughts on freedom and choice were especially pertinent and inspiring.
On top of Wilk's great information, he is a great writer. His style flows really well and finds balance between academic jargon and non fiction intended for a larger audience.
I would recommend this to anyone interested in food, globalization, cultural studies, and food systems.
On top of Wilk's great information, he is a great writer. His style flows really well and finds balance between academic jargon and non fiction intended for a larger audience.
I would recommend this to anyone interested in food, globalization, cultural studies, and food systems.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews