Anthropology Question

This 5-7 page essay. The essay should be double-spaced, with one inch margins, and a 12-point font. A bibliography of works and interviews cited is required, but not counted toward the page total.

In Sweetness and Power Sidney Mintz argues that transformations in the production and consumption of sugar have had myriad outcomes, from greater personal freedom and preference in meals, to speeding up the pace of daily social and work lives, to the de-socialization of eating. He argues that sugar has led to the modernization of eating, the ?condensation? or coupling up of multiple activities into one event, and that sugar is the ?favored child? of capitalism. Mintz is also interested in the ways in which food has varied meanings for consumers and their identities (i.e., status concerns, ?you are what you eat?, as ethnic identifiers, in gendered work, etc.).

For this assignment you should conduct some informal fieldwork and ask at least five people (grandparents, co-workers, friends, professors, strangers, etc.) about their habits related to food, thinking about how their answers support or contradict Mintz?s arguments, or offer an alternative perspective. You do not need to take on all of Mintz?s ideas, but choose one or two and do some further investigation regarding his claims about how sugar has affected our social and work lives, identity, culture, socio-economic status, etc. You might also choose to do some observations for this assignment and include these in your essay. Indeed, talking about eating habits can seem pretty natural if you are in a large dining hall or sharing a meal with friends where you will also be able to see in-person some of the processes Mintz describes. Draw up a list of questions that will enable you to pursue of study of Mintz? claims. For instance, you might ask how often and what your informants eat, if they eat alone or with others, where they buy food, a description of their eating habits in the past 24 hours, if their consumption is influenced by gender or ethnic identity, if it is possible to avoid sugar, etc. Don?t ?open? with Mintz in your interviews; let your informants give their ideas and experiences before/if you introduce the theoretical arguments.

Successful essays will have a clear discussion of the relevant aspects of Mintz? work that you are studying, including a thesis statement that connects Mintz? work to your own fieldwork. You should spend no more than one and half pages in total discussing Mintz? ideas, and should quote directly and properly cite from his book when possible. The majority of your essay should consist of a detailed, descriptive mini-ethnography of interview results, including direct quotations, stories, anecdotes, etc. from your informants, and a thoughtful summary analysis of what you think your findings say about the culture of the people you interviewed, in addition to how your work advances some of the ideas in Mintz? book, many of which also come up in the works of Errington et. al. and Meneley. You might also discuss and reference these readings.

Your essay must include a bibliography of works cited and a listing of interviews conducted.

Interviews can be cited in the general form for example:

Interview conducted with Professor Janet Jackson, age 52 years, on Feb 12, 2022.