Ferguson - Word of Mouth What We Talk About When We Talk About Food

Darra Goldstein, Editor

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METAPHORIC CONSUMPTION. Laden with cultural meanings, food is always more than matter. If we are what we eat, we also eat what we areor imagine ourselves to beand we use food to show us how to be. As this fruit stand reminds us, food is rife with metaphor. With its biblical resonance (Revelation 14:1820) the grapes of wrath entered American culture during the Civil War through Julia Ward Howes immensely popular (in the North) Battle Hymn of the Republic (1861). John Steinbecks novel of 1939 and John Fords movie the following year extended the reach. Decades later, these grapes produce a world that turns every fruit into metaphor. W. B. Park, The New Yorker Collection/www.cartoonbank.com.

Word of Mouth

What We Talk About When
We Talk About Food

PRISCILLA PARKHURST FERGUSON

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

Berkeley Los Angeles London

University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.

University of California Press

Oakland, California

University of California Press, Ltd.

London, England

2014 by The Regents of the University of California

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ferguson, Priscilla Parkhurst.

Word of mouth : what we talk about when we talk about food / Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson.

p. cm. (California studies in food and culture ; 50)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-520-27392-4 (cloth, alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-520-95896-8 (electronic)

1. FoodSocial aspects. 2. FoodCross-cultural studies. 3. Food habitsCross-cultural studies. I. Title.