Jeremy M. MacClancy - Consuming the Inedible

THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF FOOD
AND NUTRITION

General Editor: Helen Macbeth

Volume 1

Food and the Status Quest. An Interdisciplinary Perspective
Edited by Polly Wiessner and Wulf Schiefenhvel

Volume 2

Food Preferences and Taste: Continuity and Change
Edited by Helen Macbeth

Volume 3

Volume 4

Drinking: Anthropological Approaches
Edited by Igor de Garine and Valerie de Garine

Volume 5

Researching Food Habits: Methods and Problems
Edited by Helen Macbeth and Jeremy MacClancy

Volume 6

Consuming the Inedible: Neglected Dimensions of Food Choice
Edited by Jeremy MacClancy, Jeya Henry and Helen Macbeth

CONSUMING THE INEDIBLE

Neglected Dimensions of Food Choice

Edited by

Jeremy MacClancy, Jeya Henry and Helen Macbeth

First published in 2007 by

Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com

2007, 2009 Jeremy MacClancy, Jeya Henry and Helen Macbeth
First paperback edition published in 2009
First ebook edition published in 2012

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

/ edited by Jeremy MacClancy, Jeya Henry, and Helen Macbeth.

p. ; cm. -- (Anthropology of food and nutrition ; v. 6)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-84545-353-4 (hbk) -- ISBN 978-1-84545-684-9 (pbk) -- ISBN 978-0-85745-533-8 (ebk)

1. Food habits. 2. Food preferences. 3. Diet. 4. Nutrition. I. MacClancy, Jeremy. II. Henry, C. J. K. III. Macbeth, Helen M. IV. Series.

[DNLM: 1. Food Habits--ethnology. 2. Anthropology--methods. 3. Cultural Characteristics. 4. Diet. 5. Food Preferences--ethnology. 6. Pica--ethnology. ]

GT2850 .C65 2007
394.1'2--dc22

2007043682

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-84545-353-4 (hardback), 978-1-84545-684-9 (paperback), 978-0-85745-533-8 (ebook)

LIST OF TABLES

Figure 0.1 Epio women, West New Guinea, finding and eating head-lice

PREFACE

O nce again, members of the International Commission on the Anthropology of Food (ICAF) have brought together contributors from different subdisciplines within Anthropology and Nutrition to produce this volume in Berghahn's The Anthropology of Food and Nutrition series. In June 2005, at Oxford Brookes University, Dr Helen Macbeth, Professor Jeya Henry, Professor Jeremy MacClancy and Dr Paul Collinson, all from the UK section of ICAF, organised a highly successful conference, entitled Non-Food as Food. The title caused a considerable amount of email discussion from prospective contributors about what was expected, and it stimulated some interesting perspectives and papers. This volume arises from contributions to that conference.

The idea for the topic arose several years ago during a discussion between Henry and Macbeth about the frequency with which nutritionists neglected, in their intake records, the ingestion of substances which they did not recognise as food. Two of Henry's research students had noticed that the local people they were studying snacked on caterpillars, but caterpillars did not exist in the nutrition composition tables. This led to further consideration of substances, consumed but not tabulated as food, and so the idea of including topics, such as geophagia, arose. When the topic was then raised with MacClancy, the basic concept was enriched with the insight from social anthropology on definitions and boundaries, and the conference was planned. However, we owe to the contributors the quality and the diversity of material that this subject stimulated, and we recognise how many other perspectives have been omitted.

The editors are most grateful to the British Academy, to the European section of the International Commission on the Anthropology of Food [ICAF(Europe)] and to the Departments of Anthropology and of Nutrition, Oxford Brookes University, for grants towards the conference; we were also fortunate to be allowed to use the facilities of Headington Hill Hall, Oxford Brookes University. We wish to thank Jackie Wynne and members of the Nutrition Laboratory for their help with the conference, and Sarah Butcher, Chantal Butchinsky and Mandy Archer for their assistance with aspects of the manuscript for this volume.

HMM, CJKH and JVM
March, 2006

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS