Conferenza / Incontro

The Cultural Politics of Food, Taste, and Identity. A Global Perspective

Steffan Ayora Diaz -  Professor in Antropology - Yucatan University (Mexico)
17 novembre 2021
Orario di inizio 
17:00
Online
Il link dell'aula virtuale verrà comunicato via mail il giorno dell'evento.
Organizzato da: 
Comitato Scientifico - Collegio Clesio
Destinatari: 
Comunità studentesca UniTrento
Partecipazione: 
Ingresso libero con prenotazione
Scadenza prenotazioni: 
16 novembre 2021, 23:59
Contatti: 
collegioclesio@unitn.it

In this conference it will be discussed about the importance of looking at the taste of food from a sociocultural, anthropological perspective. First, the argument will be that taste is experienced though multiple senses, and memory plays a very important part of that experience. That is, taste is an aesthetic (sensual) relationship with food, one that mediates and makes meaningful our sensorial perception of food and transcends the perception of flavors: In a meal we appreciate the colors and presentation design, the aromas, texture, flavors, and often we are mindful of the acoustic accompaniment that enhances or disturbs its experience. At the same time, while consuming a meal, our memory of previous meals acts as a supplementary dimension in our recognition of a recipe. Second, there is a political dimension that accompanies our enjoyment or our disgust of foods. Food, then, can be understood as an arena in which groups perform and affirm their local, ethnic, regional, and national identities and turn it into an identity marker that subjects strategically deploy in our contemporary, multicultural world. This contemporary global society is one in which ethnicity, religion, locality, and nationalist ideologies contribute to shape the multiple meanings of food.

----------

Greetings - Prof.  Paolo Carta

Speaker

Steffan Ayora Diaz -  Professor in Antropology - Yucatan University (Mexico)

Steffan Igor Ayora-Diaz (PhD, McGill University, 1993). Conducted doctoral field research during 18 months in Sardinia, Italy, from 1990 to 1992. From 1990 to 1999 conducted research in the Chiapas highlands in Mexico, focusing on the knowledge of local healers. Since 2000 is Professor at the Autonomous University of Yucatán, where he has looked, first, into regional identity and foodscape (2000-2010), into technology-mediated transformations of cooking, and since 2016 has been focusing on taste. In addition to his research in Yucatán, since 2017 he has been conducting research on food innovation, taste, and identity in Seville, Spain. From 2014 to 2016 he was President of the Society for Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, a section of the American Anthropological Association. He is member of the National System of Researchers of Mexico (Level II). He has published 67 articles and book chapters, two monographs, one co-authored book, and edited eight volumes and three special issues in academic journals. His recent books looking into gastronomic and culinary issues include the monograph Foodscapes, Foodfields, and Identities in Yucatán (2012, Berghahn), the edited volumes Cooking Technology: Transformations in Culinary Practice in Mexico and Latin America (2016, Bloomsbury Academic), Taste, Politics, and Identities in Mexican Food (2019, Bloomsbury Academic), and Food, Taste, and the Politics of Identity. Global Approaches (2021, Bloomsbury Academic) and a coauthored with Gabriela Vargas-Cetina and, Francisco Fernández Repetto, the book Cocina, Música, y Comunicación: Tecnologías y estética en el Yucatán Contemporáneo (2016, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán).