THE CULTURAL FEAST looks at the impact of evolution, geography, environment, social structure, and religion
on food practices around the world. The text is comprised of three units. The first unit explains the myriad influences
on human diet and examines the role of evolution on contemporary food practices. The second unit looks at factors
that influence current food practices, such as dietary revolutions that accompany advancements in agricultural
practices; the influence of culture in what, how, when, and why we eat; and the influence of religion, social organizations
and industrialization on foodways. The third unit of the text looks at nutrition problems and solutions to those
problems. The text explores global and domestic hunger, examines diseases of under- and over-nutrition, and looks
at dietary behavior change and large-scale programs to change dietary practices.
Table of Contents
1. Setting the Table For a Cultural Feast.
2. Diet and Human Evolution.
3. Food in Historical Perspective: Dietary Revolutions.
4. Eating is a Cultural Affair.
5. Food Technologies How People Get Their Food in Nonindustrialized Societies.
6. Food Technologies How People Get Their Food in Industrialized Societies.
7. Food and Social Organizations.
8. World View, Religion, and Health Beliefs: Ideological Basis of Food Practices.
9. Hunger in a Global Perspective.
10. Addressing Global Food Issues.
11. Dietary Behavioral Change: How People Change Eating Habits.
12. Designing Large Scale Programs to Change Dietary Practices.
