Module Author(s)
- Fae Grace Goodman (Central Carolina Community College)
Course Description
ANT220 Cultural Anthropology- This course introduces the nature of human culture. Emphasis is placed on cultural theory, methods of fieldwork, and cross-cultural comparisons in the areas of ethnology, language, and the cultural past. Upon completion, students should be able to demonstrate an understanding of basic cultural processes and how cultural data are collected and analyzed.
Student Global Learning Outcomes
Following this module, student will be able to
• Examine a chain of food production that links small farmers in Latin America to home food preparation in the US and understand the roles of people involved in growing, picking, marketing, and selling their chosen food product.
• Analyze the ways in which the Latin American and US agricultural systems separates producers from consumers and contributes to wealth differences.
Module Description and Activities
Description of Module: Subsistence
This module explores global flows of commodities through the lens of the food choices we make, the people who are involved in food production, and the paths food take around the world. Specifically, this global module focuses on food production in Latin America, global migration, and diasporas from Latin America who supply the bulk of farmworkers here in North Carolina and across the United States
Global Learning Activities:
Student Global Learning Activity 1: Classroom Discussion
Small groups of students will select one oral history from the UNC Nuevas Raices/New Roots collection to explore. (Note: each interview has a full transcript at the bottom of the page, should you want to read it rather than listen). After reading the text chapter, the Holmes article (listed below), and their selection, students will participate in small group discussion. Questions will guide the students in considering the experience of migrant farmworkers (migration, remittances, working conditions, and health outcomes) and connect the concepts of subsistence and foodways to people who produce the foods they consume.
Student Global Learning Activity 2: Connecting Experiences to Oral History
Small groups will report out to the class as a whole and offer a jumping off point for connecting the specific experiences of the workers in the oral histories and article to aspects of subsistence including the gendered division of labor, agriculture and domestication, colonial systems, and hierarchical economic structures.
Student Resources:
Perspectives: An Open Introduction of Cultural Anthropology, Chapter 5 Subsistence
An Ethnographic Study of the Social Context of Migrant Health in the United States, Seth Holmes
Nuevas Raices/New Roots: Voices from Carolina del Norte, an online oral history archive
Sample Questions Include:
- The oral histories you chose from each centered the experience of agricultural work in the US. Explain how your interviewee is involved in agriculture: as a worker, in health systems, as a volunteer working with these communities.
- What kind of health care is available for migrant farmworkers, according to the interview you heard and the Holmes article? How is this lived experience different from the US narrative about undocumented workers and health care?
- Connect your reading to the global flows of migration and diaspora we’ve discussed thus far in the class: describe this work through the lens of Appadurai’s 5 ‘scapes’ of globalization.
- How does your own perspective on readily available, inexpensive produce change after exploring the experience of the folks who pick your food?
After groups report out, they will submit their collective notes for grading. This activity is 40% of the grade for the module.
Student Global Learning Activity 3: Foodways Project
Students will select a food produced in Latin America or the Caribbean and address the following questions in a 3-5 page essay:
Over the course of the last 2 weeks, we’ve been examining the connections between food, identity, migration, and global commodity chains. For this assignment, you’re going to research several points in a global food chain and write up your results.
Step 1: choose a food that has significant personal meaning to you. This could be something you really love, something important to your family, or something connected to your ethnic background. It must be a real food- grown by farmers or gardeners and sold to others. If it’s a beloved family dish, you can choose the most important ingredient. See me on office hours to get your choice approved.
Step 2: Write a 5-page essay that addresses the following questions:
1) Where is this food grown, and who grows it? Who picks it? What are their working conditions like? Who owns the means of production here, and has it been that way historically? Pay particular attention to your food’s involvement in international trade or the colonial process. I VERY much do not want the company line here: for instance, if your beloved food is coffee, I’m not interested in hearing the history of the Starbucks company- but I WOULD be interested in reading more about how small farmers are faring in the global economy.
2) Trace your food’s commodity chain: How is this food active in market exchange or other forms of economic activity? Do you get it directly from the producer- and is that COMMON? Who are the middle men in this chain? So for instance, if you were writing here about the tomatoes you buy at the farmer’s market, you’d also want to share some information about how commercial tomatoes are grown and get to restaurants and consumers.
3) Connect the food to your own sense of identity. How does this food help to reinforce who you are as a person within your culture? How is cultural change shown through this particular food?
You will need to use at least one anthropological journal article for this project: search in the ProQuest database (and be sure to add the search terms anthropology and food to your search string). This project is intended to help you look at PEOPLE through a holistic lens turned on food: its production, trade and consumption.
Resources and References Used in the Creation of the Module
Brown, N., McIlwraith, T., & González, L. T. de. (2020). Subsistence. https://pressbooks.pub/perspectives/chapter/subsistence/
Browse Items · New Roots. (n.d.). Retrieved April 1, 2024, from https://newroots.lib.unc.edu/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=84&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=contains&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Agricultural+workers
Field Notes—Student Action with Farmworkers. (2024, March 29). https://saf-unite.org/category/field-notes/
Holmes, S. M. (2006). An ethnographic study of the social context of migrant health in the United States. PLoS Medicine, 3(10), e448. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030448
The Immigrant-Food Nexus: Borders, Labor, and Identity in North America. (2020). The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/11862.001.0001
Torres-González, J. A. (n.d.). Research Guides: Coffee in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Research Guide: Introduction [Research guide]. Retrieved October 19, 2023, from https://guides.loc.gov/coffee-culture/introduction