Famine Foods

Plants We Eat to Survive
Erscheinungsjahr 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8165-4225-3
Verlag: University of Arizona Press

Buch, Englisch, 240 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 226 mm, Gewicht: 340 g

How people eat today is a record of food use through the ages - and not just the decadent, delicious foods but the less glamorous and often life-saving foods from periods of famine as well. In Famine Foods, Paul E. Minnis focuses on the myriad plants that have sustained human populations throughout the course of history, unveiling the those that people have consumed, and often still consume, to avoid starvation. For the first time, this book offers a fascinating overview of famine foods - how they are used, who uses them, and, perhaps most importantly, why they may be critical to sustain human life in the future.

In addition to a broader discussion of famine foods, Minnis includes fourteen short case studies that examine the use of alternative foods in human societies throughout the world, from hunter-gatherers to major nations. When environmental catastrophes, war, corrupt governments, annual hunger seasons, and radical agricultural policies have threatened to starve populations, cultural knowledge and memories of food shortages have been crucial to the survival of millions of people.

Famine Foods dives deeply into the cultural contexts of famine food use, showing the curious, strange, and often unpleasant foods people have turned to in order to get by. There is not a single society or area of the world that is immune to severe food shortages, and gaining a deeper knowledge of famine foods will be relevant for the foreseeable future of humanity.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Minnis, Paul E

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Sachkultur, Materielle Kultur
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Soziale & wirtschaftliche Auswirkungen von Umweltfaktoren
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Kultur- und Sozialethnologie: Allgemeines
• Technische Wissenschaften Verfahrenstechnik | Chemieingenieurwesen | Biotechnologie Lebensmitteltechnologie und Getränketechnologie
• Geowissenschaften Geographie | Raumplanung Humangeographie

Über Autor(innen)

Paul E. Minnis is a professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma. Now living in Tucson, Arizona, Minnis is a visiting scholar in the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. He conducts research on the prehispanic ethnobotany and archaeology of the northwest Mexico and the U.S. Southwest, and he is the author or editor of fourteen books and numerous articles.