Food and Culture takes a global look at the social, symbolic and political-economic role of food. The stellar contributors to this reader examine some of the meanings of food and eating across cultures, with particular attention to how men and women define themselves differently through their foodways. Articles reveal how food habits and beliefs both present a microcosm of any culture and also contribute to our understanding of human behavior. Crossing many disciplinary boundaries, this reader includes the perspectives of anthropology, history, psychology, philosophy, and sociology.

The reader starts out by illustrating food's ability to convey symbolic meaning and communicate about a wide range of subjects. Next, the articles draw attention to how the practices of giving, receiving and refusing food initiate, solidify or rupture social bonds. Essays exploring the relation between body image, eating and sexuality in different societies give particular attention to the special and contradictory relation between women and food. Also demonstrated is the relation between the commodification of food, food industries, political power and colonial dominance.

Gender, advocacy, power and the multivocality of food meanings weave through the reader and reinforce the importance of combining the social, symbolic and political-economic dimensions of human foodways in order to appreciate the richness of the relations between food and culture.