CFP for Special Issue in Food, Culture and Society: Less Palatable, Still Valuable: Taste, Agrobiodiversity, and Culinary Heritage

Type: Call for Papers
Subject Fields: Area Studies, Environmental History / Studies, Public Health, World History / Studies, Social Sciences

CFP for Special Issue in Food, Culture and Society
 
Less Palatable, Still Valuable: Taste, Agrobiodiversity, and Culinary Heritage
 
People across the world eat many things that they would readily admit are not particularly tasty. Contexts include economic boycotts, dietary restrictions, ritual meals, and hunger. Taking into consideration that taste and palatability are culturally conditioned, this special issue of Food, Culture, and Society explores the relationship between taste and value by focusing upon cultivated and wild food plants that are perceived to be socio-culturally important even as they are characterized as bland, less delicious, and even “bad.” This special issue brings attention to cases in which  edible plants considered less palatable are valued because they contribute to agrobiodiversity, healthfulness or well-being, symbolism, ritual use, or  as culinary heritage. This special issue considers the following questions: How do taste and value intersect and affect each other? When do communities savor less appealing flavors? What do social patterns, semiotics, and historical changes tell us about the place of distinctly less appealing, sometimes even unappealing, flavors and food crops? How do sociocultural factors, including environmental conservation, healthfulness, and the maintenance of tradition shape the valuation of taste? In pondering these questions, the articles in this special issue will suggest ways of incorporating the “less delicious” into the safeguarding of agrobiodiversity and culinary heritage and the promotion of healthful foodways. In this way, this issue as a whole will contribute a new dimension to studies of conservation, heritage, and nutrition by exploring when and why people eat what their taste buds do not find most delicious and practical ways to protect and promote edible plants with less appealing taste profiles.
 
Papers on underrepresented cultivated or wild edible plants that emphasize the diversity of social conceptions of “taste” and deliciousness are particularly welcomed, as are those that examine the links between the socio-cultural constructions of taste and biodiversity maintenance or loss. The special issue will incorporate a broad geographic scope, including “less delicious” food crops in Japan, India, and indigenous Papua New Guinea and Brazil. Papers that complement these case studies will be considered, especially those focusing on regions such as Africa, Europe, and Southeast Asia.
If you are interested in submitting a paper to the special issue, please send an abstract to Greg de St. Maurice (gregdestmaurice@ad.ryukoku.ac.jp) and Theresa Miller (millerth@si.edu) by 28 January 2016. The deadline for complete first drafts of papers is June 2016.
Contact Info: 
Greg de St. Maurice (Ryukoku University, special issue co-editor), Theresa Miller (Smithsonian Institution, special issue co-editor)