Encyclopedia of Food & Culture - About | Preface

The Encyclopedia of Food and Culture is all about food: a single authoritative source about the most essential element of daily life. Here you will find articles by food historians, anthropologists, chefs and bakers, nutritionists and dieticians, farmers, agronomists and horticulturists, food stylists, and specialists in the culinary arts. In developing the Encyclopedia, the editors took special care to make the content interesting and the organization useful for those who want to learn about a particular topic, to make the text enjoyable for those who simply want to explore the wide and wonderful world of food, and to provide sufficient authority and depth for researchers. If this Encyclopedia does not tell you everything you need to know about food, it will show you where to find it.

The articles are arranged in alphabetical order, but the overall work was conceived thematically to ensure treatment of all essential aspects of food (see the Systematic Outline at the back of Volume 3). For example, the Encyclopedia covers staple foods, such as fruit, fish, meat, and vegetables; cooked and processed foods; food production, storage, distribution, preparation, and processing; and nutrition and constituents of food, such as fats, minerals, starch, and sugar. You will also find articles on festivals and feasts and on major countries and regions of the world, on world religions and their food customs, and on people who have been influential in food history. If a topic does not appear in the table of contents, look in the index; there will likely be several mentions of the subject in different articles. In the Encyclopedia you will find the topics you would normally expect in a book about food—such as bread and cheese, cooking, and vitamins—but you will also find some surprises, as in the articles on "Cannibalism," "Pet Pigs of New Guinea," "Seabirds and Their Eggs," "Disgust," and "Poisoning," as well as "Spam" and "How to Read an Old (Handwritten) Recipe." The Encyclopedia covers human history from Stone Age nutrition to the future of food, and it reaches all around the world—geographically and culturally—from Australian Aborigines and the Inuit peoples to Pacific Ocean societies and the Inca empire; from the Japanese tea ceremony to food as a weapon of war. Each article concludes with a bibliography and cross-references pointing readers to topics of related interest. The articles are generously illustrated with many rarely seen photographs, line drawings, and old advertisements, and are supplemented by maps, tables, and informative sidebars. Each volume contains a beautiful eight-page color insert of images selected by Associate Editor William Woys Weaver.

Entries explore what constitutes food, how it is procured, where it originates, and what is in the foods we eat. You will find detailed accounts of the production of food, including fishing, hunting and gathering, and types of agriculture as they relate to ecological and environmental considerations, and you will be introduced to some of the unusual foods that are consumed around the world. You can also read about what is done to food once it is procured, including preparation and processing, distribution, storage (such as ancient and modern preservatives), food preparatory rituals (religious and secular), and the science and technology underlying food processing (including the chemistry and physics of food preparation and processing).

In a larger context, the Encyclopedia enables readers to trace the ways in which food affects our lives both nutritionally and socially, across the boundaries of time and place, throughout many cultures and their traditions. The articles cover the nutrition and biochemistry of food, food science, various conditions and health disorders associated with food, dietetics, constituents of food, the pharmacological effects of foods, and the physiology of eating, digestion, and nutrition.

The editors are aware, however, that people eat food and not nutrition. For most of us, food customs and preferences are influenced by social determinants that are deeply rooted in cultural values and historic traditions. The next time you eat, ask yourself, Why this food and not some other? What does this food reveal about me socially, culturally, and physiologically? Where did its ingredients come from? Why were these ingredients and not others included in the food? Does it contain any additives I should know about? As even a casual reader will note, the food we eat does not begin and end on our plates: how and when we eat, what we eat, and where and with whom we eat—all these choices display a range of behaviors about food that define and symbolize who we are. Hence, the Encyclopedia documents the act of eating from the perspectives of cultural history, nutrition, ethnicity, religion, psychology, anthropology, geography, economics, and aesthetics. Further, food-related behaviors are considered for their symbolic and cultural meanings, as in the entries about religion, holidays, table manners, social class, gender, sexuality, taboos, the arts, magic, and mythology.

In order to cover important cultural dimensions of food, the editors looked for experts who could discuss ethnic and national traditions across multiple disciplines and regions of the world and, where possible, provide an integrative approach to the dietary traditions of a people, nation, or region. Entries on countries with great food traditions that have had worldwide influence, such as France, Italy, and China, give attention to the foods and typical diets of the various regions of these countries, both historically and culturally, and consider important social, religious, political, economic, migration, and environmental factors.

The editors sought the contributions of authorities in a variety of fields in order to consider food from many perspectives. For instance, a chef might look at the artful arrangement of food on the plate or how it sears in a hot pan or grill. But a nutritionist is more interested in how the nutrients in a food may be affected by what the chef did to the food during preparation, what kinds of fats were added to the searing pan, or what nutrients may have been lost or altered during cooking. A food scientist may focus on the degree to which the food was safer to eat after it was heated to such a high temperature in the pan.

Authors were urged to try, within the limits of the allotted space, to write as comprehensively about their topic as possible. For example, the entry for chocolate covers the botany, history, and archaeology of cacao (chocolate bean), the principal ingredient of chocolate, and gives detailed consideration to how chocolate is produced and procured, stored, transported, and processed into various forms to be used in foods like candy and confections. The author also covers chocolate's cultural aspects, from its Mayan origin to its diffusion to the royal courts of Europe, and explains the technical discoveries that led to its commercialization and widespread availability.

The contributors give attention to the geographic origins of many foods and include their diffusion around the world and through time. Food history entries span the human evolutionary time scale, through prehistoric, ancient, and more recent periods for well-known societies and civilizations. Contemporary topics include food politics, genetic engineering, water as a resource, food supply and food shortages, advertising and marketing, the restaurant industry (including fast foods), and the commodification of various food traditions.

We believe that the Encyclopedia addresses a serious need for an integrated information source that encourages a greater appreciation of food, its history, and its ethnic diversity, while also explaining its nutritional significance. It is by combining a wide range of perspectives—a collaborative effort of hundreds of specialists—that this source can provide answers to many questions about health, food policy, hunger, food studies, and the food industry, while at the same time enhancing appreciation for the wonderful variety and history of the foods we eat.

We hope that by providing an integrative approach to food, nutrition, and culture over time and throughout the many regions of the world, this Encyclopedia will stimulate new insights about human evolution, adaptation, and creativity, and a richer appreciation of the many meanings of food and culture in our everyday lives.

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I want to acknowledge the enormous support and patience of my wife, Pauline, the steadfast help of Jim Coleman, and the great inspiration provided by Jacob, Rachael, Micah, Noah, and Megan. I also want to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of William Woys Weaver and the editorial board; the steady support of Scribner Publisher Frank Menchaca and John Fitzpatrick; and the outstanding efforts of Mark LaFlaur and the Scribner editorial staff, including Kelly Baiseley and Georgia Maas, who got the job done. I am grateful to Stephen Wagley and Karen Day, formerly of Scribners, for their help and advice in initiating the Encyclopedia.

Solomon H. Katz Philadelphia, October 2002