Food Culture In The Pacific Islands

Author : Roger Haden
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 0313344930
Total Pages : 281 pages
Book Rating : 4.30/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Food Culture in the Pacific Islands written by Roger Haden and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2009-08-10 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The food culture of the Pacific Islands has been determined by isolation from the rest of the world. Original immigrants from Asia brought their foods, animals, and culinary skills with them, then for several thousand years, they were largely uninfluenced by outsiders. The tropical climate of much of the region, unique island geology and environmental factors also played a role in the evolution of islander cuisine, which is based on unique ingredients. The staples of breadfruit, yams, taro, coconut, sweet potato, and cassava are incorporated into a cuisine that uses cooking and preservation techniques unique to Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia. Today, food culture in the Pacific is largely one of extremes. Although traditional foods and cookery survive and are highly valued, Westernization has meant that the overall diet of islanders has been negatively transformed and that islands are net importers of unhealthful foods. Ironically, the tourism industry has re-engaged islander people in food production and boosted their sense of identity. Students, food mavens, and travellers will find this to be a stellar introduction to the current culture of the Pacific Islands, with discussion of Hawaii, Australia, and New Zealand included. Chapter 1, Historical Overview, offers a fascinating chronicle of the evolution of a food culture of extremes, of isolation, climate, environment, and Western influences. Chapter 2, Major Foods and Ingredients, introduces a host of traditional tropical manna as well as imported products. The Cooking chapter discusses the truly unique cooking styles of the islands, such as steam-baking in the ground in an umu (oven). Chapter 4, Typical Meals, largely explores the emphasis on the ubiquitous processed foods. A Regional Specialties chapter reveals both pan-regional dishes and the noted local dishes. Chapter 6's Eating Out discussion shows the new acceptance of the individualist, recreational ritual of eating away from the community. The typical life-cycle food rituals are covered in the Special Occasions chapter. A final chapter on Diet and Health highlights the increase in Western diseases arising from diet and lifestyle changes and discusses timely food security issues as well. Recipes are interspersed throughout, and a timeline, glossary, selected bibliography, and photos round out the coverage.

Author : Deborah B. Gewertz
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520260929
Total Pages : 225 pages
Book Rating : 4.24/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Cheap Meat written by Deborah B. Gewertz and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Gewertz and Errington unpack the aspirations and anxieties, calculations and controversies that inhabit an inexpensive cut of fatty meat. Following the trail of sheep bellies from slaughterhouses in Australia and New Zealand to the plates of Pacific Islanders, they evenhandedly map the divergent perspectives of commercial traders, government officials, and ordinary consumers acting within a contested material and moral economy. Cheap Meat provides a startling view of how global food markets fashion the bodies and identities of people everywhere."--Robert J. Foster, author of Coca-Globalization: Following Soft Drinks from New York to New Guinea "Cheap Meat is a compelling example of how ethnography concerned with Oceania can elucidate broader questions in anthropology and the social sciences in general. Gewertz and Errington show the complexity of globalization by focusing on the most unlikely commodity. This work at once demonstrates how unfettered capitalism is able to use global circulation to literally convert one person's trash to another's treasure and how resilient Pacific Islanders refashion Western commodities to their own ends."--Paige West, Curator for the Pacific American Museum of Natural History

Author : Ken Albala
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 0313376271
Total Pages : 1566 pages
Book Rating : 4.76/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia [4 volumes] written by Ken Albala and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2011-05-25 with total page 1566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive reference work introduces food culture from more than 150 countries and cultures around the world—including some from remote and unexpected peoples and places. From babka to baklava to the groundnut stew of Ghana, food culture can tell us where we've been—and maybe even where we're going. Filled with succinct, yet highly informative entries, the four-volume Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia covers all of the planet's nation-states, as well as various tribes and marginalized peoples. Thus, in addition to coverage on countries as disparate as France, Ethiopia, and Tibet, there are also entries on Roma Gypsies, the Maori of New Zealand, and the Saami of northern Europe. There is even a section on food in outer space, detailing how and what astronauts eat and how they prepare for space travel as far as diet and nutrition are concerned. Each entry offers information about foodstuffs, meals, cooking methods, recipes, eating out, holidays and celebrations, and health and diet. Vignettes help readers better understand other cultures, while the inclusion of selected recipes lets them recreate dishes from other lands.

Author : Nancy J. Pollock
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.08/5 ( download)

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Download or read book These Roots Remain written by Nancy J. Pollock and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author finds that food comprises a carefully categorized set of symbols that help determine thought and action in Pacific societies. Food is a culture pattern, unique to each society. But some patterns are also shared and those shared patterns are due to links in times past. Pollock investigates the cultural mechanisms that have allowed certain distinct features associated with food to remain in the face of many intrusions to those societies. Extensively reviewed are the sociocultural, archeological-historical, and scientific literature on the topic, ranging from the records of early explorers, missionaries, and pioneer ethnographers to those of modern medical, nutritional, and ethnobotanical researchers, along with observations from the author's personal fieldwork.

Author : Craig R. Elevitch
Publisher : PAR
ISBN 13 : 0970254458
Total Pages : 818 pages
Book Rating : 4.50/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Traditional Trees of Pacific Islands written by Craig R. Elevitch and published by PAR. This book was released on 2006 with total page 818 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book is for the person who lives in the tropics or subtropics and is interested in native plants, who wants to know about plants that are useful, who loves to watch plants grow, and who is willing to work with them. Such a person might ask questions like, Where will they grow? How do I grow them? Are they good to eat? How are they used? What are their names? These questions and more are answered here."--Préface

Author : Robert Ji-Song Ku
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 082483920X
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.08/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Dubious Gastronomy written by Robert Ji-Song Ku and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2013-12-31 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: California roll, Chinese take-out, American-made kimchi, dogmeat, monosodium glutamate, SPAM—all are examples of what Robert Ji-Song Ku calls “dubious” foods. Strongly associated with Asian and Asian American gastronomy, they are commonly understood as ersatz, depraved, or simply bad. In Dubious Gastronomy, Ku contends that these foods share a spiritual fellowship with Asians in the United States in that the Asian presence, be it culinary or corporeal, is often considered watered-down, counterfeit, or debased manifestations of the “real thing.” The American expression of Asianness is defined as doubly inauthentic—as insufficiently Asian and unreliably American when measured against a largely ideological if not entirely political standard of authentic Asia and America. By exploring the other side of what is prescriptively understood as proper Asian gastronomy, Ku suggests that Asian cultural expressions occurring in places such as Los Angeles, Honolulu, New York City, and even Baton Rouge are no less critical to understanding the meaning of Asian food—and, by extension, Asian people—than culinary expressions that took place in Tokyo, Seoul, and Shanghai centuries ago. In critically considering the impure and hybridized with serious and often whimsical intent, Dubious Gastronomy argues that while the notion of cultural authenticity is troubled, troubling, and troublesome, the apocryphal is not necessarily a bad thing: The dubious can be and is often quite delicious. Dubious Gastronomy overlaps a number of disciplines, including American and Asian American studies, Asian diasporic studies, literary and cultural studies, and the burgeoning field of food studies. More importantly, however, the book fulfills the critical task of amalgamating these areas and putting them in conversation with one another. Written in an engaging and fluid style, it promises to appeal a wide audience of readers who seriously enjoys eating—and reading and thinking about—food.

Author : Craig R. Elevitch
Publisher : PAR
ISBN 13 : 0970254407
Total Pages : 249 pages
Book Rating : 4.05/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Agroforestry Guides for Pacific Islands written by Craig R. Elevitch and published by PAR. This book was released on 2000 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Robert Oliver
Publisher : Godwit
ISBN 13 : 9781869621759
Total Pages : 493 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Me'a Kai written by Robert Oliver and published by Godwit. This book was released on 2010 with total page 493 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2011 Best Cookbook at the Gourmand Cookbook Awards. The cuisines of the South Pacific island nations are noted for their sensational use of coconut cream, fresh fruit and the most delicate fish. Away from the big resort hotels, skilled local cooks make the most delicious meals, whose range would surprise most tourists. Two years ago, New Zealand-born chef Robert Oliver, who has had a stellar career in the United States restaurant industry, went back to Fiji, where he grew up, to rediscover the art of Pacific cooking. He travelled to Tonga, Tahiti, Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu and the Cook Islands to track down the most skilled local cooks. This outstanding, landmark table-thumper of a book brings together a treasury of South Pacific cooking, arranged country by country, with 90-plus recipes and photos that capture the essence of the Pacific. And there's much more than just recipes, it's a culinary journey. Along the way Robert pauses to tell fascinating stories from his encounters with both local cooks and food producers. Flipping through its pages is like going on holiday!

Author : Brij V. Lal
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 9780824822651
Total Pages : 710 pages
Book Rating : 4.5X/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Pacific Islands written by Brij V. Lal and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 710 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An encyclopaedia of information on major aspects of Pacific life, including the physical environment, peoples, history, politics, economy, society and culture. The CD-ROM contains hyperlinks between section titles and sections, a library of all the maps in the encyclopaedia, and a photo library.

Author : Brian Diettrich
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 9780199733415
Total Pages : 195 pages
Book Rating : 4.14/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Music in Pacific Island Cultures written by Brian Diettrich and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2011 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The islands of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia are steeped in diverse musical traditions that reach far beyond the expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Music in Pacific Island Cultures is the first brief, single-volume text to provide a thematic, succinct introduction to the music of the Pacific Islands--a region of the world that has long been underrepresented in ethnomusicological studies. Based on the authors' extensive fieldwork and experiences in Pacific Island cultures, the text draws on interviews with performers, eyewitness accounts of performances, vivid illustrations, and insights gained from ongoing participation in Pacific music. The authors use four themes--colonialism, belief systems, musical flows, and the re/presentation of Pacific cultures--to survey the region and draw parallels and contrasts between its various musical traditions [Publisher description]