Reading One
The Double life of Kale:
Kale has become a popular food among affluent, young consumers in the US, with many
paying premium prices for kale-based products.
In contrast, in East Africa, particularly Kenya and Tanzania, kale is a staple food for
highland farming communities, known as sukuma wiki and is often eaten with a thick, maize-
based porridge called ugali.
For many poor East Africans, kale is the main vegetable they grow and consume, and it is
often the difference between having food and going to bed hungry.
Anthropologists have studied how foods travel globally and take on different meanings in
different cultures, time periods, and social classes.
An example of this is sugar, which went from being an elite consumer item grown
through slave labor in the Caribbean, to being associated with lower-income families and
unhealthy diets.
The social lives of commodities, including agricultural crops, shift in response to social,
cultural, and economic factors.
Kale's popularity in the US and its humble origins as a staple food for poor communities
in East Africa illustrates how the meaning and value of a food can change as it travels and is
adopted by different cultures.
Coffee Culture Chapter #1:
1.
Why do you think coffeehouses are popular?
People love the effects of caffeine
Encompasses social and cultural dimensions
2.
What is niche marketing? How does it relate to the concept of “coffee culture”?
niche marketing, which has antecedents in seventeenth-century London, where
coffeehouses catered to different clienteles and professions. Niche marketing in coffee
shops took off in the USA during the 1980s in response to changes in coffee-drinking
patterns.
Starbucks helps create coffee culture.
3.
Consider the “small world” theory. What experiences in your life would support the
theory? What experiences would seem to contradict it?
Meeting someone traveling that knew one of my friends from home while I was traveling
in South East Asia.
There can only ever be 6 degrees of separation which means that we
are always inter connected but we just use small world theory to make the world more
comprehendible
Made in Madagascar Introduction:
1.
What images, representations, and understandings of “Madagascar” are you most
likely to encounter when searching for information about the country online?
(MiM: xvi-xviii)
