Taste, Politics, and Identities in Mexican Food

Abstract

This book examines the history, archaeology, and anthropology of Mexican taste. Contributors analyze how the contemporary identity of Mexican food has been created and formed through concepts of taste, and how this national identity is adapted and moulded through change and migration. Drawing on case studies with a focus on Mexico, but also including Israel and the United States, the contributors examine how local and national identities; the global market of gastronomic tourism; and historic transformations in trade, production, the kitchen space, and appliances; shape the taste of Mexican food and drink. Chapters include an exploration of the popularity of Mexican beer in the United States by Jeffrey Pilcher, an examination of the experience of eating chapulines in Oaxaca by Paulette Schuster and Jeffrey H. Cohen, an investigation into transformations of contemporary Yucatecan gastronomy by Steffan Igor Ayora-Diaz, and an afterword from Richard Wilk. Together, the contributors demonstrate how taste itself is shaped through a history of social and cultural practices. In addition, they look at how culinary and gastronomic experience is tied to issues of identity politics, as well as to the global expansion of local cuisines.