History of Food

Studying history of food, or rather food from a historical perspective, has been part of several disciplines' research agenda, though archaeologists, anthropologists, and historians have perhaps been those most likely to dig deep into the earth and the archives to interpret human remains in relation to food consumption and to analyze foodways across the globe, such as food customs in everyday life, food production, preparation of dishes, cooking, and cultural behaviors at table in different social environments. During the nineteenth century, other specialists such as sociologists—and later on in the twentieth century, nutritionists and researchers from the medical profession—have shown an interest in explaining and discussing the modern consumer [Page 733]society by looking at historical processes and later outcomes; at the beginning of the twenty-first ...