Predictable Pleasures - Food and the Pursuit of Balance in Rural Yucatan (Hardcover)

The pursuit of balance pervades everyday life in rural Yucatan, Mexico, from the delicate negotiations between a farmer and the neighbor who wants to buy his beans to the careful addition of sour orange juice to a rich plate of eggs fried in lard. Based on intensive fieldwork in one indigenous Yucatecan community, Predictable Pleasures explores the desire for balance in this region and the many ways it manifests in human interactions with food. As shifting social conditions, especially a decline in agriculture and a deepening reliance on regional tourism, transform the manners in which people work and eat, residents of this community grapple with new ways of surviving and finding pleasure. Lauren A. Wynne examines the convergence of food and balance through deep analysis of what locals describe as acts of care. Drawing together rich ethnographic data on how people produce, exchange, consume, and talk about food, this book posits food as an accessible, pleasurable, and deeply important means by which people in rural Yucatan make clear what matters to them, finding balance in a world that seems increasingly imbalanced. Unlike many studies of globalization that point to the dissolution of local social bonds and practices, Predictable Pleasures presents an array of enduring values and practices, tracing their longevity to the material constraints of life in rural Yucatan, the deep historical and cosmological significance of food in this region, and the stubborn nature of bodily habits and tastes.

General

Imprint:	University of Nebraska Press
Country of origin:	United States
Series:	At Table
Release date:	March 2020
Authors:	Lauren A. Wynne
Dimensions:	229 x 152mm (L x W)
Format:	Hardcover - Cloth over boards / Cloth over boards
Pages:	276
ISBN-13:	978-1-4962-0131-7
Categories:	Books > Health, Home & Family > Cookery / food & drink etc > General Books > Humanities > History > American history > General Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Anthropology > Social & cultural anthropology > General Books > History > American history > General Books > Food & Drink > General Promotions
LSN:	1-4962-0131-0
Barcode:	9781496201317

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