Few contemporary societies remain beyond the global reach of today's fast food industry. In both profound and subtle ways, this style of cuisine and the corporate brands that promote it have effectively transformed the appetites, health profiles, and consumer sensibilities of millions the world over. To better understand the variegated impact of McDonald's and other national and international quick-service eateries on local life within a non-western urban context, Ty Matejowsky offers readers a highly engaging and granular account detailing the rise and popularity of these American-style chains throughout the Philippines. In Fast Food Globalization in the Provincial Philippines, Matejowsky examines the rich, diverse, and decidedly syncretic food traditions of the Philippines, one of the few global markets where industry giant McDonald's lags behind in competition with an indigenous chain. Drawing on over twenty years of ethnographic fieldwork in two provincial Philippine cities-Dagupan City, Pangasinan and San Fernando City, La Union-Matejowsky has crafted one of the few anthropological accounts of fast food production and consumption within the socioeconomic milieu of a less-developed country. By turns critically engaged and highly reflexive, he examines many of the historical, political, economic, and sociocultural complexities that characterize the Philippines' now thriving fast food scene. Amid intersections of post-colonial resistance, retail indigenization, corporatized childhood experiences, and rising "globesity," Matejowsky considers the myriad ways this seemingly ubiquitous dining format is reimagined by industry players and everyday Filipinos to create something that is both intimately familiar and entirely new.

Volume 32 of REA continues the series' on-going presentation of new and highly engaging anthropological research. Chapters contained herein reflect the diverse range of broad based and localized topics economic anthropologists currently explore from various critical perspectives. Spanning deep history and present day economic processes, the contributions to this volume are subdivided into three major thematic sections. Part I addresses questions of how the political economy is articulated at the macro- and micro-level through processes of consumption, production, gift-giving, and evolution. The essays of Part II assume a more critical stance as outcomes of neoliberalism are considered from both a gendered and institutional perspective. Finally, the papers of Part III shift focus to the prehistoric economies of Latin America.

A critical meditation of the iconic 24-7 roadside chain and its place in the southern imaginary Waffle House has long been touted as an icon of the American South. The restaurant's consistent foregrounding as a resonant symbol of regional character proves relevant for understanding much about the people, events, and foodways shaping the sociopolitical contours of today's Bible Belt. Whether approached as a comedic punchline on the Internet, television, and other popular media or elevated as a genuine touchstone of messy American modernity, Waffle House, its employees, and everyday clientele do much to transcend such one-dimensional characterizations, earning distinction in ways that regularly go unsung. Smothered and Covered: Waffle House and the Southern Imaginary is the first book to socioculturally assess the chain within the field of contemporary food studies. In this groundbreaking work, Ty Matejowsky argues that Waffle House's often beleaguered public persona is informed by various complexities and contradictions. Critically unpacking the iconic eatery from a less reductive perspective offers readers a more realistic and nuanced portrait of Waffle House, shedding light on how it both reflects and influences a prevailing southern imaginary-an amorphous and sometimes conflicting collection of images, ideas, attitudes, practices, linguistic accents, histories, and fantasies that frames understandings about a vibrant if also paradoxical geographic region. Matejowsky discusses Waffle House's roots in established southern foodways and traces the chain's development from a lunch-counter restaurant that emerged across the South. He also considers Waffle House's place in American and southern popular culture, highlighting its myriad depictions in music, television, film, fiction, stand-up comedy, and sports. Altogether, Matejowsky deftly and persuasively demonstrates how Waffle House serves as a microcosm of today's South with all the accolades and criticisms this distinction entails.