FOOD AND WINE HISTORY,

ANTHROPOLOGY AND SOCIETY

A.A. 2022/23

Prof. Elisabetta Novello - Prof. Giulia Storato

Lesson n. 1
Introduction to the course
 Preliminary procedures:
Inscription to MOODLE

FOOD AND WINE HISTORY

ANTHROPOLOGY AND SOCIETY

https://en.didattica.unipd.it/off/2022/LM/AV/A
V2190/000ZZ/AVP7080218/N0
 Preliminary procedures:
contacts
We will contact you (link to lectures, updates, changes
etc.) via MOODLE forum (you will receive an email)

PLEASE, CHECK YOUR UNIPD MAIL

How to contact us:

elisabetta.novello@unipd.it

giulia.storato@unipd.it
 Course overview
Two integrated parts:

Part 1: “Italian food culture: a historical and

anthropological approach” (Prof. Elisabetta
Novello)

a. Italy: a social and cultural history of food

b. Food history and culinary cultures: analysis of the

connections and exchanges within historical events
(e.g. migrations and imperialism) and related issues
such as race, class, gender, religion, power, identity,
and the environment
 Course overview

Part 1: “Italian food culture: a historical and

anthropological approach” (Prof. Elisabetta
Novello)

c. Focused attention is given to crucial transitions in

food history such as the agricultural revolution, the
Columbian Exchange, and globalization

d. Italian cultural models: localism and regionalism.

 Course overview
Part 2. “Food, Wine and Society. A
sociological approach” (Prof. Giulia Storato)

a. Food and wine cultures. Transitions within and

through families and societies

a. The social construction of quality and place in

food and wine production and consumption

a. Mediterranean Diet(s): history, representations

and sustainability, looking at 2030 Agenda
 Learning methods

● Frontal lectures
● Workshop

● Class work
● Group work
● Individual work
Interdisciplinary Workshop
“Food and wine intangible
cultural heritage”
 Last year examples

https://www.labordocuweb.com/foodwine
 Last year examples

https://www.labordocuweb.it/1016-2/
 Other examples

https://www.internazionale.it/webdoc/tomato/
 Other examples

https://www.labordocuweb.it/gezoo/
 2022-2023 case-study

PESCATO & MANGIATO

Venetian Lagoon and its food

heritage: fishermen, fisheries and
“bacari”
 Table of contents
1. Fish and fishing in a global world: ways to produce and consume
fish
2. History of fishing in Italy
3. History of fishing in Veneto and Venice
4. Economics of fish in Italy (production,transformation, consumption)
5. Economics of fish Veneto and Venice (production, transformation,
consumption)
6. Working as fisherman in Venice: historical and sociological
perspectives
7. Water and heritage: territory and cultural elements
8. Fish transformation and store processes (tradition and innovation/
global and local)
9. Fish in restaurants and “bacari”
10.Fishing and sustainability
11.Fishing and tourism
12.Seafood traditions and recipes
 Workshop
Different steps:

1. Analysis of the case study (e.g. website evaluation) (group

and class work)

1. Setting the toolbox (class work)

- theoretical tools and skills
- technical tools and skills

3. Fieldwork (interviews, secondary data, historical sources and

analysis of the assigned reading) (group and class work)

4. Class presentation on assigned reading enriched with other

literature and sources (group work)
 Workshop
5. Co-constructing a docuweb (group and class work) →
see also Communication skills course unit (Prof.
Raffaella Galasso)!

5. Final class discussion on docuweb (class work)

 Our standpoints

...starting from the name of the course:

“Food and wine history, anthropology and society”

Exploring and analysing food and wine from a:

● historical
● anthropological
● sociological

perspective
 What is ‘food and wine’
history?
Interdisciplinary field

History of nutrition
Nutritional discoveries from the earliest days of history have
had a positive effect on our health and well-being.

The word nutrition itself means “The process of nourishing or

being nourished, especially the process by which a living
organism assimilates food and uses it for growth and
replacement of tissues.”

Nutrients are substances that are essential to life which must

be supplied by food.
 H-NET.ORG

https://networks.h-net.org/
 H-NET.ORG
https://networks.h-net.org/
→ Networks
H-NET.ORG

Definition of
Anthropology
The study of human beings
and their ancestors
through time and space
and in relation to physical
character, environmental
and social relations, and
culture
What is ‘food and wine’
anthropology?
Food anthropologists
study the role that food
plays across different
communities.
They use current and
historical accounts of food
gathering, preparation, and
consumption as tools to
explore the economy,
social classes, migration
habits, and traditions of a
variety of cultures.
 What is sociology
of “food and wine”?
Sociology Sociology of food and
wine
● The study of society and ● The study of social
of its organisation factors and forces that
shape food habits:
● The study of relationships - what we eat
and interactions between - when we eat
individuals and social - how we eat
organisations within - why we eat
particular social contexts Social patterns of food
and how they change production, distribution
across different times and and consumption
spaces (social change)
 Farm to Fork

The Farm to Fork Strategy

is at the heart of the
European Green Deal
aiming to make food
systems fair, healthy and
environmentally-friendly.
 Expected students’
engagement

ATTENDING STUDENTS (in presence and online):

1. Attendance and participation to lectures

2. Attendance and participation to workshop (final output:
docuweb)

→ 2a. Field trips (if in presence, otherwise Profs. will

provide further tasks)
→ 2b. Group activities and final collective work
 Expected students’
engagement

ATTENDING STUDENTS (in presence/online) are required

to:

1. Attend and participate to classes

2. Choose one of the proposed docuweb’s chapters to
work on and a maximum of 5 colleagues to work with
3. Work in group to:
- set the questions (in class and at home) and conduct
interviews with informants
- analyse the assigned article and to deepen the topic with
personal research in order to arrange a ppt presentation
(at home)
- present the work done to the class during the Symposium
(in class)
 Expected students’
engagement

- review and choose the - video or transcribed - quotations

from the interviews (at home)
- submit a two-pages document that summarise the work
done on literature and interviews (it will be inserted in the
final docuweb) (at home and in class)
→ see also Communication Skills course unit! (Prof.
Raffaella Galasso)

4. Work individually:
- Reading and knowledge of a selected bibliography for
the final written exam (see syllabus)
 Expected students’
engagement

NON ATTENDING STUDENTS

See the Syllabus …

 Mandatory reading for all
students

Capatti, A., Montanari, M., &

O’Healy, Á.,

Italian cuisine a cultural

history

New York: Columbia University

Press, 2003
 Mandatory reading for all
students

Penny Van Esterik, Carole

Counihan, Alice P. Julier

Food and culture. A reader

London: Routledge, 2008

only chapters 3 and 4

 Mandatory reading for all
students

Geyzen, A.

Food Studies and

the Heritage Turn:
a Conceptual
Repertoire

in Food and History, 12(2), 2014,

pp.67-96
 Mandatory reading for all
students
Zocchi, D.M.;
Fontefrancesco, M.F.;
Corvo, P.; Pieroni, A.

Recognising,
Safeguarding, and
Promoting Food
Heritage: Challenges
and Prospects for the
Future of Sustainable
Food Systems
in Sustainability 13(17), 9510;
https://doi.org/10.3390/su13179510
 Mandatory reading for all
students
Bimbi F.
"From Unhealthy Satiety to
Health-Oriented Eating:
Narratives of the
Mediterranean Diet,
Managing a Chronic Illness”

in Texler Segal, M. and

Demos V. (eds), Gender and
Food: From Production to
Consumption and After, pp. Bingley: Emerald Group
89-115 Publishing, 2016
 Mandatory reading ONLY for non
attending students

Parasecoli, F.

Al dente. A history of
food in Italy

London: Reaktion Books,

2014
 Mandatory reading ONLY for
non attending students

John Germov, Lauren William

(eds.)

A sociology of food and

nutrition. The social
appetite

only chapter 1

South Melbourne: Oxford

University Press, 2017
 Mandatory reading ONLY for
non-attending students

Dernini, S. and
Berry, E.M.,

"Mediterranean
Diet: From a
Healthy Diet to a
Article in Frontiers in nutrition,
Sustainable Dietary
2, 15, 2015
Pattern". https://www.frontiersin.org/jour
nals/nutrition
 Mandatory reading ONLY for
non-attending students
Andreola, M.;
Pianegonda, A.;
Favargiotti, S.; Forno, F.

Urban Food Strategy in

the Making: Context,
Conventions and
Contestations

Agriculture 2021, 11, 177

https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11
020177
 Evaluation methods
The final mark will be made up of these
components:

Attending students
● 50% Participation to debates, presentations, Q&A,
etc. during lectures; results achieved during the
workshop
● 50% Written examination based on lecture
contents and selected academic literature (journal
articles, chapters in edited books, etc.) presented in
class and included in the Syllabus.
 Examination methods
Non-attending students

● 100% Written examination: answers to

open-ended questions based on lectures
contents and selected academic literature
(journal articles, chapters in edited books,
etc.) included in the Syllabus
use computer
only to taking
notes … not for
writing email or
sms or watching
videos …

THANKS