Cuisine of economy, cuisine of excess: materializing value in culinary practice

Abstract

AbstractCertain culinary practices are often interpreted as evidence of ‘economizing’ (a frugal use of available resources) or of ‘excess’ (a celebratory expenditure of resources for symbolic purposes). This article uses these categories as a way to interrogate analytical assumptions about materialism more generally. Drawing on ethnographic research from both rural Tanzania, and the contemporary suburban United States, it argues that various qualities of discernment, taste, and preference are not determined by the material affordances of foods, but rather that these judgements can be materialized in social and cultural practice.