HIST 203 Food in the African Diaspora

Humans share with all other living beings a fundamental need -- nutrition in order to survive -- but food has meaning that is uniquely part of the human experience. Societies have organized the production, distribution, and sharing of food and drink in many different ways and vested what and how they consume with a wide variety of meanings. This course examines the history of food, in its several aspects, from the variety of cultures within pre-modern Africa, to selective stages in the history of the diaspora of African-descended peoples in the Americas. Its principal purposes are to trace "foodways" - the complex interactions among food production and preparation on the one hand, and the cultural meanings attributed to food and meals on the other hand, and to discern how foodways persisted as well as adapted within that diaspora.

Cross Listed Courses

AFRI 203 & HIST 203