Eating in Theory

Annemarie Mol

Published by Duke University Press 2021

Eating in Theory

Annemarie Mol

In the series Experimental futures : technological lives, scientific arts, anthropological voices

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478012924

Overview
Contents

About this book

Annemarie Mol interferes with proud celebrations of the human ability to think and takes inspiration from eating in order to shift a wide range of intellectual reflexes. This tactic transforms the meaning of such crucial theory terms as being, knowing, doing and relating.

Author / Editor information

Annemarie Mol is Professor of Anthropology of the Body at the University of Amsterdam and the author of The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice, also published by Duke University Press, and The Logic of Care: Health and the Problem of Patient Choice.

Reviews

“Its writing limpid, its organization elegant, its argument scintillating, this book is inspirational. And radical. Annemarie Mol effectively unseats the mindset that cannot see past people as thinking and embodied beings. While her address is to questions as they are posed in philosophy, this book will find huge sympathy among those dealing with anthropological materials of all kinds and stages a striking provocation for the general reader who asks whether scholarship can tell us anything new.”

-- Marilyn Strathern, author of Relations: An Anthropological Account

“In characteristically crisp and inviting prose, Annemarie Mol thinks through eating—its social acts, sensory experiences, and metabolic processes—to re-metabolize the wisdoms so many of us have absorbed about knowing and relating, being and doing, subjectivity and agency. Eating in Theory offers a nourishingly pluralistic vision of humans permeable to their surroundings, interdependent rather than autonomous, and hungry for further thinking. It’s a book to savor.”

-- Heather Paxson, Professor of Anthropology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"Eating in Theory is a tasty and satisfying treat for anyone interested in human-nature relationships, refreshing theoretical perspectives, food studies, ethnography and more."

-- Ola Plonska LSE Review of Books

"[I]n detailing much of her critical reflection on a certain valued practice of thinking over those of eating, Mol eloquently brings into the limelight the vitality of abandoning grand theories aimed at explaining all human beings, and especially those not situated in their own theorization."

-- Elin Linder Anthropology Book Forum

"A remarkable book. . . . By dispensing with the ontological need for knowledge to be universal, Eating in Theory lives up to its title and truly theorizes eating as an act of meaning and meaning making. . . . Mol’s analysis unfolds fluidly and clearly. . . . Highly recommended. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals."

-- M. A. Lange Choice

"I know of no health researcher who so compellingly takes health out of individual bodies and situates it in the collective ecology that bodies depend on. . . . No writings seem more relevant to the crises of the present moment."

-- Arthur W. Frank Journal of Medical Humanities

"[A] terrific little book. . . . . Anthropologists and sociologists with an interest in Food Studies can easily make strong use of Eating in Theory, as well as of course philosophers of many disciplines preoccupied with the question of what we can wrap our collective Western mouth—rather than our head—around the most pernicious theoretical effects of the Anthropocene."

-- Megan Volpert Popmatters

"I find this book a valuable philosophical and theoretical contribution to our understanding of eating and food. I find it especially useful because Annemarie Mol demonstrates, through her scrutiny of such philosophical categories as Being, Knowing, Doing, and Relating, the multiple entanglements between people, between humans and nonhumans, that highlight the complexities of eating. As she successfully demonstrates, this traditionally banalized act can be productive for thinking about what it means to be human at a time when multiple empirical realities challenge universal philosophical understandings."

-- Steffan Igor Ayora-Diaz Journal of Anthropological Research

"Eating in Theory proves to be not only brief and approachable, but exciting and thought-provoking for foodways scholars. Reminiscent of Sarah Pink’s work on sensory ethnography, Mol introduces the reader to exciting new approaches in studying food and eating. Through thoughtful fieldwork passages and engaging analysis, Mol teaches us to view the world through eating, relating it to larger issues of overconsumption and ecological sustainability."

-- Ema Noëlla Kibirkstis Digest

"This book unravels the particular and ever-present model of the human derived from Western epistemologies while demonstrating its perniciousness by experimenting with alternatives. . . . Mol's voice is precise, challenging, and insightful. . . . Mol's ideas inspire a way of laboring in the world, of which the academia is part."

-- Jessica Hardin Anthropological Quarterly

"Eating in Theory brings Mol’s sophisticated approach to materiality and its enactment to bear on the prosaic topic of eating. This fascinating yet complex topic is much enriched by her approach and clarity. . . . Mol’s choice of the familiar yet always fascinating topic of eating has allowed her to create a very helpful primer and companion for a posthuman understanding of being, knowing, thinking, and relating. Naturally it is of interest to anyone interested in the topic of food and eating but should also be read widely across the humanities and social sciences for its contributions to thinking around ecological sustainability and philosophy."

-- Hannah Drayson Leonardo

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
1. Empirical Philosophy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. Being Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	26
3. Knowing Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	50
4. Doing Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	75
5. Relating Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	102
6. Intellectual Ingredients Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	126

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 208

eBook

Published: March 1, 2021
ISBN: 9781478012924