The history of food exchanges : a new agenda.

Abstract

This paper argues that the time has come for a new approach to food exchange. Using the literatures of geography and sociology, it points out that the social constructionism that is being used increasingly in food studies is inadequate. Its privileging of human agency has led to an underestimation of the important of the materiality of foodstuffs. Three dimensions are proposed for a rematerialization of research on food exchange histories.