Nourishing Life

Arianna Huhn is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at California State University, San Bernardino and Director of the university's Anthropology Museum. Her work on Mozambican foodways  received the Terence Ranger Prize from the Journal of Southern African Studies in 2017, and the Christine Wilson Award from the Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition in 2012.

“The nuanced discussion of the Nyanja concepts of nourishment, as it relates to the dietary quality of vitamina (vitamins) ascribed to certain foods and as dependent on ‘interdependence, cooperative labor, compassion, and moral intelligence’, is thoughtful and challenging...Recommended.” • Choice“A monograph of 216 well-written and engaging pages, this work…delves into the direct and straightforward relations between food and life, as well as unearthing a host of fascinating and not always obvious connections between these two broad domains…Huhn’s book is an excellent demonstration of the importance of undertaking long-term fieldwork beyond the metropolitan and urban centres of the world to attain an ethnographically informed understanding of how humanity is produced. It deserves a wide readership.” • Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute“…offers important insights into what it is that people in sub-Saharan Africa have over time produced, traded, and consumed… This book is a valuable contribution to the study of commodity chains and will be useful for any persons interested in expanding their knowledge of commodities, capitalism, consumption, African history, environmental studies, and foodways.” • African Studies Review“Lucid and at times lyrical, this study will be valuable to scholars in food studies, African Studies, and Anthropology more generally. The accessible writing style [makes] it possible to use this manuscript in the classroom at a variety of undergraduate and graduate levels”. • Kathryn M. de Luna, Georgetown University

• List of FiguresPrefaceNotes on TextList of AbbreviationsIntroductionChapter 1. Blood, Vitality, and DietChapter 2. Labor, Reason, and CompassionChapter 3. Witches, Animals, and HumansChapter 4. Salt, Sex, and FireChapter 5. Weight, Nutrition, and Body SizeConclusionGlossaryReferencesIndex