Consuming the inedible; neglected dimensions of food choice

Consuming the inedible; neglected dimensions of food choice.

Ed. by Jeremy MacClancy et al.

Berghahn Books

2007

242 pages

$59.95

Hardcover

Anthropology of food and nutrition; v.6

GT2850

Consumption of dirt, clay, nose mucous and other materials impacts health, of course, but it is also anthropologically, psychologically and biochemically significant. This collection of articles describes the causes of eating such substances, such as cultural requisites, scarcity and ritual as well as the effects of such consumption. Contributors survey the evidence to find who consumes the inedible, then focus on cultural perceptions of food and non-food, human identity in consumption, pica behavior, nutritive aspects of geophagia and its biological consequences, human zinc deficiency, lime as a nutritive element, non-human primate and human consumption of materials with low nutritional value, non-foods in famine, marginalized practices such as eating garbage, cannibalism as a myth and rarity, family influence and socialization, waste products used in alcoholic beverages, and the roles of cats, insects, and snot in cultured eating.

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