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The social life of the tortilla: Food, cultural politics, and contested commodification

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  • David Lind
  • Elizabeth Barham

Abstract

Resurgent interest incommodities is linked to recent attempts toovercome the constraints posed by the binariesof economy/culture and production/consumption.Commodities and commodification represent acontentious convergence of economic, social,cultural, political, and moral concerns. Thisessay develops a conceptual framework forunderstanding this interconnectedness byexamining the relationship between commoditiesand our discourse, practices, and assumptionsabout food. We argue that the movement of afood artifact between local/global andglobal/local contexts is mediated by dynamicsof power and resistance that represent contestsof meaning regarding the criteria of that artifact's exchangeability. We apply thisframework to the case of the tortilla, tracingits social life through an historical accountof its transformation from the staple food ofthe Mayan and Aztec people to its introductionas a fast food component of the diets of21st century Americans. This exampledemonstrates that food provides a powerful lensthrough which to trace and illustrate theinterconnectedness between material andsymbolic exchanges around the world that arecommonly associated with globalization. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2004

Suggested Citation

  • David Lind & Elizabeth Barham, 2004. "The social life of the tortilla: Food, cultural politics, and contested commodification," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 21(1), pages 47-60, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:21:y:2004:i:1:p:47-60
    DOI: 10.1023/B:AHUM.0000014018.76118.06
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Patricia Allen & Martin Kovach, 2000. "The capitalist composition of organic: The potential of markets in fulfilling the promise of organic agriculture," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 17(3), pages 221-232, September.
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    1. Liora Gvion, 2006. "Cuisines of poverty as means of empowerment: Arab food in Israel," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 23(3), pages 299-312, October.
    2. Vanessa Ocampo-Giraldo & Carolina Camacho-Villa & Denise E. Costich & Victor A. Vidal Martínez & Melinda Smale & Nelissa Jamora, 2020. "Dynamic conservation of genetic resources: Rematriation of the maize landrace Jala," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 12(5), pages 945-958, October.
    3. Schmook, Birgit & Vance, Colin, 2009. "Agricultural Policy, Market Barriers, and Deforestation: The Case of Mexico's Southern Yucatn," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 1015-1025, May.
    4. Robbins, M.J., 2013. "Locating food sovereignty: geographical and sectoral distance in the global food system," ISS Working Papers - General Series 557, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    5. Kris Wyckhuys & Robert O’Neil, 2007. "Local agro-ecological knowledge and its relationship to farmers’ pest management decision making in rural Honduras," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 24(3), pages 307-321, September.
    6. Ariane Lotti, 2010. "The commoditization of products and taste: Slow Food and the conservation of agrobiodiversity," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 27(1), pages 71-83, March.

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