Anthropology of Nutrition as a Meta- and Mega-Discipline: Food Practices, Global Challenges, and Image Construction

Abstract

The review analyzes the modern problems of the anthropology of nutrition based on reports and discussions during the “Intercultural Communications and Traditional Culture. National Food is the Most Important Factor in Creating a Positive Image of the Country” conference in Tbilisi (May 2021). The study of food systems is one of the broadest and most “multi-disciplinary” research fields. Located at the “junction” of exact, humanities, and social disciplines, as well as theory and practice, science and production (agriculture, food industry and related areas: forestry, hunting, fishing, beekeeping, etc.), the anthropological study of nutrition has become a combination of all three: it focuses on the transformation of food systems under the influence of globalization processes, the semiotics of rural landscapes, the oppositions of everyday and festive cuisine, the commercialization of catering structure. The Tbilisi conference demonstrated the dynamics of the development of alimentary culture in large and small cities, rural areas, and the remote hinterland in various countries of Europe, Asia, and North America. The desire for group, ethnic or national self-identification and, at the same time, the desire to “integrate” into global trends have become the subject of detailed discussion and debate.