Product Description: An Invitation to Food and Culture is a provocative exploration of the field of food and culture. It presents a point of view as it covers key concepts in five succinct chapters and invites readers into some of the key issues and debates in food and culture studies...read more

The classic book that helped to define and legitimize the field of food and culture studies is now available, with major revisions, in a specially affordable e-book version (978-0-203-07975-1). The third edition includes 40 original essays and reprints of previously published classics under 5 Sections: FOUNDATIONS, HEGEMONY AND DIFFERENCE, CONSUMPTION AND EMBODIMENT, FOOD AND GLOBALIZATION, and CHALLENGING, CONTESTING, AND TRANSFORMING THE FOOD SYSTEM. 17 of the 40 articles included are either, new to this edition, rewritten by their original authors, or edited by Counihan and van Esterik. A bank of test items applicable to each article in the book is available to instructors interested in selecting this edition for course use. Simply send an e.mail to the publisher at companionaccess@informa.com.

Thailand has become well known throughout the world for wonderful cuisine, great package holidays, sumptuous temples and textiles. Noticeably absent from glossy tourist brochures but equally well known throughout the Western world is Thailand's seedier side - the world of child exploitation, rampant prostitution and AIDS. Thailand maintains its appeal by slipping the ugly and painful out of sight and by promoting women as exotic visual icons through beauty contests, state rituals and the sex trade.This book explores the construction of gender in Thailand and in particular the role Bangkok plays in establishing gender relations for the whole of the country. It examines the historical and cultural processes underlying Thai public culture, including historical theme parks. The author demonstrates how the materiality of the Thai world shapes gender relations and how Buddhism discourages essentialisms, including fixed binary gender identities. Throughout the book, appearances are shown to be critically important, and the essentialism of gender is maintained through display, public presentations, and everyday material practices.Anyone wishing to understand the complexity of Thailand will find this book provides a highly readable and insightful analysis. (view table of contents)

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