Research Methods for Anthropological Studies of Food and Nutrition

Janet Chrzan is Adjunct Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research explores the connections between social activities, dietary intake and maternal and child health outcomes.

• VOLUME I: FOOD RESEARCHINTRODUCTION AND RESEARCH ETHICSIntroduction and Research DesignJanet ChrzanResearch Ethics in Food StudiesSharon Devine and John BrettPART I: NUTRITIONAL ANTHROPOLOGYChapter 1. Design in Biocultural Studies of Food and Nutritional AnthropologyDarna Dufour and Barbara PiperataChapter 2. Nutritional Anthropometry and Body CompositionLeslie Sue LiebermanChapter 3. Measuring energy expenditure in daily living: Established methods and new directionsMark JenikeChapter 4. Dietary AnalysesAndrea WileyChapter 5. Ethnography as a tool for formative research and evaluation in public health nutrition: illustrations from the world of infant and young child feedingSera Young and Emily TuthillChapter 6. Primate Nutrition and FoodwaysJessica Rothman and Caley JohnsonChapter 7. Food Episodes/Social Events: Measuring the Nutritional and Social Value of CommensalityJanet ChrzanPART II: ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDY OF FOOD AND FOOD HABITSChapter 8. Archeological Food and Nutrition ResearchPatti WrightChapter 9. Researching Plant Food Remains from Archeological Contexts: Macroscopic, Microscopic, Chemical and Molecular ApproachesPatti WrightChapter 10. Methods for Reconstructing DietBethany Turner and Sarah LivengoodChapter 11. Nutritional Stress in Past Human GroupsAlan GoodmanChapter 12. Research on Direct Food RemainsKatherine MooreChapter 13. If there is food, we will eat: an evolutionary and global perspective on human diet and nutritionJanet MongeChapter 14. Experimental Archaeology, Ethnoarchaeology, and the Application of Archaeological Data to Contemporary Households and CommunitiesKaren MethenyVOLUME II: FOOD CULTUREINTRODUCTION AND RESEARCH ETHICSIntroduction and Research DesignJanet ChrzanResearch Ethics in Food StudiesSharon Devine and John BrettPART I: SOCIO-CULTURAL APPROACHESChapter 1. The Anthropology of Food and Food Anthropology: A Sociocultural PerspectiveGeraldine Moreno BlackChapter 2. Interviewing Epistemologies: From Life History to Kitchen Table EthnographyRamona Lee PerezChapter 3. Body ImageMimi Nichter and Nichole TaylorChapter 4. Visual Anthropology MethodsHelen VallianatosChapter 5. On the Lookout: The Use of Direct Observation in Nutritional AnthropologyBarbara Piperata and Darna DufourChapter 6. Participant-observation and Interviewing TechniquesHeather PaxsonChapter 7. Focus Groups in Qualitative or Mixed Methods ResearchRamona L. PerezChapter 8. Studying Food and Culture: Ethnographic Methods in the ClassroomCarole CounihanPART II: LINGUISTICS AND FOOD TALKChapter 9. Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology Food Research MethodsJillian Cavanaugh and Kate RileyChapter 10. Food Talk: Studying Food and Language in Use TogetherJillian Cavanaugh and Kate RileyChapter 11. An Introduction to Cultural Domain Analysis in Food Research: Free Lists and Pile SortsAriela ZychermanChapter 12. Food and Text(ual) AnalysisKate RileyChapter 13. Analysis of Primary Historic SourcesKen AlbalaPART III: FOOD STUDIESChapter 14. Introduction to Food Studies MethodsAmy TrubekChapter 15. Meaning Centered Food ResearchLucy LongChapter 16. Food and PlaceWilliam Woys WeaverChapter 17. Sensory Ethnography: methods and research design for Food Studies researchRachel BlackChapter 18. Methods for Examining Food Value Chains in Conventional and Alternative TradeCatherine TuckerChapter 19. The Single Food Approach: A Research Strategy in Nutritional AnthropologyAndrea Wiley and Janet ChrzanVOLUME III: FOOD HEALTHINTRODUCTION AND RESEARCH ETHICSIntroductionJanet ChrzanResearch Ethics in Food StudiesSharon Devine and John BrettPART I: PUBLIC HEALTH AND NUTRITIONChapter 1. Introduction to Public Health Nutrition MethodsEllen MesserChapter 2. Identifying and using indicators to assess program effectiveness: Food intake, biomarkers, and nutritional evaluationAlyson Young and Meredith MartenChapter 3. Ethnography as a Tool for Formative Research and EvaluationGretel PeltoChapter 4. Methods for Community Health InvolvementDavid Himelgreen, Sara Arias Steele, and Nancy Romero-DazaChapter 5. Understanding Famine and Severe Food EmergenciesMiriam ChaikenChapter 6. Food Activism: Researching Engagement, Engaging ResearchJoan GrossChapter 7. Food Praxis as MethodPenny Van EsterikPART II: TECHNOLOGY AND ANALYSISChapter 8. Using technology and measurement tools in nutritional anthropology of food studiesJohn BrettChapter 9. Mapping Food and Nutrition Landscapes: GIS Methods for Nutritional AnthropologyBarry BrentonChapter 10. Photo-Video VoiceHelen VallianatosChapter 11. Digital Storytelling: Using First-Person Videos about Food in Research and AdvocacyMarty OtanezChapter 12. Accessing and Using Secondary Quantitative Data from the InternetJames Wilson and Kristen BorreChapter 13. Using Secondary Data in Nutritional Anthropology Research:  Enhancing Ethnographic and Formative ResearchKristen Borre and James WilsonChapter 14. Designing food insecurity scales from the ground up: An introduction and working example of building and testing food insecurity scales in anthropological researchCraig Hadley and Lesley Jo Weaver

Published in Association with the Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition (SAFN) and in Collaboration with Rachel Black and Leslie Carlin“All chapters are brief and very well focused, outlining the methods and current issues with each specific approach to data collection… the presentation is clear and easy to follow, providing an excellent, if brief, professional overview of each topic with most key references at the end of each chapter… This book set will be an excellent guide for all food scholars.” • Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JRAI)“I feel that this set will be exceptionally useful not only for anthropologists, but also for ethnographers, demographers, and others conducting research within food systems and food studies. With the burgeoning interest in food research at all levels, and with new graduate programs in the field, this book has the potential to be a crucial resource for scholars in the field… I look forward to requiring this as reading for my graduate students and advanced undergraduates.” • Teresa Mares, University of Vermont “Unlike other resources I’ve come across, this set covers methods used in the traditional four fields of anthropology, ranging from highly quantitative and scientific oriented research to qualitative, culture oriented work… These volumes function as inclusive how-to manuals, providing examples of different questions each type of research might address as well as their limitations. Each chapter includes a helpful, extensive bibliography.” • Amy Bentley, New York University“This set offers a comprehensive overview of methods across the discipline and beyond, providing readers with basic (and in some cases advanced) insights into why particular methods are useful and how those methods can be implemented… This is an unparalleled and comprehensive collection.” • David Beriss, University of New Orleans