Llama meat in La Paz’s tourist district, June 2010

This is, in part, a shameless plug for Helen Haines and my upcoming edited volume Adventures in Eating: Anthropological Experiences in Dining from Around the World. In it, anthropoloigists discuss frankly what it’s like to be offered unfamiliar foods and how we can turn that discomfort into methodologically useful data.  The book is aimed at [...]

You Can Never Go Home Again

I think many of us who spend long periods living abroad have this kind of experience when we return home.  We realize that the United States (or where-ever our home is) we remember was somewhat idealized.  When we get home, we are reacquainted with the things that irritated us, and have new appreciation for the [...]

As if eating guinea pig wasn’t enough…

Since it is near Halloween and all, yesterday’s Chicago Tribune had this column by John Kass on the “Gastronomic Festival of the Cat” in La Quebrada, Peru. Kass fills his column with sarcastic humor, noting that Americans “won’t abide a nation of cat-eaters” so we need to put a stop to the “villainous cat-munching.” Stewed, [...]

U.S. confusion between coca and cocaine

The latest: Andean leaders use native product in culturally accepted way. Seriously, it would seem strange for Chavez to admit to using coca paste (rather than just chewing coca leaves). We’ll have to find the original statement in Spanish — can’t be too careful where translation is involved. Aside from that, there is a general [...]

Inflation creeping up (again) in Bolivia

Ever since the 1984-1985 hyperinflation (which hit 60,000 percent in its final month), Bolivians have been especially worried about inflation. And except for a spike in 1991 (21.4%), inflation in Bolivia has remained below 20% since 1985. Today’s La Razón has a special section on inflation. So far, it doesn’t look like a major crisis [...]