Foodays and Empathy Relatedness in a Ramu River Society, Papua Ne Guinea [Hardcover]

Through the sharing of food, people feel entitled to inquire into one anothers lives and ponder one anothers states in relation to their foodways. This in-depth study focuses on the Bosmun of Daiden, a Ramu River people in an under-represented area in the ethnography of Papua New Guinea, uncovering the conceptual convergence of local notions of relatedness, foodways, and empathy. In weaving together discussions about paramount values as passed on through myth, the expression of feelings in daily life, and the bodily experience of social and physical environs, a life-world unfolds in which moral, emotional, and embodied foodways contribute notably to the creation of relationships. Concerned with unique processes of making kin, the book adds a distinct case to recent debates about relatedness and empathy and sheds new light onto the conventional anthropological themes of food production, sharing, and exchange.

This is a rich ethnography, steeped in the literatures on emotion, the body, and place& For those looking for holistic ethnographies for teaching purposes, this book could be easily incorporated into advanced undergraduate or graduate courses. In our neoliberal times, it will be especially eye-opening for students to see the intensely social nature of Bosmun food practices. It will also reward scholars interested in thinking through current anthropological approaches to foodways in relationship to kinship, gender, place, and emotional experience.? Food and Foodways

von Posers book offers up a fascinating, keenly observed account of the ways in which Bosmun people view and assess one anothers hunger.??? Pacific Affairs

The book contains fascinating material from an under-represented area in the ethnographic coverage of PNG. It also contains excellent ideas and analysis&[and] presents some sensitively written ethnography, dwelling on an important element of kinship relations (flS°