Hunger, food scarcity and cuslture-based approaches: proposals and dangers of boundary studies

Abstract

Food and alimentation are configured as cultural matters for decades, defined as fertile fields of culture. However, shortage has been narrated in a hegemonic way through the universalist rhetoric of biology and nutrition denying spaces for cultural analysis. This text addresses the genesis of such discourse, offering arguments for a culturalist approach to hunger and food shortages. We argue here for a project that is situated on the slippery slope between nature and culture, but that is equally necessary. Through various ethnographic works, we attempt to show how food shortages are also recreated through deeply cultural practices and ideologies.