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Departmental Seminar: Annemarie Mol

Eating in Theory: A taster

Info about event

Time

Wednesday 17 March 2021,  at 13:00 - 15:00

https://aarhusuniversity.zoom.us/j/61392664904

Eating in Theory tells stories about eating practices, mostly in the Netherlands, not to learn about them, but to learn from them. It argues that the analytical terms in use in present day humanities and social sciences harbour a ‘human’ whose thinking, even if ‘embodied’, is still his (sic) crucial feature. This ‘human’ was dreamt up as part of attempts to critique the ‘dehumanising’ of all too many people. In the process, however, eating got downgraded as a dangerously pleasurable, mundane activity cared for by women and others who ‘merely’ labour; and shared with ‘lesser’ creatures, not just animals, but even plants. These hierarchical models are not particularly helpful in the face of ecological destruction. Studying human eating, not as a natural necessity, but as part of diversely cultivated practices, makes it possible to rethink humans as dependent on, rather than elevated above others. Along with that, it affects a range of theoretical terms, the book (all too ambitiously?) revisits being, knowing, doing and relating.