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University College London

Friday, 7 September 2012 at 09:30 - Saturday, 8 September 2012 at 17:30 (BST)

London, United Kingdom

Unnamed Event

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Feast and Famine: Exploring Relationships with Food in the Pacific- UCL Ended Free  
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Event Details

Feasting is the most resonant and powerful of all social practices in the Pacific Island region. Now as in the past, feasts are at the centre of Pacific society, serving as the arenas for the display of hierarchy, status and power; the negotiation of loyalty and alliances; the enacting of competition; the creation and consolidation of identity and the performance of public rituals that link the social and the political, the sacred and the secular. Both feasts and famines represent a research theme where ecology and economy meet, and where patterns of provisioning and consumptions, and resultant health and environmental aspects, manifest themselves.

This two day conference is organised by the newly established UCL Pacific Islands Research Network responds to the widening interest in the political, economic, cultural and health dimensions of feasting, food production and famine in the Pacific. This conference aims to provide a platform for more engaged dialogue between archaeology, anthropology, history, ecology, economics, epidemiology, health and medical studies, and food studies and the social and historical sciences more broadly.

The conference will present vanguard work in anthropological, archaeological, historical, literary, environmental and medical research, and discuss how it can contribute to a better understanding of society, health and food security in the Pacific islands – past, present and future. 

Papers from this conference will be published in a book on Food Culture in the Pacific: Interdisciplinary Perspectives.  

This conference is kindly sponsored by the Institute of Archaeology, Department of Anthropology (UCL) and the Mellon Foundation.

Conference Programme

9.15-9.45

Arrival and registration.

 

9.45-10.00

Introduction to conference

(Kaori O’Connor and Sarah Byrne).

 

Session 1:  Pacific Foodways Today

10.00-10.30

Pineapple and the Invention of ‘Polynesian’ Cuisine

Kaori O’Connor, University College London

10.30-11.00 


SPAM-a lot- Food as political resistance-Why SPAM is not (all) un-healthy food?

 

Ulf Dahre, Lund University, Sweden.

11.00-11.30

 Coffee Break

11.30- 12.00

Soy Sauce and Coconut Milk-The Effects of Colonialism and Globalisation of Guamanianfoodways.

Danielle Ceribo, Boston University

12.00-12.30  

Slow Manava: The Metaphysical Ins & Outs of Food Culture in Tonga

Andy Mills, University of East Anglia 

12.30-1.00

Discussion

1.00- 2.00

Lunch

Session 2: Food as Technology and Process

2.00- 2.30  

Eating Sociology? Tubers as paradigms among the Abelam of Papua New Guinea (and beyond?)

 

Ludovic Coupaye, University College London

 

2:30-3:00  

Technological styles of cooking and feast food: the case of Northern Vanuatu

 

Yoko Nojima, International Research Centre for Japanese Studies, Kyoto

 

3:00- 3:30

Eating for the House: Technical processes of food production, social efficacy and gender in the context of house building on Mere Lava, Vanuatu.(TBC)

 

Marie Durand, University of East Anglica

 

3:30- 4:00

Coffee Break

 

4:00- 4:30

Nourishing gardens facing catastrophe

Maëlle Calandra, EHESS-CREDO

4:30-5:00

Discussion

 

5:00- 8.00

Drinks and Luau Party

 

DAY 2 Saturday 8th September

Session 3: Landscapes of Feasting

 

9.30- 10.00

Feasting in a nutshell? Reflections of past social practices in Island Melanesia

Jim Specht, Australian Museum, Sydney; Carol LentferThe University of Queensland, Brisbane, Peter MatthewsThe National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan.

10.00-10.30

Chasing chickens: feasting, food ritual and food deprivation on prehistoric and proto-historic Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

Sue Hamilton, University College London

 

10.30-11.00 

Coffee Break

 

11:00-11:30

HereaneeWhattaDuludulumata,NevsemHaraki Stages, et al- Is there a Pacific Connection to Feasting Platforms?

Jocelyne Dudding, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge

11.30-12.00

Discussion

 

Session 4: Food, Exchange and Identity

12.00-12.30

Ceremonial Chop Suey and Value Shift in Fiji

 

Matti Eräsaari, University of Helsinki, Finland

12.30-1.00

Pudding Politics: Banks Islands' Museum Collections Reconsidered

Sarah Byrne, University College London

1:00- 2.00

Lunch

 

2.00-2.30

 Pig-Killing and distribution as an arena of social construction

 

Samuel Haihuie (Open College, Papua New Guinea) and LinusDi'igimrina 

 

 

2.30-3:00  

Eating the Exotic: food on the voyages of Captain Cook: creating an exhibition on historic food cultures of the Pacific

Sophie Forgan, Captain Cook Memorial Museum, Whitby.

 

3.00-3.30

Discussion

 

3:30-4.00

Coffee Break

 

Session 5 Food, Health and Embodiment

4.00-4.30

Food Insecurity that Feeds Feasting: Children’s Foodways in Vanuatu

 

Chelsea Wentworth, University of Pittsburgh

 

4.30-5.00

Preserve or feast, save or spend? Rhythms of eating in the Republic of Nauru

Amy McLennan- University of Oxford

5:00-5.30

Discussion about Book Proposal

 

 

 

When & Where



Room 612 Institute of Archaeology
University College London
31-34 Gordon Square
WC1H 0PY London
United Kingdom

Friday, 7 September 2012 at 09:30 - Saturday, 8 September 2012 at 17:30 (BST)


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