Cooking - and coping - among the cacti : diet, nutrition, and available income in northwestern Mexico /

Baer's volume, a contribution in the series Food and Nutrition in History and Anthropology, presents a method of anthropological study that combines nutritional and ethnographic data. The author offers "a model for understanding relationships between dietary patterns and income." Using data collected from households in Sonora between 1981 and 1984, Baer details the concept of "available income." This analytic concept "represents the total sum that is available to those who make decisions regarding all household expenditures, of which expenditures for food are but one part--a part, moreover, that often has to compete with other wants and needs." This well-written ethnography examines the reality and the impact that social and cultural variables, e.g., migration, women's roles, desire for consumer goods, as well as government goals and policies, have on variations in diet and nutrition at the household level. Data collection forms and extensive references conclude a reasoned and thoughtful quantitative and qualitative investigation of dietary and nutritional outcomes. This volume will appeal to graduate students, researchers, faculty, professionals, and practitioners, who may consider approaches and interventions suggested in Baer's findings. P. L. Palmer; Lake Washington Technical College