Food, gender, and poverty in the Ecuadorian Andes /

A revision of a recent PhD dissertation, this volume is centered on the people of Zumbagua in central highland Ecuador. Except for the theoretical discussion in the first chapter, the work is a light, folksy discussion on some of the ways behavior associated with foodstuffs mediates social interactions. The book is also a good introductory-level classical-style ethnography of rural village household life using food as the principal vehicle of analysis. Weismantel's research will supplement the growing body of literature dealing with food semiology, adding regional richness to works such as C. Hugh-Jones, Fron the Milk River: Spatial and Temporal Processes in Northwest Amazonia (1979), and topical breadth to such works as J. Goody, Cooking, Cuisine, and Class: A Study in Comparative Sociology (CH, Dec '82). Good bibliography and index; a dozen ethnographic photos are included. The work will interest Latin American social scientists and students of semiotics. Appropriate for community college students and up. -D. L. Browman, Washington University