Predictable Pleasures: Food and the Pursuit of Balance in Rural Yucat疣 (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781496201317)

The pursuit of balance pervades everyday life in rural Yucat疣, Mexico, from the delicate negotiations between a farmer and the neighbor who wants to buy his beans to the careful addition of sour orange juice to a rich plate of eggs fried in lard. Based on intensive fieldwork in one indigenous Yucatecan community, Predictable Pleasures explores the desire for balance in this region and the many ways it manifests in human interactions with food. As shifting social conditions, especially a decline in agriculture and a deepening reliance on regional tourism, transform the manners in which people work and eat, residents of this community grapple with new ways of surviving and finding pleasure.

Lauren A. Wynne examines the convergence of food and balance through deep analysis of what locals describe as acts of care. Drawing together rich ethnographic data on how people produce, exchange, consume, and talk about food, this book posits food as an accessible, pleasurable, and deeply important means by which people in rural Yucat疣 make clear what matters to them, finding balance in a world that seems increasingly imbalanced.

Unlike many studies of globalization that point to the dissolution of local social bonds and practices, Predictable Pleasures presents an array of enduring values and practices, tracing their longevity to the material constraints of life in rural Yucat疣, the deep historical and cosmological significance of food in this region, and the stubborn nature of bodily habits and tastes.


Author: Lauren A. Wynne
ISBN-10: 1496201310
ISBN-13: 9781496201317
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Language: English
Published: 05/01/2020
Pages: 276
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.27lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.75d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 11/01/2020