Today I started fieldwork on a new anthropology of food project here in Boston. It is going to be an adventure as I explore the rumbling beast that is my GI tract through an Ayurvedic cleanse. Later, I will be listening to hear what my fellow cleanse participants have to say about their experiences in this process. For now, here is a synopsis of my research:

The act of eating and incorporating food (symbolically and physically) is one of the most important transformations in the everyday experience of nearly all humans. Through the digestion process the outside world is embodied and even transubstantiated. This paper will explore the possibility of considering the act of eating as a cultural process that does not end at cooking or at the point when food passes the lips. What about digestion? Anthropological research has paid little attention to the ways in which humans conceive of and experience digestion. Marked by cultural taboos, digestion and defecation are muffled rumblings of food consumption which go largely unmentioned and unstudied.

Once food enters the body it is no longer under the conscious control of the eater: the body takes over an internal, physical process that is obscured and largely uncontrolled (Mol, 2008). A physical process of inclusion and exclusion takes place as nutrients are absorbed and waste products are expelled. Based on participant observations and interviews of an Ayurvedic cleansing session in Boston, this research will consider how internal biological processes are culturally mediated and framed. First, ways of talking or not talking about digestion tell us a great deal about how cultures conceive and shape these hidden bodily processes. Second, the medicalization of certain foods and in particular Ayurvedic medical practices can be seen as cultural interventions on the interior process of digestion. This paper seeks to explore the inner and outer understandings of digestion and the cross-cultural interpretations of ways in which this process can be mediated.

Works cited:

Mol, Annemarie. (2008). “I Eat an Apple: On Theorizing Subjectivities.” Subjectivity, vol. 22:28-37