Unreliable eating: Patterns of food adulteration in urban India

Solomon, Harris

doi:10.1057/biosoc.2015.10

Cited by 27 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…The purchase of standardized blends from Horniman’s or Lipton – blends in which machine-processed Indian tea predominated – ensured a what Solomon (2015), writing about contemporary food safety in India, calls a ‘reliability’ in both the palate and the digestive tract. Combined with factory processing, then, blending made the abstract notion of quality – a combination of fair price, consistent taste and safety – commensurable with an increasingly complex, racially and ethnically diverse, and geographically variable supply chain.…”

Section: Blending Out Differencementioning

confidence: 99%

Empire and indigestion: Materializing tannins in the Indian tea industry

Besky

2020

Soc Stud Sci

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In the mid-1800s, plantation-produced tea from India came onto the British market. Tea retailers blended this more malty and black tea with the lighter Chinese-grown tea to which consumers had become accustomed. By the turn of the 20th century, blending helped Empire-grown tea supplant Chinese-grown tea on the market. Scholars of tea have shown how British tea companies working in South Asia stoked racialized fears that Chinese tea arrived in Britain in an adulterated state, laden with impurities that included dyes, perfumes and even human sweat. This article describes how concerns about protecting tea leaves from outside adulteration gave way to concerns about the potential digestive threat that lay inside tea leaves themselves. Medical journals linked the increased consumption of Indian teas to a population-wide ‘epidemic’ of indigestion. The most cited culprits in this epidemic were tannins, chemical compounds that were also thought to give black tea its characteristic bitterness and color. The normalization of black tea consumption among the British public was not just a work of marketing or branding but a work of resolving uncertainty about what tannins were at a material, biophysical level. As this uncertainty was resolved scientifically, tea was materialized not as a singular, unified product but as an active chemical assemblage.

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Section: Blending Out Differencementioning

confidence: 99%

Empire and indigestion: Materializing tannins in the Indian tea industry

Besky

2020

Soc Stud Sci

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“…Scandals about children falling ill frequently appeared in the news. These concerns reflected inadequate government regulation and the lack of trust in civic life in India (Solomon ).…”

Section: Building a Housementioning

confidence: 99%

Building Beyond the Bypass Road: Urban Migration, Ritual Eating, and the Fate of the Joint Family in Patna, India

Kantor

2018

American Anthropologist

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The anthropology of urban migration in South Asia has emphasized the plight of marginalized people and conflicts over public space. But the precarity of agriculture and inadequacy of basic state services has increasingly compelled rural middle-class families in Bihar, India, to establish a foothold in the country's booming cities. Because they aim to remain located in both the urban and rural spheres, urban migration reconfigures kinship relations so that the joint family household becomes a non-cohabitating entity. Constructing a house in the city depends on rural consumption practices that are distinct from the individual-oriented consumerism of the urban middle class. The gr̥ h praveś, the Hindu house consecration ceremony and feast, legitimizes this transition. The hosts negotiate their hybrid identity as urban migrants through the event's food practices. For instance, adulteration scandals have prompted concerns about provisioning milk in the city. The consumption of milk-based specialty foods during the gr̥ h praveś reflects the family's effort to deploy nourishing, familiar foods that reassert ties to their village community while also signaling aspirations to prosperity and a modern, cosmopolitan identity. Moments of ritual excess extend overflowing hospitality to guests human and divine, providing material proof of the family's unity and ambitions. [urban migration, feasting, house construction, ritual, kinship] RESUMEN La antropología de la migración urbana en Asia meridional ha enfatizado la situación difícil de las personas marginadas y los conflictos sobre el espacio público. Pero la precariedad de la agricultura y lo inadecuado de los servicios estatales básicos han forzado crecientemente a las familias de clase media en Bihar, India, a establecer un punto de apoyo en las ciudades en auge del país. Debido a que tienen como objetivo permanecer ubicados tanto en la esfera urbana como rural, la migración urbana reconfigura las relaciones de parentesco de manera que el hogar familiar conjunto llega a ser una entidad no cohabitante. Construir una casa en la ciudad necesita prácticas de consumo determinadas por los hábitos rurales y son distintos del consumismo orientado al individuo de la clase media urbana. El gr̥ h praveś, la celebración y ceremonia de consagración de la casa hindú, legitima esta transición. Los anfitriones negocian su identidad híbrida como migrantes urbanos a través de las prácticas alimentarias del evento. Por ejemplo, los escándalos de adulteración han suscitado preocupaciones sobre el aprovisionamiento de leche en la ciudad. El consumo de alimentos de especialidad basados en leche durante el gr̥ h praveś refleja el esfuerzo de la familia para utilizar, alimentos familiares, nutritivos que reafirman lazos a su comunidad del poblado mientras también indicando aspiraciones a la prosperidad e identidad moderna, cosmopolita.Momentos de exceso ritual extienden la hospitalidad desbordante a los invitados humanos y divinos, proveyendo

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“…I argue, however, that orientation is not an admission of incapacity. It is an active engagement between bureaucrat and citizen (see Solomon ; Street ). In Spanish, as in English, “to orient” ( orientar ) means to get a sense of where one is and where one is headed.…”

Section: Orientation Dignity and Craftmentioning

confidence: 99%

Orientation and Crafted Bureaucracy: Finding Dignity in Nicaraguan Food Safety

Nading

2017

American Anthropologist

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This article explores how food-safety inspectors (hygienistas) in Nicaragua monitor and certify foodservice workers and facilities. While inspectors are well versed in sanitary law, they describe their job not as law enforcement but as "orientation." Orientation integrates state regulation with interpersonal exchanges of gifts and jokes, which reinforce unwritten social norms. Such interpersonal exchanges are not simply signs of corruption or governmental incapacity. Rather, orientation is a form of "crafted bureaucracy": a pragmatic effort to ensure both the quality of food and the quality of governmental encounters. Orientation allows inspectors and food producers to reconcile memories of Nicaragua's revolutionary past with anxieties about the country's more recent integration into a global food economy. While effective surveillance is at stake in orientation, dignity is also at stake. When orientation is successful, the dignity of both bureaucrats and food workers is temporarily affirmed. When orientation fails, their dignity is at risk. [public health, hygiene, medical anthropology, infrastructure, Latin America] RESUMEN Este artículo explora cómo los inspectores de la seguridad de alimentos (higienistas) en Nicaragua monitorean y certifican a los trabajadores y las instalaciones de los servicios de alimentos. Mientras los inspectores son bien versados en las leyes sanitarias, describen su trabajo no cómo de hacer cumplir la ley sino como de "orientación". La orientación integra la regulación del estado con intercambios interpersonales de regalos y chistes, lo cual refuerza normas sociales no escritas. Tales intercambios interpersonales no son simplemente signos de corrupción o incapacidad gubernamental. Más bien, la orientación es una forma de "burocracia elaborada": un esfuerzo pragmático para asegurar tanto la calidad de los alimentos como la calidad de los encuentros gubernamentales.La orientación le permite a los inspectores de los productores de alimentos conciliar las memorias del pasado revolucionario de Nicaragua con las ansiedades acerca de la más reciente integración del país en la economía global de alimentos. Mientras la vigilancia efectiva está en juego en la orientación, la dignidad también está en juego.Cuando la orientación es exitosa, la dignidad tanto de burócratas como de trabajadores de alimentos es ratificada temporalmente. Cuando la orientación falla, su dignidad está en riesgo. [salud pública, higiene, antropología médica, infraestructura, América Latina]

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Unreliable eating: Patterns of food adulteration in urban India

Cited by 27 publications

References 50 publications

Empire and indigestion: Materializing tannins in the Indian tea industry

Empire and indigestion: Materializing tannins in the Indian tea industry

Building Beyond the Bypass Road: Urban Migration, Ritual Eating, and the Fate of the Joint Family in Patna, India

Orientation and Crafted Bureaucracy: Finding Dignity in Nicaraguan Food Safety

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