Rice and Beans

A Unique Dish in a Hundred Places

Richard Wilk, Livia Barbosa, Richard Wilk, Livia Barbosa

• Publisher: Berg Publishers
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9781847889041
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781847889058
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Agricultural Public Policy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Rice and Beans is a book about the paradox of local and global. On the one hand, this is a globe-spanning dish, a simple source of complete nutrition for billions of people in hundreds of countries. On the other hand, in every place people insist that rice and beans is a local invention, deeply rooted in a particular history and culture. How can something so universal also be so particular?

The authors of this book explore the specific history of the versions of rice and beans beloved and indigenous in cultures from Brazil to West Africa. But they also plumb the shared African, Native American and European trans-Atlantic encounters and exchanges, and the contemporary forces of globalization and nation-building, which combine to make rice and beans a powerful substance and symbol of the relationship between food and culture.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• 1 A Unique Dish in a Hundred Places
• 2 The Transnational Dish of the Motherland: The African Roots of Rice and Beans
• 3 The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: Rice and Beans in Modern Cuba
• 4 Jamaica Coat of Arms: Rice and Peas
• 5 Beans, Peas, and Rice in the Eastern Caribbean
• 6 Rice and Beans, Beans and Rice: The Perfect Couple
• 7 Beyond Rice Neutrality: Beans as Patria,Locus , and Domus in the Brazilian Culinary System
• 8 Cookup Rice: Guyana’s Culinary Dougla and the Performance of Guyanese Identities
• 9 All in One Pot: The Place of Rice and Beans in Panama’s Regional and National Cuisine
• 10 Defending National Foodways: Laying Claim to Tradition in Costa Rica
• 11 Nationalizing the Ordinary Dish: Rice and Beans in Belize
• 12 Rice and Beans, a Staple on Even the Most Respectable Mexican Tables
• 13 Red Beans and Rebuilding: An Iconic Dish, Memory, and Culture in New Orleans
• 14 Conclusions
• List of Illustrations
• Notes on Contributors
• eCopyright