Food Cults
Call for Chapter Proposals
Editor: Kima Cargill, University of Washington
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield/Food & Gastronomy Series
Series Editor: Ken Albala
Chapter Proposal Submission Deadline: April 1, 2015
Book Overview:
Food Cults is an interdisciplinary edited volume which will explore questions of domestic and international, contemporary and historic food communities characterized by extreme nutritional beliefs, often viewed as “fringe” movements by mainstream culture. While there are a variety of scholarly accounts of such food communities across disciplines, there is no single collection that pulls together these works, nor that anchors such communities in a theory of why we gravitate toward such groups and the social, economic, nutritional and psychological functions they serve. Studying the extreme beliefs and practices of such food cults allows us to see the ways in which food serves as a nexus for religious beliefs, sexuality, death anxiety, preoccupation with the body, asceticism, and hedonism, to name a few. Moreover, in contrast to religious and political cults, food cults have the added dimension of mediating cultural trends in nutrition and diet through their membership.
I suggest the term ‘cult’ as a dynamic one, and not necessarily a derogatory one. I invite contributors to define culthood for themselves, perhaps ultimately rejecting it for the group they study. Moreover, some contributors might argue that some of the dominant culture’s beliefs and practices surrounding food should be consigned to culthood, such as the cult of sugar, the cult of meat, or the cult of junk food. While certainly many contributors will address cultural trends and fads, food cults differ from food fads in that membership in a food cult becomes a central organizer of one’s identity and revolves around a group dogma or ideology. Cults of any kind function much like religion, often providing a conversion experience, a charismatic leader, collective identity, and a community of “worship” (either in person or increasingly online). Like religion, cults provide a way to find meaning in confusing situations, like eating.
Pending submissions, the volume will likely be organized into two sections. Section I (Theories and History of Food Cults) will include general survey chapters from multiple disciplines, such as anthropology, nutrition, theology, sociology, economics, and history. Chapters in Section II (Historic and Contemporary Food Cults) will have more narrow foci, examining specific groups and practices. These chapters might address topics such as:
- Raw food diets
- Psychoactive foods
- Biblical diets (and/or other historical replication diets):
- Disgust (culturally inappropriate food practices)
- Supplements
- Exotic game/endangered species
- Poisonous/toxic food ingestion
- Pet foods and pet diets
- Muscle building/masculinity
- Asceticism
- Tapeworm/parasite diets
Submission Guidelines:
Length of each complete chapter manuscript: Each complete chapter manuscript must be between 4,000 and (no more than) 5,000 words, inclusive of the main text and references.
All submissions should include two documents: a Chapter Proposal and a separate CV of no more than three pages. The Chapter Proposal must contain (a) a working title of the proposed chapter, and (b) an 800 to 1,000-word exposition consisting of a clear description of the proposed chapter, including an annotated outline of the proposed chapter. Also include with your submission a separate CV of no more than three pages.
Submission format: All submissions must be written in English and prepared in accordance with Chicago Style. Please submit your documents in the MS Word file format as an attached document.
Please send your Chapter Proposal and CV in the same email on or before April 1, 2015 to Kima Cargill (kcargill@uw.edu)
Notification of acceptance status of chapter proposals: April 15, 2015
Submission deadline of complete chapters: on or before October 1, 2015
FoodAnthropology 