{"id":77452,"date":"2026-03-31T06:52:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T13:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=77452"},"modified":"2026-03-31T06:52:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T13:52:19","slug":"tasting-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/tasting-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Tasting history"},"content":{"rendered":"

Food\u00a0is more than just\u00a0sustenance;\u00a0it\u00a0is a reflection of\u00a0who we are, where we come\u00a0from\u00a0and how we connect to one another.\u00a0As the saying goes,\u00a0<\/span>we are what we eat<\/span>\u2014and what we eat reveals our shared histories,\u00a0beliefs\u00a0and identities.\u00a0Throughout history, the ways people have grown, prepared,\u00a0stored\u00a0and shared food have been deeply intertwined with their cultures,\u00a0social\u00a0structures\u00a0and historical changes.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A class at Northern Arizona University\u00a0explores the rich relationship between culture and food across time and geography, examining how factors\u00a0such as history, politics,\u00a0war\u00a0and religion\u00a0have shaped culinary traditions and eating habits.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

HA276-Cuisine and Culture<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is taught by\u00a0<\/span>Kathleen King<\/span><\/b>, assistant teaching professor at the School of Hotel and Restaurant Management\u00a0(HRM). She said the class started as\u00a0an\u00a0HRM\u00a0elective, but it is now moving to a general studies class.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe class is for anyone who\u00a0likes history\u00a0or\u00a0food or is interested in different cultures\u2014not only the interpersonal relationships of cultures, but what food means to them,\u201d King said.\u00a0\u201c<\/span>We start with\u00a0prehistoric\u00a0people\u00a0and go all the way up to modern times. We talk about how people got their food, how they hunted and when they started growing things,\u00a0<\/span>or\u00a0<\/span>if they were nomadic<\/span>\u00a0or<\/span>\u00a0sedentary.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The class explores how ancient\u00a0peoples\u00a0cooked\u00a0and stored\u00a0their food. It\u00a0goes over\u00a0dining practices from Mesopotamia\u00a0(5000 BCE)\u00a0to modern times,\u00a0studying\u00a0what dining looked like in\u00a0different cultures\u00a0and time periods.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Students take\u00a0quizzes throughout the semester and end the class with a\u00a0group project\u00a0chosen from among\u00a010\u00a0topics.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne example of a topic would be\u00a0to\u00a0talk about how in medieval times, during the feudal era in Europe, the place someone sat at a table was based on their social status and how even the color\u00a0of the\u00a0bread you got was based on\u00a0that\u00a0status.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Other\u00a0examples\u00a0include choosing\u00a0two Food Network stars\u00a0and\u00a0talking\u00a0about their journeys\u00a0and\u00a0backgrounds, the theory of the Four Humors<\/span>\u00a0or\u00a0a grandma-made tradition\u2014<\/span>a topic\u00a0<\/span>to which\u00a0<\/span>many can relate.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA\u00a0lot of people don’t realize that they have that thing in their family that’s\u00a0food-related,\u00a0which is\u00a0part of who they are\u00a0and\u00a0who their family is,\u201d King said. \u201cIt could be something cooked all year long\u00a0or during a particular time of the year.\u00a0At the end of the course students come to realize that food is powerful, more than just to fuel their bodies.\u00a0It moves cultures around. They learn to relate it to interpersonal relationships, even within their own families.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Culture and Cuisine<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is offered during the\u00a0spring semester. For more information on this\u00a0and other unique classes, visit the\u00a0<\/span>NAU course catalog<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/a>Mariana Laas | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-5050 | mariana.laas@nau.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Food\u00a0is more than just\u00a0sustenance;\u00a0it\u00a0is a reflection of\u00a0who we are, where we come\u00a0from\u00a0and how we connect to one another.\u00a0As the saying goes,\u00a0we are what we eat\u2014and what we eat reveals our shared histories,\u00a0beliefs\u00a0and identities.\u00a0Throughout history, the ways people have grown, prepared,\u00a0stored\u00a0and shared food have been deeply intertwined with their cultures,\u00a0social\u00a0structures\u00a0and historical changes.\u00a0\u00a0 A class at Northern…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":77453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1829],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-academics","category-student-edition"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}