In this Book
University of California Press
- The Life of Cheese: Crafting Food and Value in America
- Book
- 2012
- Published by: University of California Press
- Series: California Studies in Food and Culture
summary
Cheese is alive, and alive with meaning. Heather Paxson’s beautifully written anthropological study of American artisanal cheesemaking tells the story of how craftwork has become a new source of cultural and economic value for producers as well as consumers. Dairy farmers and artisans inhabit a world in which their colleagues and collaborators are a wild cast of characters, including plants, animals, microorganisms, family members, employees, and customers. As "unfinished" commodities, living products whose qualities are not fully settled, handmade cheeses embody a mix of new and old ideas about taste and value. By exploring the life of cheese, Paxson helps rethink the politics of food, land, and labor today.
Table of Contents
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- Title Page, Copyright
- pp. 3-7
- List of Illustrations
- pp. vii-viii
- Acknowledgments
- pp. xi-xiv
- 1. American Artisanal
- pp. 1-29
- 2. Ecologies of Production
- pp. 30-62
- 3. Economies of Sentiment
- pp. 63-94
- 4. Traditions of Invention
- pp. 95-127
- 5. The Art and Science of Craft
- pp. 128-157
- 6. Microbiopolitics
- pp. 158-186
- 7. Place, Taste, and the Promise of Terroir
- pp. 187-212
- 8. Bellwether
- pp. 213-218
- Bibliography
- pp. 261-284
- Further Reading
- pp. 321-322
Additional Information
ISBN
9780520954021
Related ISBN(s)
9780520270176
MARC Record
OCLC
816818671
Pages
332
Launched on MUSE
2014-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No