<--------This is me. All the ramblings on this blog are mine. My name is Melissa. Melissa Beresford if we are being formal. Sometimes I wish that I had a more exciting name, but I don't. Melissa is a good name though. People say that it fits me. That's good to know. So yes, this is me. However, I decided last week that I needed a new hair style, so I got crazy....and cut bangs. But I still look like that picture there, for the most part.
About me... Well...I am pretty much infatuated with food. Eating it, yes. But I am also fascinated with all the aspects of food that people don't really stop to think about. I'll get to this point more in a bit.
I was born, raised, and lived the first twenty-some years of my life in California. I’ve been lucky enough to spend a good deal of time in South Africa, where the majority of my family live, and I also am a big fan of England, where I have more family. But I love, love, love Chicago. That is where I live now. I left the Pacific coast for the Windy City in 2007 to pursue graduate school in anthropology at the University of Chicago--anthropology of food and cuisine to be specific.
I actually have my bachelor's degree in urban studies and planning, with a focus on environmental studies and sustainable development. But I got on this whole food kick by proxy of studying food and agriculture as an environmental issue (which is still something very close to my heart). I became absolutely fascinated by the culture and human interaction around food and eating.
I remember the moment I decided that what I do with my life must revolve around food. I just finished talking to a professor at UCSD who studies Thai culture through Thai music. I came home, and I made myself a bowl of oatmeal. I really like oatmeal. I was sitting at my kitchen table, eating my bowl of oatmeal, and I thought to myself, “Huh, studying people through the music they listen to. That is cool. Gosh, I really like oatmeal. Hmmm, I wonder what that says about me. Huh, I wonder if I can study people through the food they eat. I will Google this.”
And I did. And I discovered the field of anthropology. (OK, well I did actually know about the field of anthropology before this epiphany, but I did not know about all this cool research happening on the anthropology of food and cuisine.)
I started to read some of these articles and books that anthropologists were writing about food. I looked in the bibliographies, and I started to read the books that they referenced. As I read more and more, I just had more questions.
I found myself asking really obvious questions that did not seem to have obvious answers. Questions like, why do we eat certain foods with pleasure yet other foods disgust us? Why are Americans obsessed with vitamins and minerals? How do we choose what to have for dinner and who to dine with? Why do people choose to become vegetarians, vegans, locavores, or flexetarians? Why do Americans spend so much money on certain food products like fancy vinegars, olive oils, truffles, and chocolate, but balk at the price of milk and eggs? Why are farmers markets, local eating, organic produce, and artisan products being so trendy in certain segments of American society? Why are the poorest people in our country more likely to be overweight? Is what we eat purely an individual decision, or is that decision shaped for us by our government, society, community, and or family? How do we define what we eat? Does what we eat define us? Why are so many professional chefs male, yet we consider cooking a domestic chore for the female? And why do so many chefs listen to punk rock?
I could keep going on with more questions, but I will stop.
You see, I had so many questions. I still have so many questions! That is why I set out to do a PhD in anthropology. I wanted to spend my life trying to figure out the relationship between humans and food.
This plan has since changed. I decided to walk away from academia after earning my masters degree in August 2008. I have various reasons for leaving academia, but the main reason is that I want to write for a non-expert audience--people who don’t think about what they eat; or, perhaps, for people who do think about what they eat, but want to know more. So that is what I am doing with this blog. But I don’t really write about recipes. Someone else described my blog as, “an interdisciplinary mix of anthropology, food, and everyday life,” and that is pretty much the best way to describe what I want to write—because that is also pretty much the best way to describe me.
So about this blog…
When I started this blog, I still thought I wanted to be a college professor. I started this blog as a place where I could hash out the theories that I was grappling with in graduate school. I called it Mundane Ethnography for two reasons. First, because I find the most boring everyday aspects of life (like eating) to be the most fascinating. And second, because I what I write about on here cannot be likened at all to real ethnographic research. My “ethnography” is play play…it is just a critical eye, interrogating thought, and contemplative analysis on the every day life around me. Some days my thoughts are deeper than others.
This blog has shifted and evolved and changed form several times. So have I. This blog is a reflection of me and my thoughts. Sometimes my writing is good. Other times it is not so good. Sometimes it is cerebral. Sometimes it is…well, not all that intelligent.
When I started, I didn't expect that anyone would read what I wrote. However, people somehow stumbled upon it, and left comments, or sent me an email. These little notes and comments have been what keeps me writing. When I hear that people find my thoughts, reflections, research, and writing interesting, my day is made. I've been absolutely delighted to discover that some people may actually find my writing enjoyable and thought provoking.
So, some things and people that you may come across in my writing.
1) Balsamic vinegar: I wrote my master’s thesis on balsamic vinegar. Well, actually my thesis revolved around what I argue is the Marxist fetishization of artisanal food products in present-day America, focusing specifically on balsamic vinegar. I wrote a post about my thesis that you can read here.
2) Ben: He is my ever so lovely, and oh so handsome husband. He studies Soviet film and cinema history. He writes a blog of his own where you can read about his Russian adventures, and he pipes up on here in my comments section from time to time. But yes, when Ben’s name is mentioned, now you know who he is.
2) Music: I love it. I talk about it quite a bit here. I am constantly trying to figure out ways that music and food intertwine, and they do in the most mysterious and wonderful ways. This fascinates me. I am a huge fan of old rock n’ roll, Chicago blues, American folk music, old country music, and bunch of small independent artists. I wish that I could play an instrument, or that I could sing, but I don’t, and I can’t.
3) The little brother: His name is Graeme. He is younger than me, but much much bigger. Almost six foot nine to be precise. He studies music, musical composition and orchestration, to be precise. He is working on his bachelor’s degree at the moment from Berkeley, and hopes to be a composer one day. He tends to be rather un-adventurous with his eating. I am working on him.
I think those are all the introductions I need to do for now. I love getting emails. I love getting real mail too, but I am not going to post my address on here, and sending an open invite for random people on the internet to send me things in the mail does not seem like such a good idea. But I do love getting emails. So please do email me if you have questions or comments about my blog. My email address is MHB483 at gmail.com
I guess I will finish by saying that my goal here is not to tell people how to eat, or what food they should or shouldn't consume. I try not to get preachy or overly opinionated, although I have no doubt that my opinions do come through, and sometimes are bluntly stated. Rather, I hope to get people thinking about food in a different way--to think outside the box, beyond just what is for dinner. I want people to see how food links us to thousands of other people, animals, and places, all over the world. And I hope that by seeing these links, and in thinking about food a little differently, people may see how food connects to almost every aspect of life. Through food, we have the means to make ourselves better people, and the world a better place.
