Do Nations Have Stomachs? Food, Drink and Imagined Community in Africa
@article{Nugent2010DoNH, title={Do Nations Have Stomachs? Food, Drink and Imagined Community in Africa}, author={Paul Nugent}, journal={Africa Spectrum}, year={2010}, volume={45}, pages={113 - 87} }
This paper takes a rhetorical question posed by Ernest Gellner and reframes it to ask whether a sense of national identity can be forged through everyday acts of consumption – in particular, that of food and drink. The article finds value in Benedict Anderson's conception of the nation as an imagined community, but argues that it makes little sense to privilege the printed word over other forms of consumption. The article goes on to suggest that there have been significant convergences at the…
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