terça-feira, 26 de março de 2013

The International Commission on the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition (ICAF)

The general aims of the International Commission on the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition (ICAF)are to promote and coordinate collaboration and research in biological and social anthropology in regard to the sciences of food and nutrition, fostering in particular a pluridisciplinary approach.
ICAF is a commission of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES)
Honorary Members:
Mary Douglas - Igor de Garine - Annie Hubert
further information will be available soon 
What's new (March 2013) see on: http://www.icafood.eu/


 Title: What is ICAF ?

The Aims of ICAF

The aims of the Commission are :
To assist world anthropologists in their basic and applied research on food.
To encourage indigenous expertise on food problems in developing countries.
To promote the collaboration of anthropologists with institutions and individual experts from related fields of study.
To stimulate education and training in the anthropology of food.

Anthropologists, with their traditional interest in the place of food in social life, are giving renewed attention to food in international development. The Commission was set up to coordinate their work on food studies, world hunger, and malnutrition.

Biological and social anthropologists are interested in the way food supplies may be affected by changes in energy systems, market structure, public policies, family composition, and women's roles, as well as by technological change.

The mandate of the commission calls for basic and applied research on food production, storage, exchange, feeding, and food symbolism in the light of major structural changes. This includes nutritional studies of vulnerable segments of the population : mothers and young children, the industrial poor, and the rural poor.

One special focus is the changing ethic regarding food in international development. Consequently, it involves experts, and development specialists. Above all, it is a central concern of ICAF to make anthropologists' work on food available to policy and planning agencies, both governmental and international, and to exchange information with them on a continuing basis.
Organisation

The Commission is international. The President is Helen Macbeth and the General Secretary is Frederic Duhart . The international Treasurer is Paul Collinson The organisational structure is developing. The general plan is one of regional sections, within which there are national committees or representatives.

Some national committees or representatives do not find themselves logically within one of the existing regional sections. In such cases the national committee is described as “in contact with”, rather than “within”, a regional section of its choice. The situation with regard to national committees and regional sections is always developing. The current position can be checked within this WebSite and we welcome updated information.
An annual report is written by the Commissioner to the Secretary-General of IUAES. For this report each national committee or representative should provide annual information to the Chair of its regional section. The Chair of that regional section, on request from the Commissioner, then gives a regional report to the Commissioner.
ICAF(Europe) has worked with this system longest and its structure of national committees is most advanced and still developing. This has meant a productive series of conferences each organised by a different national committee or representative. From these conferences several books (see ICAF Publications) have been published, and the series is continuing.
ICAF Europe organisational structure:
ICAF for Australasia and the Pacific was convened in May 1980 at the annual meeting of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS). Some Links have been maintained in regard to the anthropology of food, but a structure like that of ICAF(Europe) is now envisaged.
ICAF (Latin America) has some very active members among whom a more formal structure will now be considered. We await further information.
The situation in North America needs to be clarified as there exist other very active associations with whom individuals have useful contact.
Some other larger or smaller regional sections have been discussed and further groupings are encouraged and anticipated. To discuss such possibilities or initiate a new grouping contact should be made to the General Secretary, Annie Hubert. To initiate a new national committee send an email either to the appropriate regional Chair or to the General Secretary.
However, all these structures are structures that must be based on paid-up membership. National committees are responsible for collecting membership fees. To become a member of ICAF, please contact your national committee or representative or the Chair of the regional section or the General Secretary, Frederic Duhart. Membership years shall begin on lst July. ICAF will pay for group membership of IUAES.

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