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Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 71-72       ©  American Folklore Society 2020 
	

Review of: 
 
Food and Power: A Culinary Ethnography of Israel 
Nir Avieli. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2018. Pp. 
274, index. 
 
Review by: Judith Lanzendorfer 
____________________________________________________________ 
 

In Food and Power: A Culinary Ethnography of Israel, Nir Avieli underscores 
power relationships related to food in Israel. The current volume spans over twenty 
years of data collection and includes observations of various levels of insider 
intimacy—ranging from the Israeli anthropologist’s ethnographic practices in his 
home country to more personal autobiographical materials. Avieli is transparent 
about how his analysis of collected materials is complicated by his status as an 
“insider” to the culture. At times this status is helpful, because it gives him access to 
communities that otherwise would be inaccessible. As presented especially in 
Chapter 5, “Meat and Masculinity in a Military Prison,” Avieli’s status as a military 
reservist stationed at Mediggo gave him unique access to the prison environment. At 
other times, though, Avieli’s insider status obstructs analysis of his ethnographic 
data, as seen in the tense dynamic Avieli finds between his role as reservist and role 
as PhD candidate. Situations where Avieli acts the most “outsider,” such as in 
Chapter 6, “Thai Migrant Workers and the Dog-Eating Myth,” reveal power 
dynamics more clearly and effectively. 

 
This book importantly underscores the delicate and often difficult balance of writing 
about communities in which one is a member. While focus varies, overall the 
chapters emphasize power dynamics related to food. Some are thematically linked: 
Chapters 1, “Size Matters,” and 3, “Why We Like Italian Food,” both orient around 
the theme of food value for instance. Where Chapter 1 focuses on Israeli desires to 
eat large quantities of inexpensive food in order to get the most value for money, in 
Chapter 3, Avieli complicates his analysis of food value, arguing that eating Italian 
food makes Israelis feel more like members of the Mediterranean community 
(framed as positive), rather than members of the Middle Eastern community 
(framed as negative). Avieli’s community insider status in both chapters helps him to 
highlight a stereotype about Israelis’ relationships to food, and then reveal deeper 
cultural anxieties below its surface. This repetition and complication of theme is 
important for readers to understand, though it would have been more apparent if the 
two chapters appeared in succession, rather than being separated by Chapter 2, on 
“Roasting Meat.” 
 
“Roasting Meat” concerns Israeli Independence Day barbeque parties and power 
dynamics associated with “saving one’s space” in public parks. It also makes a 
connection between meat and masculinity. Because women and children typically eat 
cheaper meats compared to men, who enjoy more expensive ones, Avieli infers a 
subtle privileging of masculinity in Israeli society.  
 



72     Lanzendorfer, Review, Food and Power  Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture 7:1 (2018-2019)	
	

	

The author revisits the connection of food to masculinity in Chapter 5, “Meat and 
Masculinity in a Military Prison.” Here power reversals among Palestinian prisoners, 
military police, and reserve soldiers at a military prison are exemplified through the 
quality and quantity of meat eaten at meals. This chapter most clearly highlights the 
delicate balance of status that a researcher needs to navigate, especially when one is 
both an insider (a reservist) and outsider (non-Muslim and non-prisoner) to the 
community which is the subject of study. Chapter 5 is particularly useful for 
researchers as an illustration of how difficulties can arise in ethnographic work when 
the ethnographer is personally invested in the community that is the subject of 
study.  
    
The final two communities discussed in Avieli’s book emphasize the importance of 
hierarchy in Israeli society. Chapter 4, “McDonaldization of the Kibbutz Dining 
Room,” concentrates on dining room power relationships, including where one eats 
and with whom. Chapter 6, “Thai Migrant Workers and the Dog-Eating Myth,” 
focuses on the erroneous belief that Thai migrant workers eat dogs, a belief that 
supports the stereotype of Thai workers as “uncivilized.” This stereotype justifies 
putting the Thai immigrant population on the lowest rung of the social order, a 
common practice in Israel with each new immigrant group. Avieli’s juxtaposition of 
Chapters 4 and 6 provides an interesting contrast in approaches and analyses 
between the purely insider perspective he represents as a former member of one of 
the kibbutz under study and the purely outsider perspective he brings to researching 
new Thai immigrants. 
 
Although there are inconsistencies in the quality of analysis Avieli could achieve 
because of essential differences in practicing ethnography as an insider or outsider, 
overall Food and Power: A Culinary Ethnography of Israel is well researched and 
argued. It is useful for folklorists interested in analyzing how specific foods can 
highlight issues of identity and power in society, and especially useful for students as 
a well-researched source of further readings. Most importantly, the book affirms the 
delicate balance that researchers must maintain to negotiate insider/outsider status 
when writing about communities where they are members: where insider status can 
give access yet hinder analysis. Avieli’s book reveals not only power dynamics 
associated with what we eat, but also how we, as a community member or as an 
outsider researcher within it, use food to establish our “place” in society. 
 


