Eating Grasshoppers Chapulines and the Women Who Sell Them

"Informative, engaging, and just a fun read, Jeffrey Cohen's book shows that "eating grasshoppers" is not just a matter of history but also an essential food practice today and in the future. This book is, as Cohen describes chapulines themselves, a "delicious, welcome, and beloved treat." - Simon Majumdar, Author of Eat My Globe: One Year in Search of the Most Delicious Food in the World

"This volume explores the different cultural understandings of entomophagy, especially the harvesting, cooking, and consumption of grasshoppers in Oaxaca, Mexico, and beyond. The author's explanations are based on decades of anthropological fieldwork in the region. He shows how global-local, ethnic, and gendered working practices around grasshoppers have changed though time. Cohen problematizes the exoticization of everyday economic and culturally informed practices, and challenges approaches that take Indigenous entomophagy as a passive response to their economic circumstances. Clearly written, this book will be of interest to students and scholars interested in unconventional food practices and the food culture of Oaxaca." - Steffan Igor Ayora-Diaz, Autonomous University of Yucatán, editor of The Cultural Politics of Food, Taste, and Identity: A Global Perspective