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This book challenges the Western contemporary “praise for Nature”. From food to body practices, from ecological discourses to the Covid-19 pandemic, contemporary imaginaries abound with representations of an ideal “pure Nature”, essentially defined according to a logic of denial of any artificial, modified, manipulated — in short, cultural — aspect. How should we contextualise and understand such an opposition, especially in light of the rich semantic scope of the term “nature” and its variability over time? And how can we — if we actually can — envisage alternative models and approaches capable of better accounting for such richness and variability? The author addresses these fundamental issues, combining an initial theoretical problematisation of the concept of nature and its evolution — from classical philosophy to the crucial changes occurred through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, Romanticism and the modern era, finally considering recent insights in philosophy, sociology, cultural anthropology and semiotics — with the analysis of its discursivisation — from the iconography of Mother Nature between the past and the present to the representation of catastrophic events in fictional and non-fictional texts, from clean eating and other popular food trends to the ambivalence of the naked body between its supposed natural ascription and its multiple cultural characterisations. Thus she introduces a critique of pure Nature, providing a systematic study of the way nature is attributed meaning and value in some of today’s most relevant discourses and practices, and finally tracing a possible path towards an “internatural turn”. .

Philosophy of nature. --- Communication. --- Environment. --- Philosophy of Nature. --- Media and Communication. --- Environmental Sciences.

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This volume offers new insights into food and culture. Food habits, preferences, and taboos are partially regulated by ecological and material factors - in other words, all food systems are structured and given particular functioning mechanisms by specific societies and cultures, either according to totemic, sacrificial, hygienic-rationalist, aesthetic, or other symbolic logics. This provides much “food for thought”. The famous expression has never been so appropriate: not only do cultures develop unique practices for the production, treatment and consumption of food, but such practices inevitably end up affecting food-related aspects and spheres that are generally perceived as objectively and materially defined. This book explores such dynamics drawing on various theoretical approaches and analytical methodologies, thus enhancing the cultural reflection on food and, at the same time, helping us see how the study of food itself can help us understand better what we call “culture”. It will be of interest to anthropologists, philosophers, semioticians and historians of food.

Food habits. --- Food --- Social aspects. --- Eating --- Food customs --- Foodways --- Human beings --- Habit --- Manners and customs --- Diet --- Nutrition --- Oral habits --- Food habits --- Social sciences --- Sociology. --- Nutrition. --- Food. --- Food science. --- Social Philosophy. --- Sociology of Food and Nutrition. --- Food Studies. --- Philosophy. --- Food technology --- Chemical engineering --- Foods --- Primitive societies --- Dinners and dining --- Home economics --- Table --- Cooking --- Dietaries --- Gastronomy --- Alimentation --- Health --- Physiology --- Dietetics --- Digestion --- Malnutrition --- Social theory --- Social philosophy --- Health aspects

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Elemento imprescindibile della vita quotidiana, il cibo ha acquisito negli ultimi decenni una visibilità sempre maggiore nell’ambito della scena pubblica e mediatica. Ciò ha favorito lo sviluppo e il radicamento dei cosiddetti food studies, dediti all’analisi critica dei fenomeni alimentari non tanto dal punto di vista materiale comune alle più tradizionali scienze della nutrizione, quanto a livello delle pratiche sociali e culturali entro cui il cibo è inserito e investito di molteplici valori. Sebbene più tardi rispetto ad altre discipline, anche la riflessione semiotica si è fatta strada in tale dibattito: sostanze, discorsi e pratiche alimentari sono parte di un processo di trasferimento del senso, che molto può dire su chi li produce e consuma, sulle culture cui fanno riferimento, sugli ambienti in cui circolano. Questo libro propone una serie di ricerche che, intrecciando tra loro linguaggi del e sul cibo, indagano i sensi che l’alimentazione assume in diversi contesti, mettendo in evidenza il potenziale dell’approccio semiotico rispetto alla loro analisi e comprensione.

Food --- Food habits --- Semiotics --- Discourse analysis

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