%0 Journal Article
%T Cooking in theory: Risky events in the structure of the conjuncture
%A David Sutton
%J Anthropological Theory
%@ 1741-2641
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/1463499617724319
%X What could the practice of everyday cooking contribute to anthropological theory? I consider this question in developing my own approach to cooking, drawing from a modified version of Marshall Sahlins¡¯ theory of historical practice. Thinking through key concepts from Sahlins, including ¡®the structure of the conjuncture¡¯ and ¡®the risk of categories in practice,¡¯ I suggest some of the ways this might be applied to the practice of cooking, and I argue that, indeed, such an approach ¨C one that recognizes the role of recipes as well as of improvisation ¨C fills a gap left in understandings of cooking based on strictly phenomenological approaches such as that of Tim Ingold. I argue that a modified Sahlinsian approach can help us understand the daily reproduction and change that happens each time a recognizable dish is cooked. I then suggest some of the ways that my own research on Greek cooking lends itself to thinking about risky practices. Finally, I suggest that doing ethnography informed by this approach will not only illuminate our kitchen lives but will provide a valuable model for ethnographic studies of the historical processes involved in changes in daily life more broadly
%K cooking
%K everyday life
%K Greece
%K historical process
%K risk
%K Marshall Sahlins
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1463499617724319