ABOUT THIS BOOK

An approachable ethnography of how grasshoppers are harvested, sold, and consumed in Oaxaca.

Chapulines (toasted grasshoppers) are not a delicacy in Oaxaca. They are just food—good food—and a protein-rich seasonal snack that is the product of a long-standing industry based overwhelmingly on the labor of women. Jeffrey Cohen has interviewed dozens of these chapulineras, who harvest insects from corn and alfalfa fields, prepare them, and sell them in urban and rural marketplaces. An accessible ethnography, Eating Grasshoppers tells their story alongside the broader history of chapulines.

For tourists, chapulines are an experience—a gateway to the “real” Oaxaca. For locals, they are ordinary fare, but also a reminder of Indigenous stability and rural survival. In a sense, eating chapulines is a declaration of independence from a government that has condemned eating insects as backward. Yet, while chapulines are a generations-old favorite, eating them is not an act of preservation. Cohen shows that the business of this traditional food is thoroughly modern and ever evolving, with entrepreneurial chapulineras responding nimbly to complex and dynamic markets. From alfalfa fields to online markets, Eating Grasshoppers takes readers inside one of the world’s most fascinating food cultures.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Jeffrey H. Cohen is a professor in the department of anthropology at Ohio State University and the author or coeditor of several books, including Eating Soup without a Spoon: Anthropological Theory and Method in the Real World.

REVIEWS

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

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction. Chapulines, Food, Thought, and Economy
Part I. Approaching Chapulines
- Chapter 1. Chapulineras: The Women Who Sell Grasshoppers
- Chapter 2. The Harvest and Production
Part II. Eating and Thinking Chapulines
- Chapter 3. Chapulines on the Table
- Chapter 4. The Chapulines Experience
Part III. Marketing Chapulines
- Chapter 5. How to Sell Chapulines in Oaxaca
- Chapter 6. Building a Touchless Economy
Conclusions. Why Chapulines?
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index