Posthumanism Invited to Dinner: Exploring the Potential of a More-Than-Human Perspective in Food Studies

[from para.1]: "A PLATE OF FOOD AWAITS. A chicken thigh seasoned with the lemony accents of sumac. On the side, rice cooked with small brown lentils topped with onions, fried until brown and crispy. Leafy greens, steamed, salted, dressed with olive oil. What is happening here? Well, dinner awaits the diner, a hungry human wishing to nourish the body and satisfy the taste buds. Food will be tasted, digested, and transformed by bodily functions into nutrients and waste. Or maybe not. What happens at the dinner table if we take a posthumanist perspective and consider the agency of the nonhuman? Posthumanism is the term I use to group the theories and approaches that seek to remove humans from a self-appointed role as supreme actor on planet earth and recognize meaning and agency in other life forms—and even phenomena and matter. Posthumanism levels the playing field—flattens the ontology—and provides a framework for a radically different world of networks, assemblages, companionship, relating and interrelating."