Predictable Pleasures

“Wynne uses food as a vehicle to analyze the history of rural Yucatán, in Mexico, while also examining food’s relationship to ‘the realms of the body, the social, and the cosmological.’ Through a Yucatec Maya concept of care, she explores the changing nature of human relationships with food, explaining this concept as a set of practices that aim to produce balance as a ‘desirable state of bodily, social, and cosmic well-being.’”—C. A. Hernandez, Choice

"Predictable Pleasures is a particularly welcomed addition to the literature on contemporary Yucatec Maya. The book will be of special interest to experts in the fields of anthropology, cultural sociology, history, critical globalization, Indigenous, gender, and food studies. It is also a much-appreciated contribution for those working on tourism, globalization and development studies in the Global South from geographical and interdisciplinary perspectives."—Matilde Córdoba Azcárate, Latin Americanist

“By examining rural Maya foodways, Wynne illuminates the tradeoffs between ‘predictable pleasures’ and culinary innovation. This will be essential reading for all who worry about the industrial diet and long for more authentic foods.”—Jeffrey M. Pilcher, author of Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food

“This work is an important contribution to the field of Maya studies for its focus on changing food habits due to cultural shifts in the Yucatán Peninsula. . . . Modern economic, political, and social catalysts are significantly altering native beliefs, habits, and behaviors, and this study highlights the resulting effects on food and its connection to social relationships.”—Michael T. Searcy, author of The Life-Giving Stone: Ethnoarchaeology of Maya Metates