School of Social and Political Science

Background

Based on 14 months of ethnographic fieldwork, my doctoral project explores the artisanal/ancestral mezcal industry in Oaxaca, Mexico, shedding light on the imbalanced relationships between indigenous (primarily Zapotec) producers, foreign brand owners, and elite food and drink markets.

Noting that mezcal is a substance through which people seek to enact ethics, the research takes in fiesta, hospitality, ritual and material culture; value, kin-based and embodied knowledge; environmental sustainability; and the limits of ethical giving and consumption under capitalism.

I identify broadly as an economic anthropologist, with a particular interest in how capitalism intersects with kinship, (re)production, class, and environment.

This research is funded by the Alice Brown scholarship and supervised by Professor Magnus Course and Dr Aaron Kappeler

Working title of the thesis:
Faith in Agave: Cultivating Abundance and Refusing Crisis in Oaxaca’s Globalising Mezcal Industry