India's first ever food archaeology meet to be held in Mumbai

India's first ever conference on food as culture will be held in Mumbai next month.

Titled "ArchaeoBroma", the two-day conference would look at food vis-a-vis history, archaeology and sociology.

The India Study Centre (INSTUCEN) Trust and the Centre for Extra-Mural Studies (CEMS) of the University of Mumbai is hosting the conference on May 5-6.

"This is the first nationwide conference on the archaeology, anthropology and sociology of food," said Mugdha D Karnik, director, CEMS and managing trustee, INSTUCEN Trust.

"Where art, architecture and literature are easily seen as the expression of a culture and its values, food is rarely seen as such, although it is central to the mundane as well as celebratory lives of people.

"Food carries with it multiple associations of culture including social privilege and deprivation, wealth and poverty, conservatism and liberality," according to a concept note prepared by Dr Kurush Dalal, assistant professor, CEMS and Raamesh Gowri Raghavan, an associate with the INSTUCEN Trust.