Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Commod Bods: Embodied Heritage, Foodways, and Indigeneity

Commod Bods: Embodied Heritage, Foodways, and Indigeneity

Jernigan, Kasey

Paperback

Diet & NutritionAnthropologyIndigenous Studies

ISBN10: 0816556210
ISBN13: 9780816556212
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Published: Feb 17 2026
Pages: 274
Weight: 0.85
Height: 0.80 Width: 6.10 Depth: 9.10
Language: English
How food programs reshape health and identity

The term commod bod is used with humor and affection. It also offers a critical way to describe bodies shaped by long-term reliance on U.S. federal commodity food programs.

In Commod Bods, Kasey Jernigan shares her ongoing collaborative research with Choctaw women and describes the ways that shifting patterns of participation in food and nutrition assistance programs (commodity foods) have shaped foodways; how these foodways are linked to bodies and health, particularly obesity and related conditions; and how foodways and bodies are intertwined with settler colonialism and experiences of structural violence, identity making, and heritage in the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

Organized thematically, the book moves from a critical history of obesity and health in Indian Country to narratives of Choctaw women navigating food, memory, and belonging. Chapters such as Food and Fellowship and Heritage, Embodied center personal stories that show how food is not only sustenance but also a site of connection, resistance, and meaning making.

Food is critical to cultural survival and affirmation. For Choctaw people, the intentional demise of traditional foodways and dependence on federal food programs are specific experiences that inform part of what it means to be Choctaw today.

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