Convocation: James Watson

James Watson, professor of anthropology at Harvard University, is an ethnographer who has spent over 30 years working in south China, primarily in villages. His research has focused on Chinese emigrants to London, ancestor worship and popular religion, family life and village organization, food systems, and the emergence of a post-socialist culture in the People's Republic of China. In recent years Professor Watson has worked with graduate students in Harvard’s Department of Anthropology to investigate the impact of transnational food industries and genetically modified food in East Asia, Europe, and Russia. Focusing on changing patterns of food consumption and provisioning in south China and exploring transformations that have occurred in the Chinese family during the past century, Watson's presentation was titled "A Cultural Biography Of Meat (In South China): Globalization, Modernization, and Family Transformations."