来自另一个美国学者的犀利评论
2014-01-23
就在我一口气读完所有（并且还是精读的情形之下），以一个高级吃货要进阶更高级的乐得其所心态跑来豆瓣上点了个五星，并抱以学术热情地将Allen的书推荐给我的一位研究食品营养和饮食行为的美国老师。她因为我的人品分和学品分（当然也因为她博览群书的求知欲，尽管已是80岁以上的高龄），迅速在亚马逊订购了该书的英文版，也就是说，更直接地阅读到Allen教授的著作。
三天以后，这位美国学者给了个出人意料的中评！顿时觉得，作为一枚长期关注人文社科领域的食物文化的吃货，一遇到来自更硬的自然科学或是交叉学科的信息量颇大的著述，的确容易如干涩许久的海绵一样，一股脑照单全收。顿时汗颜，人文领域的食学研究者，在庞大的知识体系面前是如此脆弱呃。看来，越是高举科学大旗和实验精神的书，越是要谨慎对待；或者说，对于知识更新迅猛如狼似虎的时代，和任何心仪的理论和著述，也还是要保持一个审视的距离。
以下，毕恭毕敬地转引那位言辞毫不客气的美国读者的评论，仅供参考。
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Just about finished he Omnivorous Mind. I must advise I hated the first chapter, loved the second one, and was neutral about most of the others. The author (Allen) is impressed with himself and his knowledge, which is not always correct. One example, he says "leaving the table 80% full" is a Japanese notion. Maybe the Japanese copied it from whence it came. It is Chinese saying (and I am surprised you did not recognize it, and I do not know who said it in print first. Allen supports that notion citing a reference in a book he wrote. Tsk! Tsk! It is a no-no to cite one's self on a common saying, a Chinese one, at that; and all too often he does cite himself...that is a mite immature n his part.
The book has more quotes and citations than are needed or deserved; many for commonsense ideas, generalizations, and the like.
My thoughts are not all bad, there are some interesting ideas. However, I am unfamiliar with several, not the diet ones as I am familiar with a lot of that literature, and there he does use many generalizations, not facts. However, I am not an archaeologist nor even an anthropologist, so I suggest before you quote him you check his notions/ideas with people more knowledgeable than I.
P.S. 评论者Dr. Jacqueline M Newman是Flavor and Fortune的主编，这是西方世界唯一一份用英文专门介绍中国烹饪的杂志，www.flavorandfortune.com 大家也可以就相关问题，给她e-mail: flavorandfortune@hotmail.com