Author’s Final Copy (pre copy-editing and final proof) Final Version published 2012, in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 16: 661-662 Review of Uncertain Tastes: Memory, Ambivalence and the Politics of Eating in Samburu, Northern Kenya (J. Holtzman) Emma-Jayne Abbots This rich and multi-stranded ethnography of eating practices among Samburu herders in Northern Kenya describes the shift from an established pastoral diet comprising meat, milk and blood to one in which purchased agricultural products, including maize, tea and sugar, have become key components. Holtzman examines Samburu responses to the historical changes introduced by colonial authorities and the recent measures taken to counteract food scarcity and the decline of the livestock economy, and considers the manner in which increasing commodification and availability of new foodstuffs challenges autochthonous systems of exchange and distribution. Primarily, Holtzman demonstrates that Samburu experience these transformations in deeply ambivalent and often contradictory ways, and he explores the manner in which individuals construct and evaluate their past and present through their changing eating practices; thereby highlighting that food is a particularly salient site for memory and historical consciousness. Yet he also stresses that everyday food practices should not just be regarded as a lens through which to explore ‘the bigger picture’, but should rather be treated as a serious object of study in its own right. This intention, to show that food is a topic worthy of considered ethnographic and theoretical attention, is supported by Holtzman’s convincing and consistent demonstration that food remains central to the constitution of Samburu personhood and their social relations. Uncertain Tastes is at its strongest when discussing Samburu reactions to change, and the arguments in part three are particularly well developed, especially in chapters