FOOD, CULTURE, AND POWER: THE ROLE OF FOOD IN HISTORY

                                                          University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

                                                                        Prof. Martha Carlin

                                                                                Spring 2002

                                                            copyright 2002, all rights reserved

Office:  Holton 328
Phone:  (414) 229-5767
Messages: History Department, tel. (414) 229-4361
E-mail:  carlin@uwm.edu
Home page:  www.uwm.edu/~carlin
Office hours: Tuesdays, 1-2 PM, and by appointment

This course will survey the significance of food in human history over the past five thousand years.

Are we what we eat?  The history of human civilizations is inextricably bound to the history of food.  This seminar will explore the role of food throughout human history. We will survey the history of food and eating chronologically, from Prehistoric times to the present, and we will examine the role of food topically, analyzing its place in such aspects of human life and society as agriculture and commerce; famine and war; religion, ritual, and taboo; medical theory and diet; hospitality and power; eating and manners; technology and the household; age and gender; wealth and poverty; class and ethnicity; popular culture and national identity; changing tastes and the evolution of fashion; and myth and memory.  Students who take this class should expect to do a lot of reading and research, a lot of thinking and discussing, a lot of serious writing, and a certain amount of eating.

Assigned readings:  There are 3 required textbooks:

Margaret Visser, Much Depends on Dinner (New York: Macmillan, 1986).
ISBN:  0-020-08851-5

Margaret Visser, The Rituals of Dinner (New York: Penguin, 1991).
ISBN: 014-017079-0

Reay Tannahill, Food in History (New York: Stein and Day, 1973; rev. edn, Three Rivers Press, 1988).
ISBN: 0-517-88404-6

There are also required readings on reserve and on the Internet.  These are listed below under Topics and Readings. You will require an e-mail account and access to the Internet for this class.  All UWM students are automatically assigned a free UWM e-mail account, and have free Internet access via UWM computer terminals.

Papers:  There is one required 20-page research paper and five required interim written assignments designed to aid you in producing it.  The paper and other written assignments are described at the end of this syllabus.  The final paper is due in class in Week 13 (23 April 2002).

Oral presentations:  There is one required formal oral presentation. All students will prepare and bring to the final class (7 May 2000) one dish from the menu that is the subject of their research paper.  Each student will give a three-minute oral presentation on that dish and its cultural and historical significance, after which we will all share the foods in a class banquet.

Exams:  There will be no exams.

Grading:  Your final grade will be based on your written assignments (50%), and your attendance, active participation, oral presentation, and other work in class (50%). The research paper and other assignments are due on the dates specified in this syllabus.  Late work will not be accepted, and absence from class will not be excused, except in cases of major illness or emergency (please contact me immediately in such a case).

Disabilities:  If you have a disability, please contact me early in the semester for any help or accommodation you may need.
 
 
 

                                                            TOPICS AND READINGS
 
 

WEEK 1    INTRODUCTION TO COURSE

22 Jan.        Introduction to course; discussion of course scope and requirements, etc.
 

WEEK 2     GEOGRAPHY, CLIMATE, FOOD RESOURCES, AND COMMERCE

29 Jan.         Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 19-41 (Chap. 3: “Changing the Face of the Earth”), 43-59 (Part Two,
                    Introduction, and Chap. 3: “The First Civilizations”)

                    Margaret Visser, Much Depends on Dinner, pp. 11-21 (Introduction: “What Shall We Have for Dinner?”)

                     Jack Goody, “Industrial Food: Towards the Development of a World Cuisine,” in Food and Culture: A
                    Reader, ed. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 338-356.
 

WEEK 3     THE STAFF OF LIFE: GRAIN AND SALT

5 Feb.          [Assignment 1 due in class]

                    Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 60-70 (Chap. 5: “Classical Greece”), 71-91 (Chap. 6: “Imperial Rome”),
                    92-102 (Chap. 7: “The Silent Centuries”)

                    Margaret Visser, Much Depends on Dinner, pp. 22-55 (Chap. 1: “Corn: Our Mother, Our Life”), 56-82 Chap.
                    2: “Salt: The Edible Rock”), 155-191 (Chap. 5: “Rice: The Tyrant with a Soul”)
 

WEEK 4     FOOD OF POWER: PROTEIN AND FAT

12 Feb.        Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 103-123 (Part Three: Introduction, Chap. 8: “India,” Chap. 9: “Central
                    Asia”)

                    Margaret Visser, Much Depends on Dinner, pp. 83-114 (Chap. 3: “Butter – and Something `Just as Good’”),
                    115-154 (Chap. 4: “Chicken: From Jungle Fowl to Patties”), 224-258 (Chap. 7: “Olive Oil: A Tree and Its
                    Fruits”)

                    Margaret Visser, The Rituals of Dinner, pp. 227-242 (“Carving”)
 

WEEK 5     RELIGION, RITUAL, AND TABOO

19 Feb.        [Assignment 2 due in class]

                    Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 124-140 (Chap. 10: “China”)¡

                    The Bible, Leviticus, Chap.11 (URL below)
               http://www.hope.edu/academic/religion/bandstra/BIBLE/LEV/LEV11.HTM

                    Jean Soler, “The Semiotics of Food in the Bible,” in Food and Culture: A Reader, ed. Carole Counihan and
                    Penny Van Esterik (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 55-66.
 

                    Jeffrey M. Pilcher, ¡Que vivan los tamales! Food and the Making of Mexican Identity (Albuquerque:
                    University of New Mexico Press, 1998), pp. 7-18.

                    Caroline Walker Bynum, “Fast, Feast, and Flesh: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women,” in
                   Food and Culture: A Reader, ed. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik (New York: Routledge, 1997),
                    pp. 138-158.

                    Margaret Visser, The Rituals of Dinner, “Pollution,” pp. 27-37 (“Feasting and Sacrifice”), 297-326 (“No
                    Offence”)

                    K. T. Achaya, Indian Food: A Historical Companion (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994), pp. 61-76
                    (Chap. 6: “Indian Food Ethos”).
 

WEEK 6     MEDICAL THEORY AND DIET

26 Feb.        Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 141-151 (Chap. 11: “The Arab World”)

                    Margaret Visser, Much Depends on Dinner, pp. 192-223 (Chap. 6: “Lettuce: The Vicissitudes of Salad”) ,
                    259-284 (Chap. 8: “Lemon Juice: A Sour Note”)

                    E. N. Anderson, “Traditional Medical Values of Food,” in Food and Culture: A Reader, ed. Carole Counihan
                    and Penny Van Esterik (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 80-91.

                    Ronald L. LeBlanc, “Tolstoy’s Way of All Flesh: Abstinence, Vegetarianism, and Christian Physiology,”  in
                    Musya Glants and Joyce Toomre, eds., Food in Russian History and Culture (Bloomington and
                    Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1997), pp. 81-102.

                    Alan Davidson, “Not Yogurt with Fish,” in idem, A Kipper with My Tea: Selected Food Essays (London:
                    Macmillan, 1988), pp. 149-51.
 

WEEK 7     SHARING THE TABLE

5 March       [Assignment 3 due in class]

                    Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 153-173 (Part Four: Introduction; Chap. 12: “Supplying the Towns”)

                    Margaret Visser, The Rituals of Dinner, pp. 79-136 (Chap. 4: “The Pleasure of Your Company”)

                    Mauricio Borrero, “Communal Dining and State Cafeterias in Moscow and Petrograd, 1917-1921,” in Musya
                    Glants and Joyce Toomre, eds., Food in Russian History and Culture (Bloomington and Indianapolis:
                    Indiana University Press, 1997), pp. 162-176.

                    Mai Yamani, “You Are What You Cook: Cuisine and Class in Mecca,” in Sami Zubaida and Richard Tapper,
                    eds., Culinary Cultures of the Middle East (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 1994), pp. 173-184.
 

WEEK 8     EATING AND MANNERS

12 March     Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 174-195 (Chap. 13: “The Medieval Table”)

                    Margaret Visser, The Rituals of Dinner, pp. 137-227, 242-272, 284-295 (“Dinner is Served:” “The First Bite,”
                    “Fingers,” “Chopsticks,” “Knives, Forks, Spoons,” “Sequence,” “Helpings,” “The Red, the White, and the
                    Gold,” “Table Talk,” “All Gone”)
 

                                            [SPRING RECESS: 17-24 MARCH 2002]
 

WEEK 9     TECHNOLOGY AND THE HOUSEHOLD

26 March     [Assignment 4 due in class]

                    Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 197-223 (Part Five: Introduction; Chap. 14: “New Worlds;” Chap. 15:
                    “The Americas”)

                    Margaret Visser, Much Depends on Dinner, pp. 192-223.

                    Jeffrey M. Pilcher, ¡Que vivan los tamales! Food and the Making of Mexican Identity (Albuquerque:
                    University of New Mexico Press, 1998), pp. 99-111.

                    Laura Shapiro, “Do Women Like to Cook?” Granta, 52 (Winter, 1995), 153-62.
 

WEEK 10     AGE AND GENDER

2 April          Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 224-229 (Chap. 16: “Food for the Traveller”)

                     Margaret Visser, The Rituals of Dinner, pp. 39-56 (“Learning to Behave: Bringing Children Up”), 272-84
                    (“Feeding, Feasts, and Females”)

                     Jeffrey M. Pilcher, ¡Que vivan los tamales! Food and the Making of Mexican Identity (Albuquerque:
                     University of New Mexico Press, 1998), pp. 145-150.

                      Ianthe Maclagan, “Food and Gender in a Yemeni Community,” in Sami Zubaida and Richard Tapper,
                      eds., Culinary Cultures of the Middle East (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 1994), pp. 159-172.

                      Chitrita Banerji, “What Bengali Widows Cannot Eat,” Granta, 52 (Winter, 1995), 163-71.
 

WEEK 11     WEALTH, CLASS, AND ETHNICITY

9 April          [Assignment 5 due in class]

                    Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 230-251 (Chap. 17: “A Gastronomic Grand Tour: 1”)

                    Margaret Visser, The Rituals of Dinner, pp. 56-78 (“Inhibitions,” and “Aspirations”)

                    Martha Carlin, “Provisions for the Poor: Fast Food in Medieval London,” Franco-British Studies: Journal of
                    the British Institute in Paris, no. 20 (Autumn, 1995), pp. 35-48.

                    Jeffrey M. Pilcher, ¡Que vivan los tamales! Food and the Making of Mexican Identity (Albuquerque:
                    University of New Mexico Press, 1998), pp. 38-43, 52-57.

                    Musya Glants, “Food as Art: Painting in Late Soviet Russia,” in Musya Glants and Joyce Toomre, eds., Food in
                   Russian History and Culture (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1997), pp. 215-237.
 

 WEEK 12     POPULAR CULTURE AND NATIONAL IDENTITY

16 April          Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 252-279 (Chap. 18: “A Gastronomic Grand Tour: 2”)

                      Claudia Roden, “Jewish Food in the Middle East,” in Sami Zubaida and Richard Tapper, eds., Culinary
                      Cultures of the Middle East (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 1994), pp. 153-158.

                      Anne Allison, “Japanese Mothers and Obentos: The Lunch Box as Ideological State Apparatus,” in Food and
                      Culture: A Reader, ed. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 296-314.

                      Joyce Toomre, “Food and National Identity in Soviet Armenia,” in Musya Glants and Joyce Toomre, eds.,
                      Food in Russian History and Culture (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1997), pp.
                      195-214.
 

WEEK 13     CHANGING TASTES AND EATING FOR PLEASURE

23 April         [Research paper due in class]

                     Margaret Visser, Much Depends on Dinner, pp. 285-322 (Chap. 9: “Ice Cream: Cold Comfort”)

                      Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 281-346 (Part Six: Introduction; Chap. 19: “The Industrial Revolution;”
                      Chap. 20: “The Food-Supply Revolution;” Chap. 21: “The Scientific Revolution”)

                      Frederick W. Mote, “Yüan [ AD 1271-1368] and Ming [AD 1368-1644],” in  K. C. Chang, ed., Food in
                      Chinese Culture (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1977), pp. 234-240.

                      Holly Chase, “The Meyhane or McDonald’s? Changes in Eating Habits and the Evolution of Fast Food in
                      Istanbul,” in Sami Zubaida and Richard Tapper, eds., Culinary Cultures of the Middle East (London and
                      New York: I.B. Tauris, 1994), pp. 73-85.

                      Jeffrey M. Pilcher, ¡Que vivan los tamales! Food and the Making of Mexican Identity (Albuquerque:
                      University of New Mexico Press, 1998), pp. 129-138, 163-165.
 

WEEK 14     MYTH AND MEMORY; FOOD AND GLOBAL HISTORY

30 April         Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 347-371 (Chap. 22: “Confused New World;” Epilogue)

                      Cara da Silva, ed., In Memory’s Kitchen: A Legacy from the Women of Terezín, trans. Bianca Steiner
                      Brown, with forward by Michael Berenbaum (Northvale, New Jersey, and London: Jason Aronson, 1996),
                       pp. ix-xvi,  xix-xliii.

                      Jan Thompson,  “Prisoners of the Rising Sun: Food Memories of American POWs in the Far East
                      During World War II,” in Food and Memory: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery
                      2000, ed. Harlan Walker (London: Prospect Books, 2001), pp. 273-86, available [Internet]:
                         http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/town/lane/kal69/isbn161.htm - prisoners

                      Alan Davidson, A Kipper with My Tea: Selected Food Essays (London:   Macmillan, 1988), “Funeral
                      Cookbooks,” pp. 27-8.

                       Sami Zubaida, “National, Communal, and Global Dimensions in Middle Eastern Food Cultures,” in Sami
                        Zubaida and Richard Tapper, eds., Culinary Cultures of the Middle East (London and New York: I.B.
                        Tauris,1994), pp. 33-41.

                        Raymond Grew, “Food and Global History,” in Food in Global History, ed. Raymond Grew (Boulder,
                        Colorado: Westview Press, 1999), pp. 1-14, 22-29.
 

WEEK 15     ORAL PRESENTATIONS AND BANQUET

7 May          Oral presentations (described at beginning of syllabus, under Oral presentations), followed by class
                      banquet.
 
 
 

                                            WRITTEN  ASSIGNMENTS FOR HISTORY 600
 
 

Assignment 1      Due in class, Week 3 (5 Feb. 2002)

                             Topic for your research paper.  Must include:
                                 Complete copy of your chosen menu
                                 Complete bibliographical reference to source of menu, including complete reference to Internet
                                    source, if applicable
                                 Date and place and occasion or historical context of meal

Assignment 2      Due in class, Week 5 (19 Feb. 2002)

                            List of five relevant, scholarly, secondary sources that you will be using to research your chosen menu.

                            Use Bibliography format for list (see handout for proper format).
                            Be sure to include a complete bibliographical reference for each source, including, if applicable, a full
                                Internet reference.

Assignment 3      Due in class, Week 7 (5 March 2002)

                             List of five relevant primary sources that you will be using to research your chosen menu.

                            Use Bibliography format for list (see handout for proper format).
                             Be sure to include a complete bibliographical reference for each source, including, if applicable, a full
                                Internet reference.

Assignment 4      Due in class, Week 9 (26 March 2002)

                            One-page essay (approximately 250 words) on what your menu reveals about its society’s food
                                technologies.

                             This essay must be fully documented with Endnotes (not parenthetical citations) and Bibliography.  See
                                handout for proper Endnote format.

Assignment 5      Due in class, Week 11 (9 April 2002)

                             One-page essay (approximately 250 words) on what your menu reveals about the wealth, class, and
                                ethnicity of its consumers.

                            This essay must be fully documented with Endnotes and Bibliography, as in Assignment 4.
 
 

                                                        RESEARCH PAPER FOR HISTORY 600
 

The paper is due in class in Week 13 (23 April 2002).  No extensions will be allowed on the paper except in the case of major illness or emergency.

The focus of your paper must be an actual historic menu.  You may choose your menu from any place and any period in world history, but it will have to be approved by me.  I have placed a sample collection of menus on my home page, and you are welcome to choose one of these or to find your own.  Only one student may work on any individual menu or menu collection.  You must submit your choice to me by Week 3 (see above, Assignment 1) for approval.

Your paper should concentrate on asking, what does this menu tell us about the society that created it?  There are many possible ways to approach this question.  For example, what does your menu say about its society’s:

           Climate and agriculture?
           Economy and trade?
           Access to distant or foreign products?
           Wealth and power?
            Good times or hard times?
            State of peace or war?
            Religious traditions and taboos?
            Medical and nutritional theories?
            Hospitality rituals?
            Etiquette conventions?
            Food technologies?
            Household labor arrangements?
            Eating conventions concerning age, gender, and class?
            Cultural preferences, and ethnic and national identities?
            Role of fashion in food consumption?
            Myths and memories?
            Attitudes towards food and eating?

Your menu may commemorate a religious holiday or a special event, such as a coronation, a military victory, a wedding, or a funeral.  Equally, it may represent a typical, “everyday” meal, for a private household or an institution (e.g., a school, a prison, or a military unit), or it may represent the commercial offerings of a restaurant, hotel, or cruise ship.  The intended diners may be rich or poor, and they may be living in a time of war or peace, in good times or bad.  Therefore, you might also wish to consider whether or not your menu:

           Is typical of the “everyday” food of its place and period?
           Is designed as a piece of political, religious, or cultural propaganda?
           Is place- or class-specific?
           Is intrinsically commercial or institutional, or domestic in character?
           Is designed to please the diners, or to control them, or both?

Your paper must be 20 double-spaced, typescript pages long (about 5,000 words).

The point is to produce a piece of genuine historical research, packed with factual details, so no fantasy and no time-travelers, please. Your paper must be based on a minimum of five primary ("eyewitness") sources and five scholarly secondary (later) sources.  Encyclopedias are permissible as sources of general background reading (and must be cited if used), but cannot be used as any of the five required secondary sources.  At least seven of your ten required sources must be from printed books; three may be from the Internet.  Any additional sources that you use may be taken either from the Internet or from printed books.

Do not use non-scholarly sources, such as amateur Internet sites, games, or novels, as sources for this paper.  To be considered “scholarly,” your secondary sources (both print and Internet) must be documented with footnotes or endnotes – a bibliography alone is insufficient.

In searching for sources, in addition to the readings on this syllabus and their notes and bibliographies, you may wish to consult the following very useful online bibliographies on food history:

  Thomas Gloning, “Bibliography on Cookery, Food, Wine, etc., mainly 1350-1800”
        http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/~gloning/cookbib.htm

  Kenneth Lipartito, “Food in History Bibliography”
        http://vi.uh.edu/pages/lprtomat/bib~1.htm

  New York Public Library, “Culinary History: A Research Guide”
        http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/grd/resguides/culrylb.html

  Martin Skjöldebrand, “Bibliography of Culinary History”
        http://www.bahnhof.se/~chimbis/tocb/info/sub-biblio.htm

Full documentation -- endnotes or footnotes, plus bibliography -- is required.  (Parenthetical citations are not acceptable.)  College-level writing, using correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation, also is required.  For guidelines how to write and document your paper, see handout, or consult any of the online style guides listed on my homepage (<http://www.uwm.edu/~carlin/#DOCUMENTATIONGUIDES>).