Food is the bread and butter of human civilization - except, both bread and butter are culturally specific. Let's broaden our minds. The traditions of what is considered edible, how it is produced, prepared and consumed are central to the definition to each society's culture and, at the same time, often demonstrate enduring traditions of inter-continental contacts. In a globalised economy where the supermarket can provide us the foodstuffs whatever the season and whatever their country of origin, we are liable to forget both how local food cultures can be and, equally, how long-standing global transfer of comestibles has been. This module will investigate the cultural and social history of food, centring around the changes created by the encounters between the Americas and Europe from the late fifteenth to the seventeenth century.
Category: Postgraduate