HIST 600 Discussion Materials (Fall 2017 – Week 3)

Week 3: The Staff of Life: Grain and Salt

Food Timeline:

http://www.foodtimeline.org/

Readings:

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”)

Images:

Greek women pounding grain
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/images/WomenGrain.jpg

Carbonized loaf of Roman bread, and wall painting showing sale or distribution of bread, from Pompeii (AD 79)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Pompei_pane.jpg
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/images/gal_daily_baking.jpg

Reconstruction of a Roman triclinium:
http://www.kvl.cch.kcl.ac.uk/masks/chromakey_results/rm23/triclinium.jpg

A summer triclinium from Pompeii:
http://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/House-of-the-Ephebus-summer-triclinium.jpg

A painting from Pompeii of couples in a summer triclinium:
http://www.ilovefood.com.mt/domus/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/18-Romans-feasting-on-a-triclinium-Pompeii.jpg

Mali/Niger salt caravan
http://www.sandomenico.org/uploaded/photos/Library/salt_caravan.jpg

Detail of the Last Supper (copy), showing Judas spilling the salt:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_4bJBXm_R9OQ/TROmS691IOI/AAAAAAAAA0Q/5qddVu8fX2c/s1600/BUMC%2B2%2B045.jpg

Full painting (copy, oil on canvas, c. 1520, by Giampetrino):
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Giampietrino-Last-Supper-ca-1520.jpg

Original fresco, by Leonardo da Vinci (Milan, Santa Maria delle Grazie, 1495-98):
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/%C3%9Altima_Cena_-_Da_Vinci_5.jpg

Aztec codex: A mother teaches her daughter to grind corn and make tortillas (from the Codex Mendoza)
http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/images-3/398_02_2.jpg

“Corn: The Food of the Nation” (US government World War I propaganda poster)
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/media/uploads/2007/11/corn_food.jpg

Videos:

A Greek symposium, from the wall paintings of the Tomba del Tuffatore, Paestum (see 4:00-7:00 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnnKv1k08Q4

Cena Trimalchionis (“Trimalchio’s Feast,” in Italian, with English subtitles) (5:08 min.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpMakUEn4hs

The salt caravans of Timbuktu:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi9bJhRZtKA (3:03 min.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNwQeLFk74o (10:10 min.)

Gandhi’s march to the sea to make salt, 1930 (clips from film “Gandhi,” starring Ben Kingsley [1982], 4:47 min., begin at 2:30 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW3uk95VGes

Growing rice in Indonesia (2:39 min.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iur5n1v9MDk

Documentary “King Corn” (2007):
(Trailer: 2:41 min.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr5HQrgg9mM&feature=youtu.be
(News story: 5;13 min.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJyM8k4m0D0

Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota (4:13 min.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5VShqKEnoo

Colbert Report on the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD (18 October 2012; 6:37 min.)
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/xttei6/the-colbert-report-special-report—a-shucking-disaster—nightmare-at-the-mitchell-corn-palace