HIST 840
SYLLABUS
WEEKLY DISCUSSION MATERIALS
SOME HISTORIC MENUS
Week 3: The Staff of Life: Grain and Salt
Food Timeline:
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)
https://web.archive.org/web/20160329013420/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.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAzIPOi2OsU (6:36 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
Christine Evans writes: Here’s the very famous Soviet corn ad (not at all clear it’s really the “first” per this youtube channel’s claim, though I guess it could be). This one is typical of Soviet ads, in that it featured products that were in surplus, rather than deficit, and for which the manufacturer wanted to stimulate demand. The animated corn cans and cobs sing about how they want to be added to the menu, about all the benefits of corn’s taste, convenience, ease of integration into dishes that are easy to prepare, etc. While it’s not clear when it was produced, I usually show it in class when I talk about the corn campaign. (I have a great corn campaign poster hanging in my office, and there is even a whole new monograph on the corn campaign, here: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/corn-crusade-9780190644673?cc=us&lang=en&)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTRBGfd80qw
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