HIST 840 Discussion Materials (Fall 2023 – Week 3)

HIST 840
SYLLABUS
WEEKLY DISCUSSION MATERIALS
SOME HISTORIC MENUS

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)
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&)

“Singing Corn” (Soviet ad, 2:02 min.):
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