ANTH 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Barbecue, Chemical Substance, British Cuisine
Document Summary
The domestication of animals and plants: resulted in a narrower range in foods eaten by most people. The food-population-social scale dynamic: formation of leadership, support army -> surplus, political instability. Dietary simplifications: cuisines of agricultural societies are based on the cultivation complex carbohydrates (grains and tubers: experimentation and breeding over extended period of time, many varieties of staple. Because they tend to produce low surpluses of food that cannot be easily stored, horticulturalists and pastoralist societies: tend to be organized in kinship groups with a strong emphasis on sharing. Key development: food that can be stored and managed. Social pyramid in state formations: peasants and workers, artisans, bureaucrats and traders, the elite. Ruins of grain storage buildings in ancient egypt. Symbolism around the good food": ex. Ritualization of agricultural calendars: seasons like planting, harvesting, cosmology. Divine rulers as symbols of encompassing fertility of whole: rulers take on divinity, richness, leader = at the center .
