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ANTH 3888: Calendar Fall 2024
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Untitled Document
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Anthropology of Food



to Sweet Treats around the World

What FoodAnthro is Reading Now . . .
 
World Food and Water Clock
OWL logo, Online Writing Lab, Purdue University.    
 
     
Sicilian ice-cream in a bread bun. A good solution to a local problem: the Mediterranean heat quickly melts the ice-cream, which is absorbed by the bread.
"Palermo, Sicily
Italy
A Fistful of Rice.
A Fistfull of Rice
Nepal
Claire Kathleen Roufs eating first food at 5 months.
Claire Kathleen Roufs
U.S.A.

Eating rat.
"Eating Rat At The New Year"
Vietnam
National Geographic
Desert People, boy eating "grub worm"
Desert People
Australia

Search the troufs Site
(all TR courses and web pages)
Anthroplogy of Food

top of page A-Z index
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TR HomePage

Food Revolutions

 A Little Background


Invention of Cooking

 
See also Fire, Hunting / Gathering / Foraging, Horticulture, Food Archaeology, Prehistoric Food, Prehistoric Diets, Meat Eating, and Cf., Fernández-Armesto (2003)

The Neolithic Revolution / The "Agricultural Revolution"

  See also Neolithic, Plant Domestication, Animal Domestication, Early Agriculture,  Hunting / Gathering / Foraging, and Prehistoric Dentistry

The BIG QUESTION

Long-Range Exchange of Culture

 
(The Columbian Exchange-- Wikipedia)
  Cf., Fernández-Armesto (2003)

The Search for Spices

   See also Spices

The Scientific Revolution
beginning in the 16th Century

 See also The Industrial Revolution, Food Science, Food Chemistry, Bio-Physical Anthropology and Food, Genetically Modified (GM) Foods, Nanofoods, Food Safety, and Food Transportation

The Industrial Revolution of the 19th and 20th Centuries

  See also The Scientific Revolution, Food Science, Food Transportation, and Cf., Fernández-Armesto (2003)

Use of Food as a Means and Index of Social Differentiation

 See also Ancient Civilizations, and Cf., Fernández-Armesto (2003)

  "Fake Meat"

 See also Fake Meat . . .

The Cognitive Revolution

 See also Nutritional Psychology, and Cf., Harari (2011)


Discovery that Food is More Than Sustenance

Cf., Fernández-Armesto (2003)

The “Herding Revolution”

 Cf., Fernández-Armesto (2003)

Snail Farming

Cf., Fernández-Armesto (2003)


Ecological Revolution of last 500 years

See also Anthropological Ecology, and Cf., Fernández-Armesto (2003)


See also

 Food Timeline

  Food History


 Medieval Cookery

 Anthropocene

 Food and Climate Change



A Little Background on Food "Revolutions"


The “Agricultural Revolution
eventually follows the
  “Hunter-Gathering or Foraging” stage.

It’s important to keep track of the
various historic Food Revolutions. . . .

Speaking of food and revolutions, Marie-Antoinette did not say, “Let them eat cake” or even, as it would have been the case "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche” (or at least there is no evidence that she ever said that, and there is credible circumstantial evidence that she didn’t—for e.g., she was still thirteen years old when the phrase appeared in literature, and even then "[Let them eat cake] was said 100 years before her by Marie-Thérèse, the wife of Louis XIV. It was a callous and ignorant statement and she, Marie Antoinette, was neither. . . .”—Lady Antonia Fraser (biographer), 2002. “Cake eaters” and those who are interested in famous cake eaters might find <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_them_eat_cake> interesting. It’s short cake.

From the historical/pre-historical perspective, the commonly discussed revolutions in food matters are . . .

    1. Invention of Cooking
      Cf., Fernández-Armesto, Felipe. Near a Thousand Tables: A History of Food. NY: The Free Press, 2003.

    2. The Cognitive Revolution

      Cf., Harari, Yuval Noah. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. London: Vintage Books, 2011.

    3. The “Neolithic“ or Agricultural Revolution

    4. The Scientific Revolution, and

    5. The Industrial Revolution.

But from the point of view of areas like Anthropology of Food you need to add to those the revolutions those discussed by Felipe Fernández-Armesto in Near a Thousand Tables: A History of Food (NY: The Free Press, 2003). . . . Fernández-Armesto’s work is among the most innovative in social science food literature in recent years (personal opinion) and it has been translated into 26 languages (fact).



  1. Invention of Cooking
  2. Discovery that Food is More Than Sustenance
  3. The “Herding Revolution”
  4. Snail Farming
  5. Use of Food as a Means and Index of Social Differentiation
  6. Long-Range Exchange of Culture
  7. Ecological Revolution of last 500 years
  8. Industrial Revolution of the 19th and 20th Centuries

    Fernández-Armesto's work Near a Thousand Tables (2003) is discussed in the slide deck "Social and Political Consequences of the Agricultural Revolution" (.pptx)


Index of Food Revolutions






Food Revolutions: Neolithic / "Agricultural"

  • The Neolithic "Agricultural" Revolution

(.pptx)
  • Domestication
(.pptx)
    ° Tehuacán Valley, Mexico
(.pptx)
  • A Protein Primer
(.pptx)
  • Nutritional Consequences: Foragers and Agriculturalists
(.pptx)
  • Social and Political Consequences of the Agricultural Revolution
(.pptx)
         
See also Neolithic, Plant Domestication, Animal Domestication, Early Agriculture,  Hunting / Gathering / Foraging, and Prehistoric Dentistry



Food Revolutions: Spices

  • The Search for Spices

(.pptx)
         
   See also Spices



Food Revolutions: Industrial

  • The Industrial Revolution

(.pptx)
  Early Technology: Transportation, Refrigeration, Canning
(.pptx)
         
  See also The Scientific Revolution, Food Science, Food Transportation, and Cf., Fernández-Armesto (2003)



Food Revolutions: Scientific


  • The Scientific Revolution

(.pptx)
  Modern-Day Adaptations
(.pptx)
  Highlight: Vegetarian Diets: Then and Now
(.pptx)
         
See also The Industrial Revolution, Food Science, Food Chemistry, Bio-Physical Anthropology and Food, Genetically Modified (GM) Foods, Nanofoods, Food Safety, and Food Transportation



Food Revolutions: Fake Meat


  • The Scientific Revolution

(.pptx)
  Modern-Day Adaptations
(.pptx)
  Highlight: Vegetarian Diets: Then and Now
(.pptx)
         
See also Fake Meat . . .


The BIG QUESTION:
Was the "invention" of agriculture all a huge mistake?



Nutritional Consequences of the Agricultural Revolution:
A Comparison of Foragers and Agriculturalists
(Indian Knoll and Hardin Village)
(.pptx)

Social and Political Consequences of the Agricultural Revolution
(.pptx)

Discusses, in part, Fernández-Armesto's work Near a Thousand Tables (2003)

based on The Cultural Feast: An Introduction to Food and Society, Second Edition.
Bryant, Carol A., Kathleen M. DeWalt, Anita Courtney, and Jeffery Schwartz.
(Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thompson, 2003).



     

Back to the
Index of Food Revolutions

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