Mostly interesting subject. Who can deny that History of Food is irresistible for foodies and not only to them. Even the history of marshmalows seems more interesting than the 100 years war of Europe sometimes. For decades, Food and food habits were part of the studies of anthropology. To be exact , you couldn't claim that you were serious with anthropology if you excluded food habits from your survey field. But the question is if we have enough material to built studies in Culinary Anthropology. I think that on the level of a masters degree yes :-) So are food historians a bunch of people who sit around wasting time by performing grandiose desertation of the social role of fava bean just because we cannot offer studies on culinary anthropology in a bachelors degree? Well, you don't become a psychiatrist in the first year of your studies, the same way you have a long way in order to be able to have an opinion in the social role of fava bean. And in case you find such a task useless there is some points regarding History of Food. If it wasn't for olive oil and the domestication of the olive tree, script wouldn't be invented. You have to have studied a lot in order to jump into this conclusion ;-) Have some more of "useless" info : When Joseph was sold by his brothers, the buyers were merchants of spices in their way to Arabia to Egypt; the incident is a turning point in the traditional history of Israel. The hunger of spices has brought about some of the great events in our history, including the opening if the sea route around Africa by Vasco de gama and almost simultaneously the discovery by Christofer Colombus of the New World which as he hastned to explain to his sponsors , was stock with old and new spices. As enthralling as the gold of El Dorado the legendary cinnamon of la Canela led Gonzalo Pizarro and his 2000 strong expedition to axhaustion and death in the forest of Equador and yes you understood well. This hunt for American cinammon lead to an astonishing achievement : a breakaway party, under Francisco de Orellana, were the first Europeans ever to discover the whole course of the Amazon... I will leave the Freudian implication of the French Fry to the journalists and as an historian I will keep all these fascinating stories to narrate to my students and to show them the way to find the threads in the vapours of their kitchen :)
