SC - Is Arrowroot Period?

[Par Leijonhufvud]

On Mon, 3 Apr 2000, Philip & Susan Troy wrote:

> arm-in-arm with the fact that the Europeans, who might well be expected
> to keep written records of such trade, apparently did not, at least not
> in any form accessible to us. 

Are there foods mentioned in the Greenland sagas as related to the new
world?

> The Americans in question have a body of
> oral tradition that goes back, in spots, as far as the Neolithic Era and

Since neolithic (and paleolithic) era in parts of the americas ended
fairly recently this is no great feat...

> Yes, the Arawaks _did_ use aru-aru for both culinary and medicinal
> purposes. (And note that more modern Europeans saw fit to name this
> plant in English according to its medical properties, unless you argue
> it is just a corruption of the Arawak name.) Is this knowledge helpful
> to somebody recreating, say, 14th-century English aristocratic eating
> habits? If one is studying an Arawak meal from, say, 1375 C.E., I'd say,
> yes, go for it, if you really have reason to assume it belongs there. 

Hmm, another question. What is the geographical distribution of the
arrowroot, and to what extent does it overlap that of the early European
contacts. Would one of the logging parties on Newfoundland ever have
encountered it? 

/UlfR

- -- 
Par Leijonhufvud                                      parlei at algonet.se
'Windows for Dummies'; says it all, really.  
		-- Gary Barnes