SC - pyes
Bronwynmgn@aol.com
Bronwynmgn at aol.com
Tue May 9 18:13:36 PDT 2000
In a message dated 5/9/2000 8:30:21 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
JVButlerJr at aol.com writes:
<< Now wait just a cotton-picking minute! She posted something she thought
would be enlightening and was slapped down because her contribution didn't
conform to someone else's idea of "European". When she protests her
treatment, you jump on her back for daring to ask a question? >>
What I saw was someone posting that there was documentation of some sort for
tomatos being eaten in China during period. This is great if you are doing a
period Chinese feast.
What was pointed out was simply that just because tomatos were eaten in China
during period doesn't mean that they were eaten anywhere else in period. As
an example, if I am doing a feast based on a 15th century Western European
cuisine, I can't therefore say, "oh, the Chinese had tomatos at this time, so
I can serve them with this feast, too". If I am doing a feast based on
period Chinese cuisine, or perhaps some other eastern country (and I freely
admit to not studying this area, because my persona would never have
encountered it; I want to be able to cook dishes she might have known), then
I would certainly consider using tomatos.
This isn't Eurocentrism. This is making the point that what holds true for
one country/region at any given date doesn't necessarily hold true for
another country/region at the same date. It's good scholarship.
We like to clarify things on this list. One of those things is that saying
"this is period" doesn't make much sense unless you specify the
country/region and date. Just because they were planting potatoes in Spain
in the 1500's does not make it a certainty that they were eating potatoes in
Finland in the 1500's. (And in fact, planting potatoes in Spain doesn't
constitute proof that people were eating them; maybe they were fed to the
oxen. Maybe they were used to make starch for clothes. I haven't seen the
particular source, so I don't know exactly what it says.)
Brangwayna Morgan
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