SC - European Food

[JVButlerJr at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/9/00 6:10:36 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
Bronwynmgn at aol.com writes:

> 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.)

    This is true, though I refer you to Isaac Newton, who said "Absence of 
evidence is not evidence of absence."  My point was that just because Western 
Europe didn't do it that way, doesn't make it not period.  "Pre-1650" covers 
a lot of ground, and nowhere does it say "Ignore everything that is not 
Western Europe".

    Suleyman