[Sca-cooks] maize and cubits
Huette von Ahrens
ahrenshav at yahoo.com
Sun Nov 29 10:41:25 PST 2009
In the bibliography section of the Oxford Companion to Food, there is this listing, which I think needs to be found and read:
Jeffreys, M.D.W. (1975) 'Pre-Columbian Maize in the Old World', in Margaret L. Arnott (ed.) "Gastronomy", The Hague: Mouton.
In the article on maize in the Oxford Companion to Food, it specifically cites this article but also calls it controversial.
Huette
--- On Sun, 11/29/09, t.d.decker at att.net <t.d.decker at att.net> wrote:
> From: t.d.decker at att.net <t.d.decker at att.net>
> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] maize and cubits
> To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
> Date: Sunday, November 29, 2009, 7:17 AM
>
> > My memory is that _Maize in the Great Herbals_, by
> Finan, says that
> > Maize was called Indian corn not because of the
> Amerind connection
> > but because it was misidentified with an Indian corn
> described by
> > Pliny. I have no idea if that was a variety of millet
> or not.
> > --
> > David/Cariadoc
>
> A lot of the problem is Columbus identifying the Caribbean
> islands with the islands off Asia and the question of how
> soon people were differentiating between the New and Old
> Worlds.
>
> I have encountered Pliny's quote and that his Indian Corn
> is usually identified as a type of millet, but it and some
> Indian (sub-continent) carvings and paintings are used by
> Diffusionists to "prove" that maize arrived in the Old World
> before Columbus. I think it was probably a type of
> millet. While I haven't found any contemporary linkage
> between Pliny and New World corn, I'm quite willing to take
> Finan's comment at face value until disproven.
>
> Just to add to the fun, there was apparently a botanical
> report that a plant native to China was a form of
> maize. Outside of hearing about this report, I haven't
> located much on the subject.
>
> Bear
> _______________________________________________
> Sca-cooks mailing list
> Sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
> http://lists.ansteorra.org/listinfo.cgi/sca-cooks-ansteorra.org
>
More information about the Sca-cooks
mailing list