Economy, Culture and Ritual: the Encystment of Drug-Foods in Western European Diet and Work Routines, 1600-1900

FAIN: FA-12366-78

Sidney W. Mintz
Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD 21218-2608)

To study the history and sociology of certain foods (coffee, tea, tobacco, and particularly rum and sugar), as these became part of the food and leisure patterns of Western Europe (especially 17th-19th centuries). Study will examine these items and their history from the vantage point of anthropology, dealing with original domestication and processing, spread, and changing usage; but concentrating more on their particular economic significance to European industry, on the one hand, and their particular psychological significance within European food and ritual habits, on the other.