HIST1112 - 01 - Food and Fermentation: a Global History

(HI) Historical Inquiry

Your food is alive. In this course we will also ask the central question: how and when did humans begin to use the practice of fermentation to produce food? What is the history of food and fermentation and how has it shaped societies, cultures, and individuals? How does fermentation change and enhance the flavors of food and how do these foods impact history and historical events? Microbes are critical in creating and storing most of the foods in our diet. In part, we will study how funghi, yeast, and bacteria work to create the delicious food and drink we love while examining how food and fermentation facilitated and, in some cases, accelerated the transformation of local, national, and transnational cultures. Food and fermentation impacted and is impacted by scientific, political, social, intellectual, cultural and economic history. We'll explore the edible foundations of human culture, understanding how the Scientific Revolution unlocked the mystery of yeast, food and drink as tools of colonization and resistance to colonizers, the Columbian Exchange, Globalization and foodways, Immigration and cultural negotiation, the rise of Coca Cola, among many other topics. Through the lens of all things food and fermentation we will see the centrality of food in a series of transformative historical events, themes, and movements. "Food is everything we are. It's an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, your grandma." ~ Anthony Bourdain