Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Part V Food and Drink around the World
- V.A The Beginnings of Agriculture: The Ancient Near East and North Africa
- V.B The History and Culture of Food and Drink in Asia
- V.C The History and Culture of Food and Drink in Europe
- V.C.1 The Mediterranean (Diets and Disease Prevention)
- V.C.2 Southern Europe
- V.C.3 France
- V.C.4 The British Isles
- V.C.5 Northern Europe – Germany and Surrounding Regions
- V.C.6 The Low Countries
- V.C.7 Russia
- V.D The History and Culture of Food and Drink in the Americas
- V.E The History and Culture of Food and Drink in Sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania
- V.F Culinary History
- Part VI History, Nutrition, and Health
- Part VII Contemporary Food-Related Policy Issues
- Part VIII A Dictionary of the World’s Plant Foods
- Name Index
- Subject Index
- References
V.C.2 - Southern Europe
from V.C - The History and Culture of Food and Drink in Europe
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- Part V Food and Drink around the World
- V.A The Beginnings of Agriculture: The Ancient Near East and North Africa
- V.B The History and Culture of Food and Drink in Asia
- V.C The History and Culture of Food and Drink in Europe
- V.C.1 The Mediterranean (Diets and Disease Prevention)
- V.C.2 Southern Europe
- V.C.3 France
- V.C.4 The British Isles
- V.C.5 Northern Europe – Germany and Surrounding Regions
- V.C.6 The Low Countries
- V.C.7 Russia
- V.D The History and Culture of Food and Drink in the Americas
- V.E The History and Culture of Food and Drink in Sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania
- V.F Culinary History
- Part VI History, Nutrition, and Health
- Part VII Contemporary Food-Related Policy Issues
- Part VIII A Dictionary of the World’s Plant Foods
- Name Index
- Subject Index
- References
Summary
The basic ingredients that have historically comprised the southern European diet are well known and have recently received much attention for their health-promoting benefits: These are bread, wine, olive oil, and a wide variety of fruits and vegetables supplemented by fish, dairy products, and a relatively small amount of animal flesh.
Less known, however, are the historical forces that shaped how southern Europeans think about food. Essentially, three rival systems have influenced the culture of food in southern Europe since late antiquity, and in various combinations these systems have informed eating patterns at all levels of society.
The most pervasive of these food systems might be called “Christian,” although its roots are not necessarily found in the teachings of Jesus and his disciples. It encompasses monastic asceticism as well as the calendar of fasts and feasts that have historically regulated food consumption. In all its manifestations, the ideal goal of Christian foodways has been spiritual purity through the control of bodily urges, though this can easily be lost sight of when rules are bent and holidays become occasions for excess.
The second major system is medical in origin and has gained and lost popularity in the past two millennia depending on the state of nutritional science, though it continues to influence common beliefs to this day. The object of this system of “humoral physiology,” of course, is the maintenance or recovery of health by means of dietary regimen.
Lastly, the “courtly” or gastronomic food culture has also profoundly influenced southern Europe, radiating from urban centers of power such as Rome, Naples, Venice, and the courts of Aragon, Castile, and Provence. Its goal is ostensibly pleasure, but this is usually mixed with motives of conscious ostentation in order to impress guests.
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- Information
- The Cambridge World History of Food , pp. 1203 - 1210Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000
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