Consuming Narratives: Food and Cannibalism in Early Modern British Imperialism
During the early modern period, a time of global exploration, Europeans often included descriptions of foodways in their exploration narratives. Indeed, one of the most striking features of early modern travel narratives is the amount of space devoted to foodstuff and eating patterns, and “Consuming...
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ftcdlib:qt4ws0p8n5 2023-05-15T17:22:28+02:00 Consuming Narratives: Food and Cannibalism in Early Modern British Imperialism Wankier, Alisa Marie 169 2016-01-01 application/pdf http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/4ws0p8n5 http://n2t.net/ark:/13030/m5rj969n en eng eScholarship, University of California http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/4ws0p8n5 qt4ws0p8n5 http://n2t.net/ark:/13030/m5rj969n public Wankier, Alisa Marie. (2016). Consuming Narratives: Food and Cannibalism in Early Modern British Imperialism. UC Irvine: History. Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/4ws0p8n5 History dissertation 2016 ftcdlib 2016-10-07T22:55:47Z During the early modern period, a time of global exploration, Europeans often included descriptions of foodways in their exploration narratives. Indeed, one of the most striking features of early modern travel narratives is the amount of space devoted to foodstuff and eating patterns, and “Consuming Narratives” argues that Europeans, and specifically the English, focused on food because they understood foreign people and places, themselves, and their world through a discourse of foodways. If an Englishman noted a foreigner eating a specific dish, he might infer the temperament of the foreigner by means of the humoral theory; deduce the wealth or status of the foreigner by the perceived cost of the food; or conclude the civility of the foreigner by his manner of eating or by the way the meal was prepared. Beyond the descriptions of customary foodways, stories of foreign peoples eating human flesh proved to be a recurring theme in which Europeans presented themselves as superior, while recordings of English cannibalism at Jamestown and Newfoundland reflected English anxiety about their position in the global world. Thus, descriptions of foodways reveal more than mere victuals. Food and eating provided a language to express, and simultaneously shape, English assumptions and anxieties about otherness, status, sovereignty, and power. Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis Newfoundland University of California: eScholarship |
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University of California: eScholarship |
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English |
topic |
History |
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History Wankier, Alisa Marie Consuming Narratives: Food and Cannibalism in Early Modern British Imperialism |
topic_facet |
History |
description |
During the early modern period, a time of global exploration, Europeans often included descriptions of foodways in their exploration narratives. Indeed, one of the most striking features of early modern travel narratives is the amount of space devoted to foodstuff and eating patterns, and “Consuming Narratives” argues that Europeans, and specifically the English, focused on food because they understood foreign people and places, themselves, and their world through a discourse of foodways. If an Englishman noted a foreigner eating a specific dish, he might infer the temperament of the foreigner by means of the humoral theory; deduce the wealth or status of the foreigner by the perceived cost of the food; or conclude the civility of the foreigner by his manner of eating or by the way the meal was prepared. Beyond the descriptions of customary foodways, stories of foreign peoples eating human flesh proved to be a recurring theme in which Europeans presented themselves as superior, while recordings of English cannibalism at Jamestown and Newfoundland reflected English anxiety about their position in the global world. Thus, descriptions of foodways reveal more than mere victuals. Food and eating provided a language to express, and simultaneously shape, English assumptions and anxieties about otherness, status, sovereignty, and power. |
format |
Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis |
author |
Wankier, Alisa Marie |
author_facet |
Wankier, Alisa Marie |
author_sort |
Wankier, Alisa Marie |
title |
Consuming Narratives: Food and Cannibalism in Early Modern British Imperialism |
title_short |
Consuming Narratives: Food and Cannibalism in Early Modern British Imperialism |
title_full |
Consuming Narratives: Food and Cannibalism in Early Modern British Imperialism |
title_fullStr |
Consuming Narratives: Food and Cannibalism in Early Modern British Imperialism |
title_full_unstemmed |
Consuming Narratives: Food and Cannibalism in Early Modern British Imperialism |
title_sort |
consuming narratives: food and cannibalism in early modern british imperialism |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/4ws0p8n5 http://n2t.net/ark:/13030/m5rj969n |
op_coverage |
169 |
genre |
Newfoundland |
genre_facet |
Newfoundland |
op_source |
Wankier, Alisa Marie. (2016). Consuming Narratives: Food and Cannibalism in Early Modern British Imperialism. UC Irvine: History. Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/4ws0p8n5 |
op_relation |
http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/4ws0p8n5 qt4ws0p8n5 http://n2t.net/ark:/13030/m5rj969n |
op_rights |
public |
_version_ |
1766109165034405888 |