FLOR3015: Food & Identity in the Mediterranean: A Cultural History

This course is an investigation into how the identities of different peoples in the Mediterranean can be understood through the lens of the food they cultivate, trade, and eat. After an introduction to different definitions of identity, with a particular focus on the formation, maintenance, and evolution of group identity through cultural practices, the course will analyze the history and culture of food in different civilizations of the Mediterranean basin: Phoenicians, Ancient Hebrews, Greco-Romans, and others. Study of the different diets of the Byzantines and the Venetian merchants, and the influence of the spice trade and nascent Islam during the Middle Ages, will show how identities are formed, consolidated, and changed through food. The Renaissance, especially in Florence, will be the object of an in-depth analysis as a pivotal time in Western food culture and in the arts. The course will then investigate the relationship between Florentine and French elite identities via the birth of modern table manners (and dishes) and their connection with the rise of the first nation states. The last part of the course will consider modern states, migration, and how these interconnect with agricultural practices and industrial food processes that have changed the nature of food production in the Mediterranean.

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