IDS 325: FOOD AND THE SENSES

This course is about the way that people have eaten and understood food in the past. While this may seem fairly simple – food is food, whether simple nourishment or fine cuisine – in act the subject is full of complexities. Food tells us many things about societies, including: social hierarchies, cultural interaction, economic transactions, and taste – both literal and metaphorical. In this class we will study food, culinary developments, and the senses, starting with “the oldest cuisine in the world” in Mesopotamia, through the spiced Middle Ages, to the French innovations of the eightieth century. We will consider issues such of taste and smell, ingredients, recipes, and the meanings of what people ate.