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You'd be amazed what you can find written on a sign. Especially on church signs.
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You'd be amazed what you can find written on a sign. Especially on church signs.
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whisper-whale
she was a sound bounced off a cloud
into my palm (shut tight)
my ears thin in your teeth and my teeth
present and separate and counting
i am ticking away moments like bird seed
meal to meal to meal
hand to foot to heart
cripple
i ache like the stars in the black, blue-white
i ache like the stars
like a pen scratching without ink
against a wall
i am the empty, echoing against
sky and smoke
you are the unswallowable night
whisper-whale
she was a sound bounced off a cloud
into my palm (shut tight)
my ears thin in your teeth and my teeth
present and separate and counting
i am ticking away moments like bird seed
meal to meal to meal
hand to foot to heart
cripple
i ache like the stars in the black, blue-white
i ache like the stars
like a pen scratching without ink
against a wall
i am the empty, echoing against
sky and smoke
you are the unswallowable night
she wore pink lipstick and blue eyes
and smiled like christmas lights
i can’t help but feel a victim to this new view
she was only a scratch and now a cancer
growing in me by rapid multiplication
i feel more than a little moved
a little depressed because a crush
never becomes an affair
i only become a little more a recluse
she wore a sleeve over my heart
and laughed like shattered crystal
as i shatter here just remembering
she wore pink lipstick and blue eyes
and smiled like christmas lights
i can’t help but feel a victim to this new view
she was only a scratch and now a cancer
growing in me by rapid multiplication
i feel more than a little moved
a little depressed because a crush
never becomes an affair
i only become a little more a recluse
she wore a sleeve over my heart
and laughed like shattered crystal
as i shatter here just remembering
i am a little like stale bread
as crusty inside as i am outside
and laying still on this abandoned dish
on this thin glass plate awaiting butter
or maybe gravy
wondering how gravity allowed these
invisible things
to leave me brittle
and white
i’m wondering when my life will
come to a sputtering halt or if
this is just the moment where everything
slows down just before taking off
every day i forget 100 essential things
every night i dream a dozen
meaningless dreams
and sleep becomes less and less appealing
i tried to catch your scent on the breeze
lifting off the lake
i caught nothing
the breeze was too weak
off the evaporating pond and
barely brushed the cracking earth
i slept and dreamt of a thousand locked doors
and a hundred useless keys
and at least a dozen reasons
why it didn’t matter anyway
i just wanted to smell you on the breeze
and paint a picture of it
i am a little like stale bread
as crusty inside as i am outside
and laying still on this abandoned dish
on this thin glass plate awaiting butter
or maybe gravy
wondering how gravity allowed these
invisible things
to leave me brittle
and white
i’m wondering when my life will
come to a sputtering halt or if
this is just the moment where everything
slows down just before taking off
every day i forget 100 essential things
every night i dream a dozen
meaningless dreams
and sleep becomes less and less appealing
i tried to catch your scent on the breeze
lifting off the lake
i caught nothing
the breeze was too weak
off the evaporating pond and
barely brushed the cracking earth
i slept and dreamt of a thousand locked doors
and a hundred useless keys
and at least a dozen reasons
why it didn’t matter anyway
i just wanted to smell you on the breeze
and paint a picture of it
i heard sirens
tonight
laying here
unsleeping in my
bed with this
emergency feeling
no need to stop at any lights
if you’re coming here
tonight. i’ll clear
the roads before you and light your path
with burning branches
and strong flowers and
shake here anxious on my back
stretching past my skin after you
with prayers written
on my lips, on my hands, on my knees
pulsing like a lightning rod as i wait
for you to arrive
in a fast car and flashing lights
just in time
to save my life
i heard sirens
tonight
laying here
unsleeping in my
bed with this
emergency feeling
no need to stop at any lights
if you’re coming here
tonight. i’ll clear
the roads before you and light your path
with burning branches
and strong flowers and
shake here anxious on my back
stretching past my skin after you
with prayers written
on my lips, on my hands, on my knees
pulsing like a lightning rod as i wait
for you to arrive
in a fast car and flashing lights
just in time
to save my life
it’s the sabbath
after a long night of
breeding regret and
strange dreams
i wake to invent
new promises to break
and resolutions too weak
to keep my back straight
but i feel a calm
knowing this morning
is not last night
and my face is not the same
rinsed off and holy i
could be
but dressed again and
perfumed i board
the N in the direction of water
and watch as a man,
sporting a gold chain
and a mustache, performs
chin-ups
and a woman with
arms packed full of bags
and baskets refuses to sit down
in the dog park a rottweiler
gnaws a femur
and occasionally i close
my eyes
i am much too
relaxed for a sinner
much to calm for a chronic
procrastinator, depressed
obsessor, obstructed creator,
empty handed procurer
if it weren’t for dog food commercials
i might not know what marrow
was, and yet i depend on
it. filling the space in my
bones, building up blood cells
i depend on a lot of
things i can’t see
i’ve built a life around it
but built another life besides
like a cancer, like a growing
black mole somewhere under
my clothes (a dependency on things)
and all of this blood and all of
these magnets pulling and pooling
draw these lethargic flies around me
tiny sentinels, vomiting
scavengers. yet still, in this place i grow closer
to understanding God.
it’s the sabbath
after a long night of
breeding regret and
strange dreams
i wake to invent
new promises to break
and resolutions too weak
to keep my back straight
but i feel a calm
knowing this morning
is not last night
and my face is not the same
rinsed off and holy i
could be
but dressed again and
perfumed i board
the N in the direction of water
and watch as a man,
sporting a gold chain
and a mustache, performs
chin-ups
and a woman with
arms packed full of bags
and baskets refuses to sit down
in the dog park a rottweiler
gnaws a femur
and occasionally i close
my eyes
i am much too
relaxed for a sinner
much to calm for a chronic
procrastinator, depressed
obsessor, obstructed creator,
empty handed procurer
if it weren’t for dog food commercials
i might not know what marrow
was, and yet i depend on
it. filling the space in my
bones, building up blood cells
i depend on a lot of
things i can’t see
i’ve built a life around it
but built another life besides
like a cancer, like a growing
black mole somewhere under
my clothes (a dependency on things)
and all of this blood and all of
these magnets pulling and pooling
draw these lethargic flies around me
tiny sentinels, vomiting
scavengers. yet still, in this place i grow closer
to understanding God.
our bodies
move in circles and
answer eachothereachothereachother
while we
go on unknowing
still trying
to ask for names
when
our lungs have
found a unison
our hearts are still
chasing
meanwhile. . .
our minds are still noticing the circles
and
not the fact
that our cells
are leaping
at eachothereachothereachother
our bodies
move in circles and
answer eachothereachothereachother
while we
go on unknowing
still trying
to ask for names
when
our lungs have
found a unison
our hearts are still
chasing
meanwhile. . .
our minds are still noticing the circles
and
not the fact
that our cells
are leaping
at eachothereachothereachother
still not too tired
to type this; write this; or send smoke signals
but too tired to remember this tomorrow
so, don’t remind me
just how cute and small I am, trying
to say these ordinary things in morethan-
ordinary ways
if you really must respond, please
let the words lay on your lips
I want only to know that moment
Just before the sentence lifts
And I hear air
still not too tired
to type this; write this; or send smoke signals
but too tired to remember this tomorrow
so, don’t remind me
just how cute and small I am, trying
to say these ordinary things in morethan-
ordinary ways
if you really must respond, please
let the words lay on your lips
I want only to know that moment
Just before the sentence lifts
And I hear air
What a week! I've really been riding a roller coaster this week my friends.
Up: Mandy Moore breaks up with Andy Roddick. She's single, I'm single. It's almost too perfect.
Down: Just when I begin to celebrate the demise of Creed (the Christian schlock band) they turn around and get a new singer and start calling themselves Alter Bridge. If they end up being so bad that I start missing the old Creed I think I will probably kill someone. Maybe 4 people.
Up: I can't remember. There was something really awesome that I was hot and bothered about but it escapes me. It continues to escape me. But it was way awesome, I swear. Down: I forgot something that I was giggles about.
Down: Rick James passed away. Sure, he was a misogynist, cocaine addict who sang songs about kinky prostitutes but, he was also a misogynist, cocaine addict who sang songs about kinky prostitutes.
You know, life is funny. This is what people tell me and I guess it must be true cause people don't just repeat benign common phrases for lack of better insight. My heart is broken when I find out that Lindsey Lohan is seeing that fellow from "That 70's Show." Then my heart is mended when I learn that my first true love (Mandy) is back on the market. Creed is going to keep on making music under a different name, but Rick James will not be bringing the funk this side of mortality any more. Devestating. How can I continue living in a world so horribly out of balance? Well, the answer is love. If I can hold on to the hope that Mandy will one day see me as more than just an aging stranger with no job and no direction, but as someone who loves her for what she appears to be then I know I can keep on going. Mandy, with only the hope of your love I can take whatever this topsy-turvy, over sour, undercooked, minor itching, flaky-crusty, sweet and sour, Morgan Stanley, ramen noodle, Fox on tuesday, home and garden, swelling burning, Oprah choking, mixed up, crazy world throw my way. Call me Mandy.
What a week! I've really been riding a roller coaster this week my friends.
Up: Mandy Moore breaks up with Andy Roddick. She's single, I'm single. It's almost too perfect.
Down: Just when I begin to celebrate the demise of Creed (the Christian schlock band) they turn around and get a new singer and start calling themselves Alter Bridge. If they end up being so bad that I start missing the old Creed I think I will probably kill someone. Maybe 4 people.
Up: I can't remember. There was something really awesome that I was hot and bothered about but it escapes me. It continues to escape me. But it was way awesome, I swear. Down: I forgot something that I was giggles about.
Down: Rick James passed away. Sure, he was a misogynist, cocaine addict who sang songs about kinky prostitutes but, he was also a misogynist, cocaine addict who sang songs about kinky prostitutes.
You know, life is funny. This is what people tell me and I guess it must be true cause people don't just repeat benign common phrases for lack of better insight. My heart is broken when I find out that Lindsey Lohan is seeing that fellow from "That 70's Show." Then my heart is mended when I learn that my first true love (Mandy) is back on the market. Creed is going to keep on making music under a different name, but Rick James will not be bringing the funk this side of mortality any more. Devestating. How can I continue living in a world so horribly out of balance? Well, the answer is love. If I can hold on to the hope that Mandy will one day see me as more than just an aging stranger with no job and no direction, but as someone who loves her for what she appears to be then I know I can keep on going. Mandy, with only the hope of your love I can take whatever this topsy-turvy, over sour, undercooked, minor itching, flaky-crusty, sweet and sour, Morgan Stanley, ramen noodle, Fox on tuesday, home and garden, swelling burning, Oprah choking, mixed up, crazy world throw my way. Call me Mandy.
I'm a terrible blogger. All the clever things I have to say I say to people over MSN messenger. By the time I get around to thinking about what to write on here I'm spent. Not a clever thought left. So now you have me with no funny crotch stories. No depressing poetry. I just know that I have to put something on here or no one will ever read this blog again and someday I'm going to say something really profound or proufoundly funny or mildly awesome and no one will be here to see it. I just can't bear the thought. I figure if I give you guys enough fodder you'll start thinking I'm on verge of saying something totally awesome and you'll keep coming back cause, "I just know he's about to say something totally sweet, I can feel it." I probably won't ever say anything that cool but the thing is you never know.
As of late I've been quite occupied with finding employment. The problem with looking for a job is finding the motivation. I spend all day looking for jobs and sending out applications and at the end of it all I keep hoping none of them answer back. I need a job, but I'm pretty sure I don't want one. Not a single job listing really excites me and if I want to get a job with anyone I have got to pretend really hard that it's just what i've always wanted to do. I'll be honest, when I first read the words "peek-a-boo panties" I was intrigued but I don't really want to spend all day calling businesses and telling them why they need to sell them. Part of me thinks that marketing might be a cool profession and then I realize that I hate a lot of stuff and I don't want to pretend I don't for a living. I hate peek-a-boo panties. I don't really know what they are but I hate them. I hate the neck pillow/regular pillow transformer. I hate the magic hands bra. I hate guys who say, "I was just in the financial district and you know what? Everyone was in suits. We dress for success," and "I don't care what your professors have told you, there's no business until theres a sale." I don't like slicked hair. I don't like little man complexes. I don't like law school. I don't want a job, I just want to get paid. Someone help me figure out how to do this.
By the way, here is my famous crotch:
I'm a terrible blogger. All the clever things I have to say I say to people over MSN messenger. By the time I get around to thinking about what to write on here I'm spent. Not a clever thought left. So now you have me with no funny crotch stories. No depressing poetry. I just know that I have to put something on here or no one will ever read this blog again and someday I'm going to say something really profound or proufoundly funny or mildly awesome and no one will be here to see it. I just can't bear the thought. I figure if I give you guys enough fodder you'll start thinking I'm on verge of saying something totally awesome and you'll keep coming back cause, "I just know he's about to say something totally sweet, I can feel it." I probably won't ever say anything that cool but the thing is you never know.
As of late I've been quite occupied with finding employment. The problem with looking for a job is finding the motivation. I spend all day looking for jobs and sending out applications and at the end of it all I keep hoping none of them answer back. I need a job, but I'm pretty sure I don't want one. Not a single job listing really excites me and if I want to get a job with anyone I have got to pretend really hard that it's just what i've always wanted to do. I'll be honest, when I first read the words "peek-a-boo panties" I was intrigued but I don't really want to spend all day calling businesses and telling them why they need to sell them. Part of me thinks that marketing might be a cool profession and then I realize that I hate a lot of stuff and I don't want to pretend I don't for a living. I hate peek-a-boo panties. I don't really know what they are but I hate them. I hate the neck pillow/regular pillow transformer. I hate the magic hands bra. I hate guys who say, "I was just in the financial district and you know what? Everyone was in suits. We dress for success," and "I don't care what your professors have told you, there's no business until theres a sale." I don't like slicked hair. I don't like little man complexes. I don't like law school. I don't want a job, I just want to get paid. Someone help me figure out how to do this.
By the way, here is my famous crotch:
Disclaimer: this is not a �historical� paper. I am not writing a thesis but a paper for talking points in a discussion group where the time is limited and my audience is of disciplines as varied as Political Science, Philosophy, Sociology, Economics and History. I had ten minutes to present, then everyone in the group commented in turn. I then defended or explained and they commented again. After that we broke into �free-for-all�. Survival was more important than proper documentation, which counted for nothing at all. The footnoting isn�t �correct� or even complete. Many �statements� are just that, statements without proper attribution. Comments just occur as I thought of them in preparation for the group discussion on this topic. I have not made an attempt to document things that I �just know�.( In fact as I think of it now much is probably based on teaching from Hollister, vol l one of The History of England for the past thirty years) I think the ideas are interesting but that�s about the size of it. I am sure that if I had researched the topic I would have found that many authors had either already answered my unanswered questions or come to my �flashes of insightful conclusions� before I did. Nevertheless I am pleased with those, to me, �new insights�.
The Influence of Food In History Round One
Reay Tanenhill says in Food in History: �It is an obvious truth, all too often forgotten, that food is not only inseparable form the history of the human race, but basic to it. Without food there would be no human race, and no history. For 50,000 years and more, humanity�s quest for food has helped to shape the development of society. It has profoundly influenced population growth and urban expansion, dictated economic and political theory, expanded the horizons of commerce, inspired wars of dominion and precipitated the discovery of new worlds. Food has played a part in religion, helping to define the separateness of one creed form another by means of dietary taboos; in science, where the prehistoric cook�s observations laid the foundations of early chemistry; in technology, where the water wheel first used for milling grain became a tool of the industrial revolution; in medicine, which was based largely on dietary principles until well into the eighteenth century and is becoming so again today; in war, where battles were postponed until the harvest was gathered in, and well-fed armies usually defeated hungry ones; in class distinctions, where a man�s quality and status were judged by the food on his table; and even in relations between peoples, where for 12,000 years there has been a steady undercurrent of antagonism between vegetarians and meat-eaters.�
With that said, about all that remains is to illustrate the thesis with selected snapshots of the elements of which it is composed. That is exactly what I propose to do.
But wait, there�s more.
By moving from hunting and gathering to herding and farming �we obtain far more edible calories per acre. As a result, one acre can feed many more herders and farmers-typically, 10 to 100 times more�. That strength of brute numbers was the first of many military advantages that food-producing tribes gained over hunter-gather tribes.� �In human societies possessing domestic animals, livestock fed more people in four distinct ways: by furnishing meat, milk, and fertilizer and by pulling plows.� ��Farmers must remain near their fields and orchards. The resulting fixed abode contributes to denser human populations by permitting a shortened birth interval. � In practice, nomadic hunter-gatherers space their children about four years apart �. By contrast, sedentary people, unconstrained by problems of carrying young children on treks, can bear and raise as many children as they can feed. The birth interval for many farm peoples is around two years�.� Moreover, settled peoples can and do store a surplus, allowing for the feeding of non-food producing specialists and hence the trappings of modern civilization. Or as Diamond says, ��once food can be stockpiled, a political elite can gain control of food produced by others, assert the right of taxation, escape the need to feed itself, and engage full-time in political activities.� After a society has evolved to the point of engaging full time in political activities I suppose its just a matter of time before the full circle of the Spenglerian response takes place and we destroy ourselves and start over again. Or as one internet search �reveals�: �High Cultures are “living” things — organic in nature — and must pass through the stages of birth-development-fulfillment-decay-death.� The “civilization” phase witnesses drastic social upheavals, mass movements of peoples, continual wars and constant crises. All this takes place along with the growth of the great “megalopolis” — huge urban and suburban centers that sap the surrounding countrysides of their vitality, intellect, strength, and soul. The inhabitants of these urban conglomerations — now the bulk of the populace — are a rootless, soulless, godless, and materialistic mass, who love nothing more than their panem et circenses. From these come the subhuman “fellaheen” — fitting participants in the dying-out of a culture. Or more succinctly,: �All cultures come to a Civilization phase, an autumn when this breaks down. Mega-cities are characteristic of this time. Politics is motivated by money, and move through Imperialism and the Period of Contending States to Caesarism, a period of despots. Science no longer reaches certainties. People no longer accept common principles or goals, they fight all rules from the past.�
I am using the �Spenglerian� thing more as tease than actual history. It�s just so darn hard to resist.
And I further suppose it was also just a matter of time till someone like Spengler, but apparently not him, figured out that one can make a living explaining how all this works, has worked or should work. Perhaps that�s part of the cycle. But as the American Populists sang �the farmer is the one, the farmer is the one, the farmer is the one who pays it all. Till they take him by the hand and lead him from the land , the farmer is the one that pays it all.�
As I said, we can�t do all of history so here is my first proof or if you will my first snapshot of the proof of the thesis that food is a major determinant of history.
1. Somewhere between 800 to 1,000 A.D. climate changes, and weather becomes warmer and more predictable until the 1200�s.
a. Fewer floods wash away the crops or rot them in the fields.
b. Grass grows better and in more abundance in the warmer weather.
c. A one-degree (Celsius) change in climate changes the amount of grass that grows or does not grow.
2. Homans, in The English Villager in the 13th Century in chronicling the ensuing colder next century and showing what happened when it got colder again shows what the earlier colder centuries preceding the 800�s may have been. �But the hay he had was only such as grew naturally � in the river bottoms and other low, wet places. Again, this does not mean strictly they grew without any cultivation. Piers' forefathers had to reclaim the Meadows from swamp, and Piers himself had to [mow?] them every year and see that the ditches were clean. But he did not sow grass-seed as he sowed corn. Unhappily the amount of water meadow in England is limited, in the Middle Ages an acre of meadow was worth something like three times as much as an acre of arable land. [Arable: fit for cultivation or plowing] Piers' hay crop was small, and since it was small his cattle were few. During the summer they could graze in the pastures, but in the winter they had to be fed on hay, together with as much of the spring-corn crop as Piers used for fodder. And since his cattle were few, the amount of dung Piers had to spread upon these fields was small also. Husbandry is full of such vicious cycle�s. In still another way, then, Piers was brought back to fallowing as his only large-scale means of restoring the qualities of the soil. From time to time, he simply had to leave the soil alone.�
3. Cattle thrive on the abundant grass and people eat more meat, drink more milk and have more cheese.
4. Grain is a grass and grows more profusely.
5. Caloric intake increases.
Ok, I confess the whole grass thing is my speculation, but I like it. It at least offers some reason for the unexplained historical fact of greater consumption of cattle and cattle products in this time period. 6. Chickens do better in the changed climate, are fed on the more abundant grains and people eat more chickens and consume more eggs. Thus there is more variety and protein.
The chicken, grain, climate thing is also my attempt to explain the fact of increased consumption of eggs and chicken. Perhaps chickens just do better in warmer weather and get out and forage on bugs and worms all by themselves, without the grain.
7. More horses are used to work the land.
Is this because of more graze because of the warmer climate and increased growth of grass for them which results in more horses being available and those available being in better physical condition?
Perhaps not. Tannahill says that horses don�t thrive on� a restricted diet of hay and grass�. His answer is that the three-field system led to an increase in oats. I wonder however if oats, indeed all grain crops, did not do better in the new, warmer climate, and if oats plus an �unrestricted� diet of hay and grass did not materially add to the prevalence of horses.
8. Horses work 50% faster than oxen.
9. The horse can work two hours longer than oxen.
10. The new horse collar is introduced, probably from China, and no longer chokes the horse but puts the strain on the horses shoulders resulting in more work being done, more rapidly. Tannenhill says that the new collar �almost quadrupled the horse�s draught efficiency�.
11. More fish is eaten.
Did the Gulf Stream change and bring more fish into the English fishing grounds. That seems a reasonable possibility. Brian Fagan , in discussing the Icelandic situation says �Cod flourish in waters between two and thirteen degrees Celsius, but their kidneys do not function in colder water. Even a minor shift in polar water causes the fish to follow warmth.� There is a lot I don�t know about water temperatures etc here. But if the warmth of the British Isles in the Medieval Warm Period had something to do with a more northerly shift of the Gulf stream or some other ocean current, it is possible it brought Cod or other fish closer to the English shores and fishing grounds. It at least seems a feasible solution to the unexplained fact of greater consumption of fish in this time period. a. The transport of fish from the coast to the interior probably demands that they be in a dried or salted condition.
What will be the effects on health from both the more abundant food and its preserved condition? That is, is there a trade off here resulting from a possible increase of salt into the diet, offset by the benefits of more abundant calories and protein? Its almost amusing to wonder if people who might otherwise be dead for lack of calories were now suffering from the effects of too much salt in their diet.
12. The three-field system is introduced
a. 1/6 more land is put under cultivation each year.
b. Grazing, on the fallow 1/3, puts heart back in the soil and the production rate stays level.
c. Despite this advantage it seems the three fields system was used only in the more productive areas and the perhaps older two-field system persisted in the less productive areas. This may be the case because no one would want to go to the expense of opening the newer more productive lands without cause. That is, the more productive areas of England were the southeastern clay soil lands. The light, less expensive scratch plow useful in other, upland, sandy soils would not break the clay soils of the southeast. The opening of those soils required the heavier, more expensive coulter, mouldboard and, sometimes, wheeled plow. At least that�s my guess. I have never heard it explained.
13. A new plow, with coulter and mould board, is introduced, plowing deeper and turning the soil better. Wheels are added, holding the plow level in the thick clay soils.
a. Rich land previously un-farmable is put into production and more people eat better and more.
14. The new tandem ox collar is introduced
a. Oxen are yoked in tandem, the pull placed upon their shoulders. They can pull the plow more effectively thus plowing more land more rapidly.
15. Leguminous crops are planted in greater profusion, restoring nitrogen to the soil and giving increased protein and iron to the peasant,
People are thus better fed and people have more energy, live longer and can do more work.
Women live longer and for the first time in Western Europe begin to outnumber men.
Fewer women die of anemia and in childbirth.
When women are lesser in numbers than men, men tend to treat them like scarce goods and to sequester them, placing them in Purdah and confining them to the house. This is Rodneys starks hypothesis. As women now outnumber men they are treated more liberally and achieve greater rights. They cannot be divorced at will. They can inherit and will land. Many engage in businesses, both their husbands and their own. A sort of heaven on earth descends on them. (Well, all things are relative) There are women moneylenders, blacksmiths and hod carriers. Women miners carry 110 pound coal packs on their backs up the ladders and down the long stoops of coal mines. One is quoted as saying �Would God the first woman that carried coal had broke her neck.� Thus women are doing heavy labor usually reserved to men. I suppose this is a kind of unsought equality.(This happens outside our time period but I like it so well I included it here. Perhaps no one will notice)
16. Water driven mills proliferate and wind driven grain mills are introduced making life easier for the peasant who previously had spent much energy in grinding and preparing the grain for his meals.
a. These mills developed for the grinding of grain form a part of the industrial revolution when adapted to turn other types of mills.
17. Cities grow because there is now enough food for the farmer and the city dweller. The whole Urban, urbane City, civil (!), Civitus, civilization, phenomenon, is possible because of farming advances which make excess food available to feed the non-food productive cities.
18. With the extra food available specialization is possible. Specialists fill the cities.
Thus Civilization re-grows after the decline of Rome and people have the time and inclination to wonder about the influence of food in history.
Then climate changes again somewhere in the early 1200�s and the world gets colder and wetter again. Just as this new cold cycle is beginning to result in famine and misery the Black Death strikes Europe and reduces its population by perhaps 1/3, ironically resulting in more for everyone who survives. And you can chase this theme forever.
Or taking a different tack:
Go back for a moment to the domestication of animals and think of the resulting generation of human diseases. When Europeans found the Americas they infected the American natives with European diseases and thus nearly guaranteed their own success in the conquest of those peoples and the taking of their lands, thus proving Diamonds thesis that: �Of equal importance in wars of conquest were the germs that evolved in human societies with domestic animals. Infectious diseases like smallpox, measles, and flu arose as specialized germs of humans, derived by mutations of very similar ancestral germs that had infected animals. The humans who domesticated animals were the first to fall victim to the newly evolved germs, but those humans then evolved substantial resistance to the new diseases. When such partly immune people came into contact with others who had had no previous exposure to the germs, epidemics resulted in which up to 99% of the previously unexposed population was killed. Germs thus acquired ultimately from domestic animals played decisive roles In the European conquests of Native Americans, Australians, South Africans, and Pacific Islanders. � And from Urrbrae Agricultural High School 505 Fullarton Road Netherby South Australia 5062 Telephone 61-8-8372-6955 Fax 61-8-8372-6999 Email urrbrae@urrbraehs.sa.edu.au :
�As a result of the interaction between humans and animals many biomedical researchers are suggesting that the “era of emergence” of zoonotic diseases is just beginning.
With today’s shift towards globalization and the frequent rapid movement of livestock through international trade, the spread of zoonotic diseases is on the rise. Along with this factor is increasing urbanization on a worlwide scale, and this is putting populations at risk.
One only has to step back into history to see the devestation wrought on human populations by zoonotic diseases such as the Bubonic Plague of the fourteenth century. It is estimated that 75 % of new or re-emerging diseases originate from animals.�
With the discovery of America new foods from America are introduced elsewhere and cause population explosions. a. Sweet potato in Formosa b. �White� Potatoes in Ireland and Europe.
With the introduction and slow acceptance of the Potato, famine declines in Europe.
Maize helps European Americans to succeed. a. A perfect frontier crop, easily planted and cared for without extensive clearing of land, it lacks an amino acid but the use of the American beans and squash with it in a form called succotash makes it a complete protein. b. The beans twine up the stalk and put the crop out of reach of small animals. ( Its out of their reach if they are a bit lazy) c. Being leguminous the beans put back into the soil what the corn take out, nitrogen. d. Squash besides completing the amino acid deficit also shades the soil and helps it retain moisture.
Jefferson is said to have said that the best thing one could do for a people is to introduce a new useful food or plant and thereupon introduced broccoli, maybe. The use of Corn by early Europeans in America really fulfills that promise. It was corn that made it possible, more easily possible, for Europeans to thrive in the new world.
I will just throw in the following material for your delectation. Let me make the following caveat. I seem to have lost the handle on what is quoted and what is not. If there are quotes around it it is a quote, but in a few cases without quotes the comments seem uncommonly intelligent. Use care.
CELTIC FARMING
�The basic wheat cereals of the Iron Age were Emmer (Tr. Dicoccum) and Spelt (Tr. Spelta ) wheats�. �At fruition the crops were a blaze of different colours, the red and purple of poppy, the yellows of buttercups as well as the golden grain.� [very poetic]
�Average yield figures in excess of 15 cwts per acre. [ = 1680 lbs?]These figures, the first reliable ones to be achieved, make great sense of the documentary sources. They are incidentally better than the national average yield figure of 12 1/2 cwts per acre [= 1400 lbs ?] achieved in Britain in 1910�. [cwt = hundred weight = 112 lbs]
�Analysis of these cereals goes far beyond their cultivation. Their food value in terms of protein per gram dry weight is quite remarkable. Modern cereals average at 8-9% while Emmer and Spelt wheat average 19% and 18% respectively. As in modern cereals, the missing component in the amino acid chain is lysine. This deficiency is readily corrected by eating fish. In this context it is relatively simple to suggest the perfect Celtic mean [menu?].�
�Wheat was not the only crop grown in the Iron age. A large number of other cereals, barleys and oats as well as flax were also main crops. Undoubtedly, a large number of herbs were cultivated, including caraway referred to as an additive to beer. Other major crops are evidenced by the carbonized seeds recovered from excavations, notably Vica faba minor, the Celtic or tic bean. Probably, since it fixes nitrogen in the soil, it was grown as a rotational crop to benefit the soil. The fruit in size midway between the pea and the broad bean, has a delicious nutty flavour and like the cereals is highly nutritious. One further potential major crop, a direct result of the research programme, is Chenopodium album, fat hen. Today it is regarded as a weed but originally it was a staple vegetable. The precursor to cabbage and spinach, it has a higher food value than either of its successors�.
Underground pits were very common in Britain at this time. [ What other kinds of pits can possibly exist? Aboveground pits would be interesting though. I’d like tosee those.]. ��one of its uses was for the storage of grain .� � �More than any other experiment, the grain storage in underground pits serve to underline the complexities of what at face value seems straightforward. The assertion that grain was stored in this way is simple to make but takes no account of the number of variables involved in the how and why, nor does it consider the nature of the stored product. The chemistry of grain storage is relatively simple to understand. Grain uses up oxygen in its respiration cycle and gives off carbon dioxide as the waste product. In a sealed container like a pit, the respiration process uses up the available oxygen and produces for itself an anaerobic atmosphere. The carbon dioxide acts as a preservative inhibiting further respiration. The bulk of the grain quickly enters a state of unstable dormancy, the instability being caused by the presence of bacteria and fungi. For successful storage low temperature and lack of moisture penetration are vital. The significant factors to emerge from this programme can be summarized as follows: grain can be stored in this way but only during the winter period; the grain is most likely to be seed grain rather than ordinary consumption grain; the existence of the pits indicate that the grain was warehoused for a short term. [ Let me take exception to this concept . If, as seems to have been the case in Medieval Britain, the grain was sown in the fall rather than the spring, to take advantage of the somewhat green house effect of grain sprouting and growing under the snow cover of winter, then this stored grain was not scheduled for sowing but either for winter consumption and then the trading of the excess in the spring or for trading in the spring but not for sowing. So something is wrong with the concept] The average Iron Age pit has a capacity in excess of one ton, and the combination of these factors suggest that there was extremely successful arable farming at the time. ��The growing period of both Emmer and Spelt is significantly longer than modern cereals, with harvest normally taking place in September�. [Unless it is planted in the fall and gets a head start?] �By the time collection and storage could be effected, the gales of the equinox rendered the English Channel an inhospitable place to be, especially in a sail-powered cargo boat with sixty tons of grain aboard. Bulk storage, therefore, prior to spring transportation is the logical conclusion, and this is supported by both documentary and archaeological evidence.
[Another aside. One of the problems with grain storage is the presence of rats and mice. Is it possible that pit storage took care of that problem and may have been one reason for its use? Grain we are told respires and its exhalation is an inert gas. Rodents not having the capacity to process carbon dioxide may have been prohibited from forays into the grain, thus making a far larger portion of the crop available each year than would have been possible by above ground storage. Just a thought. And if the rodents breathed in the inert gas was it almost Old Testamentary, �Inspire and die�. (Sorry)] [really sorry] [just not sorry enough]
Animals They raised sheep. The sheep raised is probably identical to the present day Soay, which �It is believed�are the direct descendants of the Iron age sheep. By a quirk of fortune the breed has survived intact for the last two thousand years on the St. Kilda islands off the north-west coast of Scotland.� Some may have been bred up to white fleece but that is mostly gone now. �Naturally fawn and dark brown in colour, they give approximately one kilogramme of soft wool per animal pre annum. The wool is plucked and not sheared.� These sheep must have been held in some sort of enclosure at times. They can leap �nearly two meters for example� and must have been difficult to herd. And they are said to be �impervious to dog control.� �Scottish folk lore suggests that a flock of twenty is adequate to clothe a family of five people per annum.� �In the late Iron Age a new artifact makes its appearance, the sheep shears. Not only does it indicate the use of mild spring steel but it also heralds a new breed of sheep. It is believed that the Shetland sheep were that new breed, possibly coming from Scandinavia. �. �Their wool is absolutely idea for hand spinning and weaving and makes up into splendid garments�.
Cattle ��The small Celtic shorthorn, (bos longifrons), is extinct.� The nearest animal surviving is the �Dexter cattle, bred from Kerry cattle of Ireland�.� �One other breed which qualifies within this context are the cattle of the highlands. Another unimproved breed, they are basically small, capable of doing well on relatively poor pasturage and amenable to training. In many ways they qualify as virtual direct descendants of the Celtic short-horn.�
Fowl
Few or perhaps no traces [ how could youl not know if no traces existed? it would seem that if no traces were there then there would be no traces.] of some types of fowl remain. What can be said is that they had the Indian Red Jungle Fowl, (gallus gallus sp.) and �its� successor the Old English Game Fowl�. They seem to have valued them for fighting and Bronze spurs have been found.
And while it is said that they did not eat them that is hardly tenable. They probably just did not eat the best fighting fowl. Some evidence exists, at an Iron Age site �at Glastonbury in Somerset, for the domestication of Geese.
[Some claim that the chicken was introduced for animal sacrifice to the gods and hence not for eating. However, the usual course of things was that animals sacrificed to the gods were eaten by the non gods as soon as decently possible. If they had chickens we can assume they ate them. As to not eating the best fighting fowl, only one fowl survived those fights. Is it reasonable to assume they just threw away the dead �chicken�? �No, no, we don�t eat those things because, � ah well, we just don�t that�s why. I mean, what with the feathers getting in your teeth and tickling your throat and all.�]
The Celt of Britain was not a roving nomad. And farming was his thing, with all the accoutrements, technical and cultural that went with it.
Probably the greatest influence of food has been engendered by its absence or scarcity. One thinks immediately of the Irish potato famine that resulted in the death of about a million people, the impoverishment and misery of many more and the emigration of at least another million. What one forgets is that it is the influence of the potato that made the high population figures possible in the first place. The rise of population and the increased health of several generations of Irish is a result of the introduction of potatoes from America. For the first generation it was all to the good. Many people lived and died, greatly benefited by the potato.
And now to the Potato
Potato
The Potato
How the Humble Spud Rescued the Western World
Larry Zuckerman
P. 5 The Spanish ran across the potato probably about 1533. The Potato would grow on the altiplano, at least 12,000 feet above sea level where the temperature high is perhaps 62 degrees Fahrenheit and the lows are below freezing or less. “Half the year, little or no useful precipitation falls, and a shifting weather pattern may bring local drought for a year or more. Under such conditions, wheat, corn, and barley stand almost no chance of reaching maturity. Few trees grow, and most vegetation is close-lying and dwarf like.” P. 5
” �but the potato thrives. Its starchy tubers feed the plant during all but the most severe frost’s, and during droughts of up to seven and a half months. The hardest species can cope with life at 15,000 feet, probably a world record for food crops. The potato grows in even the poorest soils and in every conceivable habitat, a precious benefit on the altiplano where soils are thin and lack nutrients more common at lower altitudes.” P. 5
“Science now knows that the potato supplies all vital nutrients—including, in its fresh form, vitamin C. —except calcium and vitamins A and D. ” One acres worth provides more than 10 people with their annual energy in protein needs, something that can�t be said of corn, wheat, Rice, or soybeans. P. 6 The Spanish probably took the potato back to Spain around 1570. P. 6
“With milk or dairy products to furnish calcium and vitamins A and D., the potato would anchor a nutritiously complete diet that many Europeans lacked otherwise. The tuber would also prevents scurvy….” P. 7 “finally, the potato would supply quick, cheap meals requiring little fuel or equipment—fast food again—qualities that accommodated lower class kitchens especially.”
The potato was slow to be adopted in Europe because it was seen as a food for the poor. By 1600 only botanists grew it. P. 10
The potato with its “striking bluish purple blossoms” and the strange growing underground seemed mysterious perhaps devilish. P. 11
Root crops were thought to promote lust and cause illness. P. 14
They thought roots spread infectious diseases and in 1620, England and France thought that they caused leprosy. P. 15
But the Irish liked the potato and it fits the climate. P. 17 “… the peasantry seized on the potato as a safeguard… against the tandem social plagues of unemployment, poverty, overpopulation, and land hunger. By 1780 these afflictions had helped push the tubers dominance.” P. 17 there, in Ireland, “the potato was universally liked.” P. 17
In Ireland “… rich and poor alike willingly ate praties, as they call them,….” P. 18
“No one knows how the potato reached Ireland. Legend says the 1590s, Sir Walter Raleigh brought it to an estate he owned in Youghal, County Cork. The story goes that he gave tubers to his Gardner, who planted them without knowing what they were, and who mistakenly ate the berries from the stalks, not realizing where the edible part was. If so, Raleigh had gotten these tubers in England, were botanists had received them around 1590, but not from South America. But there is no proof Raleigh brought potatoes to Ireland, and an unknown Spanish sailor may have been responsible instead.” P. 19
By the 1640s they had become a field crop. However they every still preferred oats
“The Gaelic Irish typically ate oats as porridge, but they sometimes mixed the grain with butter and roasted it on the hearth. Butter and dairying figured heavily in Irish life. Butter, whey, and curds made up the summer diet, before the oat harvest in autumn. Come autumn the Gaelic Irish buried tubs of butter to tide them over the winter and early spring, months when the cows couldn’t graze. This practice lasted centuries. As late as 1802 in County Tyrone’s remotest corners, the proverb went that you lived on buttermilk in summer, the butter in winter.” P. 19
[check the dates on next item]
???”In 1660s and 1670s, the potato had already become a backup during shortages, affording famine relief… in areas where grain harvests failed.”
… “Ireland ate little bread….
… In Anglo Norman Ireland, wheat held no special power; Irish bread which usually made of oats or mixed cereals.
“Still, bread was bread, and Anglo- Norman reliance on it prevented the potato from taking hold more quickly.
“So did peas and beans which ripened early and kept well when dried.” … winter barley, was important too, because it matured in July before any other cereal did, or potatoes, for that matter.”
The Kind of weather which is bad for grain (wet) was good for potatoes the Gulfstream kept Western Ireland mild. Good for potatoes, but damp. Ireland’s climate is the one in Europe best suited for potatoes.
The Irish often didn’t have coal and instead burned peat. Good quality peat burned brightly, with a clean flame. But if the turf was wet it would not burn. In 1848 turf fires would not burn. The year was too wet. Cabins often had no chimneys and eyes were affected. The cabin was often 12 by 13 or 12 by 21 feet. It had mud clay walls, and was thatched with sod, or reeds, straw, potato stalks or all of the above. Floors were often muddy. The fire was built on the ground, against a wall. There may been a hole in the roof, or the doors or Windows served as chimneys. Faces were smoked like ham.
Potatoes were easy to fix, boiled or roasted. Children roasted and ate them all day long. Peasant often only had a pot, a table several three legged stools, a knife, several plates and a spoon.
The same large kettle was used to: boil potatoes, to wash in, as a dish for children and pigs, as a waste can, as a chamber pot or inverted as a table.
Everyone ate with his or her fingers. There no Forks and Knives were the only utensils used by everyone in the 1700s.
There were few plows and people used the cheaper spade. There were no horses anyway. The 1750s they went England in the spring, for work planting, because the wages were higher.
The following description of Irish planting practices seems to me to be directly copied from the Peruvian methods which are just lately being rediscovered and praised.
“To fit their meager resources— spades and workers to wield them—Irish farmers had developed method of cultivation. The method was the so-called lazy bed, also called ridge planting, forms of which date back to ancient and medieval times. Each ridge was a rectangular plot, separated from its neighbors by a shallow trench, to create raised planting beds. For potato culture, the beds were 5 to 9 feet wide, depending on local customs, and the trenchs a foot and half to three feet wide. Using the spade, the farmer turned over the soil and applied lime and fertilizer, the latter usually animal dung, or, near the coast, seaweed. With a spade or a dibble, an iron tipped rod call a stiveen, the farmer then dropped the seed potatoes into the bed.” “Ten workers could turnover an acres worth of beds in one day; 40 might spend a day sowing the acre.”
depending on the quality of the soil and type of potato, “per acre yields average 6.5 to 8.5 tons, sometimes more.” Therefore average consumption per person was about 5.5 pounds per day.
So, an acre of ground could feed six people for a year. That is, an acre produced about six tons, or 12,045 pounds a year.
Let us site the case of a farmer with 2.47 acres who fattened 18 pigs, four bullocks and “produced seed tubers for four acres, and fed his family of 20.” This is a wealthy family that probably ate other things too.” However children probably ate less, and the men probably ate more. men probably consumed 8 to 10 pounds of potatoes a day. Milk was also consumed and was absolutely necessary. “If the Irish family had a cow, or access to dairy products, their diet included calcium and vitamin A the potato lacked. It was only when they couldn’t get enough milk, butter, or other source of vitamin A that their diet failed them.” p. 31
People kept their thumbnail long to peel potatoes.
“Sometimes the Irish fried their praties in butter, perhaps having boiled them first, the latter treatment producing a kind of potato cake. The rich served their potatoes boiled with skins on, and had them brought to the table several times during a meal, fresh and hot.” P. 32
“There were variations, if rare, even in what the poor ate. One was Colcannon, or cale-cannon, that is, turnips or cabbage mashed up with potatoes and stewed. (A northern version, popular in County Armagh, substituted beans for the turnips and cabbage.)
Few grew turnips or cabbage however.
Between 1700 and 1845 the potato moved from a supporting role to dominance. But There was a famine in 1728 and 29, which killed thousands. The famine was caused by failure of the oat crop and made worse by the fact that the potato was not yet more than supportive. [even in the 1740�s the potato was a staple in only one Irish county]. P. 33 “It was this famine that prompted Jonathan Swift to write his classic pamphlet, “a modest proposal.”“
Oates ripened in October. EARLY POTATOES RIPENED IN AUGUST late potatoes ripened in September potatoes would last eight months. A newer potato, called the Irish apple, was said to last perhaps one to two years, but probably didn’t. A failed potato crop thus meant a month or two of no food before the oat harvest and six months before the next potato planting. As time when by the Irish depended more on the potato and grew less Oates thus increasing their risk of starvation if the potato crop failed.
By 1780 the potato was the County’s chief staple in County Mayo. Oats were still there and were eaten in what was called stirabout or porridge. Some farm families had meat but the majority ate only potatoes and milk and never tasted bread or meat �except� at Christmas once or twice�.. They raised pigs for export and ate milk and potatoes. They used the dung on the potatoes. [ One can only hope that means on the potato fields]
Almost everyone kept Pigs but the cow was the better option. A cow yielded milk and butter. The well-off peasant would kill one pig, and sell several. The poor sold all. The Pig lived in the house and helped warm it.
Early emigration was not by the poor but by the better off who had money and drive to migrate. One group left in the summer of 1727, perhaps 3,000. In 1740 to 1741 emigration picked up again. “During the 1760s 20,000 immigrants left”… ” most… for North America.” P. 37 “in the early 1770s 30,000 people left … in four years, mostly to North America.” P. 37
Irish holdings kept getting smaller.
The population soared: 1780 it was about four million in 1841 it had reached eight million.. p.39
In 1845 a blight hit the potatoes of Europe. In mid September� the blight struck Ireland. P. 187
�livid patches covering the whole plant�root, tubers, foliage-until the Haulm [stem] becomes a putrid mass and the potatoes get soft and smell offensively�] whole fields turned black in a week or a day.
The �blight destroyed 40 percent of the harvest. �deaths were few�� �the blight returned in 1846� and destroyed �90 percent of the potatoes,�� �by late autumn and into 1847 the death toll jumped because of starvation and diseases, chiefly dysentery and other intestinal infections; typhus and its lookalike, relapsing fever; and respiratory infections�. �From 1847, too, emigration increased. � song: �The first downfall that Ireland got, the lumpers they were black when I hired with Captain Murphy to work my passage to New York� p. 189
�� But the potato was much more than its principal food; more, even, than the sole food of perhaps 40 percent of its population .� ?
�The relief committee of the Society of Friends, the Quakers, noted that the potato�s demise struck like a wave, passing the impact from one class to another. It fell with unequal force, buffeting some sooner than others, and left some untouched, but it went deep into Irish society. The first and hardest hit were conacre tenants, who had neither food nor any way to pay their rent. Next, the small holders who raised cattle or grain for cash had a cruel choice: eat the grain (assuming they could process it) and risk eviction, or sell it and starve. Servants and laborers lost their jobs because the gentry fired them to reduce expenses. Manufacturers also discharged their workers. Employment generally vanished except through government-sponsored public works, which paid pitifully little and were overwhelmed with applicants. Food prices quickly outstripped these wages, injuring not only those struggling to eat but shopkeepers, wholesalers, and merchants. Crafts and businesses suffered , as consumption dropped steeply�. P. 190
��hundreds of emigrants jammed the roads.� There was a total absence of livestock.
�The Irish landscape was nearly devoid of pigs, and even �the few dogs were poor and piteous, and had ceased to bark.�� P. 191
The �destitute� sought relief inside the �poorhouses� and as soon as they left their homes the landlords knocked them, the homes , down and reclaimed the land.
Estimates say that perhaps 60 percent escaped un scathed but that the remaining 40 percent were piteous in the extreme. December 1846: � recounting a visit to a coastal hamlet. ` �In the first [hovel] six famished and ghastly skeletons, to all appearance dead, were huddled in a corner on some filthy straw, their sole covering what seemed a ragged horse-cloth, and there wretched legs hanging about, naked above the knees. I approached in horror, and found by a low moaning they were alive, they were in fever�four children, a woman, and what had once been a man. It is impossible to go through the details, suffice it to say, that in a few minutes I was surrounded by at least 200 such phantoms, such frightful specters as no words can describe.� P. 192
��some of the people who weren�t admitted to the workhouse wouldn�t survive the four-mile walk home. �P. 193
�In Glenties, county Donegal, the workhouse was so ill-equipped that on the day before the Friends inspected it, the inmates had had only one meal, of oatmeal and water. At the time of the visit, the workhouse had less than a day�s supply of food. Some inmates were leaving, preferring to die in their own hovels. The only bedding was straw. Rugs were the only blankets, and as many as six people, some dying , crowded under each one.”