Intro:
Food has shaped the world into what it is in the modern day, and food played a major role in the history of mankind. In An Edible History of Humanity, by Tom Standage, Standage focuses on how food has had an impact of food from when hunter-gatherers were around, to the present day. Standage’s goal is to teach the reader the overall importance of food in our world, more than just what it is to most people now, something that we eat to fuel ourselves, which usually tastes good. He wants to look beyond the eating aspect of the food and tell us the importance of it way before we were alive. His choice of teaching history based on food and food only is quite an interesting idea. I think that he chose to teach history with food because there …show more content…
He also might be doing this so that it appeals to a wide variety of people in hopes of being able to teach everyone the history of humanity through something that everyone loves. He plans to prove to us all that food has done more than just something to eat. Food can teach us about how early humans survived, how they thrived, how they lived. Food has changed fates of many, and has altered the path that humanity was on many times. Food has been the deciding factor for wars. Food has been a significant part of the world, and it should be, because “everything that every person has ever done , throughout history, has literally been fueled by food” (Standage xiii).
Part I:
In the novel, An Edible History of Humanity, Tom Standage, the author of the novel, makes the claim that “the adoption of farming… was the worst mistake in the history in the human race” (Standage 16). Standage does have plenty of evidence to back up his claim, including how farming was a step down from hunting and gathering, as stated on pages 16 and 17. It is clearly stated in the book that farmers had less free time than hunter-gatherers and could only eat the few …show more content…
In the book, it states, “the gods were thought to be dependent on humans, and the humans were thought to be dependent in turn on the gods” (Standage 54). “The Mesopotamians thought humans had a duty to provide food and earthly residences for the gods” (Standage 55). Standage also states on page 55 that Incas sacrificed many animals to the gods. Food was also used for power. As stated previously, food was used as currency and was power. The more food you had, the more powerful you were. For example, the big men had control over most of the food in a community, and therefore had most of the power in the community, which Standage wrote on pages 39 and
Food has shaped the world into what it is in the modern day, and food played a major role in the history of mankind. In An Edible History of Humanity, by Tom Standage, Standage focuses on how food has had an impact of food from when hunter-gatherers were around, to the present day. Standage’s goal is to teach the reader the overall importance of food in our world, more than just what it is to most people now, something that we eat to fuel ourselves, which usually tastes good. He wants to look beyond the eating aspect of the food and tell us the importance of it way before we were alive. His choice of teaching history based on food and food only is quite an interesting idea. I think that he chose to teach history with food because there …show more content…
He also might be doing this so that it appeals to a wide variety of people in hopes of being able to teach everyone the history of humanity through something that everyone loves. He plans to prove to us all that food has done more than just something to eat. Food can teach us about how early humans survived, how they thrived, how they lived. Food has changed fates of many, and has altered the path that humanity was on many times. Food has been the deciding factor for wars. Food has been a significant part of the world, and it should be, because “everything that every person has ever done , throughout history, has literally been fueled by food” (Standage xiii).
Part I:
In the novel, An Edible History of Humanity, Tom Standage, the author of the novel, makes the claim that “the adoption of farming… was the worst mistake in the history in the human race” (Standage 16). Standage does have plenty of evidence to back up his claim, including how farming was a step down from hunting and gathering, as stated on pages 16 and 17. It is clearly stated in the book that farmers had less free time than hunter-gatherers and could only eat the few …show more content…
In the book, it states, “the gods were thought to be dependent on humans, and the humans were thought to be dependent in turn on the gods” (Standage 54). “The Mesopotamians thought humans had a duty to provide food and earthly residences for the gods” (Standage 55). Standage also states on page 55 that Incas sacrificed many animals to the gods. Food was also used for power. As stated previously, food was used as currency and was power. The more food you had, the more powerful you were. For example, the big men had control over most of the food in a community, and therefore had most of the power in the community, which Standage wrote on pages 39 and