Speaking of conferences, there’s another one that’s worth keeping an eye on, which I learned about via Eurekalert. It’s called Food and Drink in Archaeology 2007 and will feature a keynote address by Professor Martin Jones of the Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge entitled “Feast: Why Humans Share Food.”
Why is this relevant to us here at the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog? Well…
Whilst the importance of nutrition for survival has long been recognised, recent studies have increasingly stressed the cultural significance of the production, distribution and consumption of foodstuffs through out all archaeological periods. An understanding of diet in past societies is therefore crucial to an understanding of daily life, and the relationships between different classes and societies throughout the world.
Agriculture is the reason why we all got together in the first place, isn’t it? Good questions have been asked regarding why our ancestors bothered to do all that grain domestication when the hunter-gatherer diet clearly was more nutritious and less laborious. Some of the good questions made good symposium titles such as “Did man once live by beer alone?” Organized in the early 50s. Speculating if the cradle of civilisation became so because of beer brewing, not bread baking.
Cheers! We have blogged about beer a few times. You might want to check out my post on globeerization.