People Ate Research Articles

Contribution of Antemortem Tooth Loss (AMTL) and Dental Attrition to Oral Palaeopathology in the Human Skeletal Series from the Yean-Ri Site, South Korea

Antemortem tooth loss (AMTL) and degree of dental attrition are thought to be closely related to dental caries and periodontitis, not only in ancient human skeletal remains but also in modern humans. We examined these features in the Yean-ri skeletal series (AD 4rd to 7th centuries), South Korea. There is no significant difference between males and females in AMTL and degree of dental attrition, so the male and female data in the present study were pooled. However, a significant difference in the AMTL rate was observed between individuals of different ages, particularly in the posterior teeth of the lower jaw. A significant increase in AMTL was seen with increasing age. The degree of dental attrition was also correlated with age and was closely related to dental eruption. The prevalence of occlusal dental caries was low in the Yean-ri skeleton. Yean-ri people ate food that was much harder than the food eaten by modern day people; therefore, their dental attrition was considerable. Occlusal dental caries is speculated not to have occurred in an individual with occlusal surfaces, such as severe attrition. In other words, occlusal dental caries might have occurred in young people, but it would not have been found in individuals beyond a certain age, as dental attrition progressed with aging. If dental attrition was considerable, slight occlusal dental caries could have disappeared due to dental attrition, as in the modern Nigerian cases. Furthermore, severe dental attrition in archaeological samples was closely related to caries sites.

‘A Slice of Life’: Food Narratives and Menus from Mass-Observers in 1982 and 1945

This paper reports on an analysis of hitherto unexamined documentary data on food held within the UK Mass Observation Archive (MOA). In particular it discusses responses to the 1982 Winter Directive which asked MOA correspondents about their experiences of food and eating, and the food diaries submitted by MOA panel members in 1945. What is striking about these data is the extent to which memories of food and eating are interwoven with recollections of the lifecourse; in particular social relations, family life, and work. It seems asking people about food generates insight into aspects of everyday life. In essence, memories of food provide a crucial and potentially overlooked medium for developing an appreciation of social change. We propose the concept ‘food narratives’ to capture the essence of these reflections because they reveal something more than personal stories; they are both individual and collective experiences in that personal food narratives draw upon shared cultural repertoires, generational memories, and tensions between age cohorts. Food narratives are embodied and embedded in social networks, socio-cultural contexts and socio-economic epochs. Thus the daily menus recorded in 1945 and memories scribed in 1982 do not simply communicate what people ate, liked and disliked but throw light on two contrasting moments of British history; the end of the second world war and an era of transition, reform, individualization, diversity which was taking place in the early 1980s.

Reflections for February: What's Wrong With Everybody?

> My wife and I at the breakfast table > > Sunday paper between us, > > describing a disaster somewhere, > > she concludes with, “The people ate can six fizzle.” > “What?” I ask, looking up from the funny pages. > > Puzzled, she looks at me. “Worm didn't hake Monday.” > > I laugh at this strange joke from my …

WHAT’S FOR DINNER? INVESTIGATING FOOD-PROCESSING TECHNOLOGIES AT DUST CAVE, ALABAMA

Many models of hunter-gatherer subsistence have traditionally focused almost exclusively on what people ate. More recently, researchers have begun to ask how these ancient foods were processed and prepared prior to consumption, questions that are best answered by looking at the context in which food remains are uncovered. At the archaeological site of Dust Cave (1Lu496), excellent preservation conditions have resulted in a plethora of cooking features. Ranging from small charcoal pits to fired clay surfaces and hearths, the features at Dust Cave are in-situ representations of the occupants’ cooking and processing activities. We use a combination of paleoethnobotanical, zooarchaeological, geoarchaeological, and experimental methods to investigate these activities. Experimental studies were conducted in order to develop archaeological correlates for food processing. Experimental results are then compared to botanical and faunal remains from the site as well as chemical analyses of feature fill. Results suggest that the occupants of Dust Cave likely processed fish and plants–primarily nuts–on a large scale. Specifically, fish appear to have been roasted in coals, plants and nuts toasted or parched on flat clay “griddle-like” surfaces, and hickory nuts boiled in pit hearths to extract nut oil.

The Magic of the Monkey House: New Insights Into the Anatomy that Makes Primates Primates

JEFFREY T. LAITMAN*Associate Editor, The Anatomical RecordThe year 1958 began as a really horrible one for me.Two events made this so. The first occurred in the earlyspring when I realized that the Brooklyn Dodgers—ourbaseball team and the soul of Brooklyn—had abandonedus and fled to some bizarre place where people ate tacosinstead of Nathan’s franks and where it never snowed.Even their perennial nemesis—the New York Giants—left town for another unfathomable hamlet that wasalways having earthquakes. My almost 7-year-old mindcould not fathom all this; the heroes I worshipped(Jackie Robinson often patted my little crew-cut head)were gone forever. I even became a Yankees fan.My second crisis occurred before school ended in latespring. Our class had trip to the great American Mu-seum of Natural History in Manhattan. I loved museumtrips as I got to see dinosaurs, my second passion afterthe Dodgers. Tyrannosaurs, triceratops, hadrosaurs, Iloved them all, but none more than the brontosaurus. Iadored the big beasts with little heads, so much so, thatI could not help but go under the ropes to climb on one’stail to get ‘‘up close and personal.’’ Caught in this act ofdefilement by a Goliath-sized museum guard, I washauled off by the scruff of the neck (those were the daysbefore ‘‘spare the rod’’ philosophy was in effect) andejected from the Museum. My teacher banned me fromfuture trips.Ejected and branded (all but a scarlet letter emblaz-oned on my forehead) in my seventh year. To make mat-ters worse, I had no project to write up for my schoolreport; no postcards of dinos or stuffed grizzlies or mete-orites to glue into a folder. I was sure the dreaded—andoft threatened—‘‘summer school’’ would be my fate. Andworst of all—what would I tell my mother? Oy!As I sat on the front steps of our Brooklyn home,watching the other kids play stickball or marbles, I pon-dered the enormity of my failure. Lost in my melancholy,I didn’t notice my father come home. I was glad he sawme before my mother as she was the disciplinarian andhe a gentle Parisian who would say something I didn’tunderstand in French and not get too angry. When Iexplained what happened, he just said he had an idea,and I should get up early on Sunday.When Sunday arrived, my dad bundled me into ourold Chevy and set off:::to the Bronx Zoo. ‘‘Forget thedead animals,’’ dad said, ‘‘let’s look at live ones.’’ Thiswas my first time at the Bronx zoo and I was riveted toall the sights and sounds, but, truthfully, nothing set myheart to flutter. The elephants were big, but smelledfoul; the seals and sea lions looked and sounded likedogs; the rhinos reminded me of garbage trucks; I wasscared of cats the size of small cars. And then I saw asight that would forever change my world: The MonkeyHouse.I sat and stared at the assortment of baboons andmacaques and squirrel monkeys for most of the day.While I had seen some stuffed ones in the Museum, Inever realized that these animals looked and acted somuch like my family and friends. I even started to namethem in my mind after relatives: there was Aunt Flo, bigand bossy; Uncle Joe, snoozing away; Cousin Richie,climbing all over his brother Irwin, on and on. They hadhands and fingers and toes that seemed to do all that Icould do, and I envisioned them talking together andplanning their day. And then it happened: as I ponderedmy new hairy family, a wad of poop landed smack on mycrew-cut head, thrown by some impish baboon. ‘‘Wow!’’my shocked little mind took a moment to cogitate,‘‘Poop! They hit me with poop! These guys got attitude;they are definitely cool. They could make it inBrooklyn.’’A bond was forged that day between those poop-throw-ing cousins and me, one that has led me on my own ca-reer path: to understand our place among thoseremarkable relatives. Like most of us who spend ourdays trying to figure out why we pay taxes and theserelatives don’t, or how their historical trajectory landedthem in the zoo and we were able to enjoy (albeit mo-mentarily for some) the excitement of pondering dino-saurs at a museum, I’m always torn between myscientist’s focused curiosity to discover the nuances ofour collective anatomical similarities and a profound ad-oration for these kin. I know it might sound a tad odd tothose whose science keeps them at some emotional dis-tance from their object of study (I know you can’t get tooemotional over a zebrafish, drosophila, or an endoplas-mic reticulum), but one of the traits I’ve found shared byprimate biologists—anatomists, paleontologists, anthro-pologists, lab and fieldworker alike—is our emotionalties to the animals we study. There is undisputable joyin our science, but it is also inseparably coupled with anoverriding knowledge that we are studying ourselves.

The Shrine

The Shrine

Health behaviours of young, rural residents: A case study

To analyse self-reported health behaviours of young people from a rural community and the factors influencing their behaviours. Interviews were conducted with 19 young people, 11 parents and 10 key informants from a small rural Victorian community, asking about teenage health behaviours and the factors influencing these behaviours. Young people ate both healthy and unhealthy foods, most participated in physical activity, few smoked and most drank alcohol. The study found that community level factors, including community norms, peers, access issues and geographic isolation, were particularly powerful in shaping health behaviours, especially alcohol consumption. Smoking was influenced by social participation in the community and national media health campaigns. Diet and exercise behaviour were influenced by access and availability, convenience, family, peers and local and non-local cultural influences. The rural context, including less access to and choice of facilities and services, lower incomes, lack of transport and local social patterns (including community norms and acceptance), impact significantly on young people's health behaviours. Although national health promotion campaigns are useful aspects of behaviour modification, much greater focus on the role and importance of the local contexts in shaping health decisions of young rural people is required.

Changing Consumption, Changing Consumers: An Analysis of Changing Food Consumption in Southern Italy in the Mid-twentieth Century

Italy’s “Economic Miracle” is often perceived as a time of change in living conditions as accelerating economic development led to more affluent lifestyles. Such changes are thought to have been reflected in what people ate and how they thought about food. While the post-World War Period has been identified as a time of radical improvements in living conditions and expectations, we can question the assumption that this was a one-way, sudden process whereby new consumer ideals simply superseded previously held values and behaviours. This paper identifies the impact of these changes on food consumption in the Amalfi Coast in the period 1945-1960. These changes may have influenced the homes in which people lived, what they did during leisure time, and what they ate, on an everyday level. It is clear, however, that pre-existing socio-economic conditions, and geographical and cultural factors, shaped both the extent to which new patterns of consumerism were adopted and the ways in which new behaviours and attitudes were worked into daily life in the area. Using information drawn from interviews conducted with inhabitants of the Amalfi Coast, this paper explores changing patterns of food consumption by assessing how food habits and traditions were directly influenced by the physical landscape, and this framed the reception of new ideas, as well as the ways by which new products were introduced into peoples’ lives and changed them in the process. The paper argues that the purchase and integration of consumable and durable items were not influenced solely by the physical possibility of buying something, but also by an element of local acceptance of the product and an understanding of how it might be integrated into daily life - factors that were constantly being negotiated with pre-existing socio-economic habits and wider cultural influences.

Fishing and consumption patterns of anglers adjacent to the Oak Ridge Reservation, Tennessee: higher income anglers ate more fish and are more at risk

The risks from consuming self‐caught fish are receiving international attention because of high levels of contaminants in some species. The ethnic, income, and educational differences in fishing and fish consumption patterns of 202 anglers fishing along the Clinch River arm of Watts Bar Reservoir adjacent to the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) or along Poplar Creek within ORR boundaries were analyzed to understand how to design a risk communication strategy. Because of elevated PCB concentrations in striped bass (Morone saxatilis), catfish (Ictalurus spp.), and sauger (Stizostedion canadense) due partly from contaminants released from the ORR in East Tennessee, the Clinch River arm of Watts Bar Reservoir is under a fish consumption advisory, while portions of Poplar Creek are under advisories because of mercury. Most studies find that a high proportion of anglers eat their catch, and people with lower incomes and less education generally eat more self‐caught fish than others fishing in the same region. Calculating fish consumption individually for each person indicated that a considerable number of people ate more fish from the study area than the amount used to calculate risks when developing fish consumption advisories, and people who ate fish more often usually ate larger portions. Unlike previous studies of fish consumption, this study indicated that a smaller proportion of anglers ate their fish, and those that ate the most were the high income anglers for this fishing population, rather than those with lower incomes. This suggests that risk communication strategies must include site‐specific information on the population at risk from fish consumption, and that targeting only low income, low education anglers will miss some people who are most at risk.

Reducing Satiation: The Role of Categorization Level

People usually like experiences less as they repeat them: they satiate. This research finds that people satiate less if they categorize the consumption episodes at lower levels. For instance, as people ate more jelly beans, their enjoyment declined less quickly when the candy was categorized specifically (e.g., cherry, orange) rather than generally (e.g., jelly bean). Three studies demonstrate this “specificity effect” for people’s ratings of enjoyment both during and immediately after consumption. Process evidence shows that subcategorization focuses people’s attention on differentiating aspects, making the episodes seem less repetitive and consequently less satiating.

Consumer Knowledge of Nutritional Attributes of Pecans and Factors Affecting Purchasing Behavior

A study was conducted among the attendees of the Annual Texas Master Gardener Conference held in College Station, TX, in May 2006. Participants were asked to complete a 31-question survey to understand their knowledge of the nutritional attributes and storage guidelines of pecans (Carya illinoinensis). A total of 177 attendees completed the survey, corresponding to 32.2% of the total number of conference attendees. Participants were asked to complete the survey to test their nutritional knowledge, purchasing attitude, consumption, and storage preferences of pecans (23 questions). The remaining eight questions requested biographical and demographical information. Results revealed that taste was the main reason people ate pecans followed by the perception of eating something healthy. Over four-fifths of survey respondents knew that pecans contain heart-healthy fats and proteins. Approximately one-half of the respondents were aware that pecans are a source of minerals and antioxidants. However, 86.9% of the respondents believed that consuming pecans could lead to an increase in the levels of low-density lipoprotein (“bad”) cholesterol, which is opposite of what was reported by clinical studies. Over one-third of the respondents did not think that pecans require refrigeration to maintain flavor. Moreover, over half of the respondents did not believe that pecans store better if kept in the shell. Although the sample was limited because it was one of convenience, in general, respondents had good eating habits and a very positive attitude toward pecans. However, more educational programs are necessary to inform them about the health properties and proper storage methods of pecans.

La découverte des sulfamides hypoglycémiants

In 1933 Auguste Loubatières started to work at the Physiological Laboratory of the Montpellier Medical School, famous for the scientific work of Emmanuel Hédon and then Louis Hédon on experimental diabetes mellitus. Auguste Loubatières was particularly interested in the study of a new preparation of long-lasting insulin (insulin-protamine-zinc: IPZ) in the totally pancreatectomized dog. In 1938, he observed that high doses of IPZ induced a severe and protracted hypoglycemia entailing convulsive attacks and even irreversible coma. The story of hypoglycemic sulfonamides started in France in spring 1942. During the second world war, because of the food shortage in Montpellier, a lot of people ate rotting food or even food contaminated with bacteria, such as shellfish. Many cases of thyphoid fever were diagnosed and treated by Marcel Janbon at the Clinic of the Montpellier Medical School with a new sulfonamide (VK 57 or 2254 RP). Adverse reactions were observed: in some patients, convulsions and even prolonged coma occurred; in some others a major drop in blood glucose was observed. M. Janbon informed the physiologists about these observations questioning them for an interpretation. A. Loubatières was particularly interested and immediately undertook animal trials. On June 13, 1942, he observed that repeated oral administration of 2254 RP in the normal fasting conscious dog induced a progressive, marked and long-lasting decrease in glycemia. He continued his experiments and definitively established the hypoglycemic effect of this sulfonamide. However the mechanism of action remained to be established. The pattern of some graphs reminded him that of some others he could previously observe in the study with IPZ; it occurred to him that 2254 RP could lower the blood glucose concentration by stimulating insulin secretion. He had then to establish the validity of his hypothesis. From 1942 to 1946, A. Loubatières performed a systematic study of the effects of 2254 RP and structural analogs and investigated the mechanism involved in the hypoglycemia. These results are reported in his "Doctorat ès-Sciences" thesis (1946). He observed that 2254 RP was ineffective on glycemia in totally pancreatectomized dogs but was effective in partially pancreatectomized ones. The hypoglycemic effect in normal dog was dependent on the plasma sulfonamide concentration; this effect appeared whatever the route of administration and was unaffected by vagotomy. Furthermore, Loubatières performed cross-circulation experiments. In these experiments, the pancreatico-duodenal vein of a normal dog was anastomosed to the jugular vein of a receiver dog made diabetic by alloxan; in this case, the injection of 2254 RP into the donor induced a decrease in blood glucose levels in the receiver. In early 1946, Auguste Loubatières proposed that the hypoglycemic property of 2254 RP was due to its ability to stimulate insulin secretion through a direct action on pancreatic islets; he wrote in his thesis "A notre avis, le para-amino-benzène-sulfamido-isopropylthiodiazol (2254 RP) est donc un corps essentiellement insulino-sécréteur; son action s'exerce directement sur les îlots de Langerhans". He also proposed to use such hypoglycemic sulfonamides in certain forms of diabetes "que l'on peut qualifier de fonctionnels et qui sont la conséquence d'une paresse des mécanismes insulino-sécréteurs". In 1992, Jean-Claude Henquin demonstrated that the sequence of events triggered by 2254 RP at the level of islet beta-cells was similar to that induced by sulfonylureas of the first or second generation. Thus, the 2254 RP, proposed by Auguste Loubatières in the treatment of certain forms of diabetes, was the first of oral hypoglycemic sulfonamides currently used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus.

HowTo: the will to organize

hoping to not have bored you so far. willpower we have, we don't need to manifest it more people ate conscious, even without manifesto, we need to do and fQie/i.pe.opie;AQi^io...?iQ. we need to focus on prob lems and document how to $olve them, we don't need a manifesto, we need a howto. there we go with everyone building it up in his/her own language, there we can point out problems we all know about, there we can focus the ways out then, and i hope we won't be all staged on a hollywood movie aj? the end. ciao, jaromil (jarpmil@dyne.org)

Trichinosis: Epidemiology in Thailand

Trichinosis is one of the most common food-borne parasitic zoonoses in Thailand and many outbreaks are reported each year. This paper reviews the history, species, and epidemiology of the disease and food habits of the people with an emphasis on the north, northeast, central and south regions of Thailand. The earliest record of trichinosis in Thailand was in 1962 in the Mae Sariang District, Mae Hong Son Province. Since then, about 130 outbreaks have been reported involving 7392 patients and 97 deaths (1962-2005). The highest number of cases, 557, was recorded in 1983. The annual epidemiological surveillance reports of the Bureau of Epidemiology, Department of Disease Control, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand, show that trichinosis cases increased from 61 in 1997 to 351 in 1998. In contrast to these figures, the number of reported cases decreased to 16 in 1999 and 128 cases in 2000. There was no record of trichinosis in 2001, but then the figures for 2002, 2003 and 2004 were 289, 126 and 212 respectively. The infected patients were mostly in the 35-44 years age group and the disease occurred more frequently in men than women at a ratio of 1.7-2.0:1. There were 84 reported cases of trichinosis in Chiang Rai, Nan, Chiang Mai, Si Sa ket, Nakhon Phanom, Kalasin, Nakhon Ratchasima, Nakhon Nayok, Nakhon Pathom and Surat Thani, provinces located in different parts of Thailand in 2005. The outbreaks were more common in the northern areas, especially in rural areas where people ate raw or under-cooked pork and/or wild animals. This indicates the need for health education programs to prevent and control trichinosis as soon as possible in the high-risk areas.

Fish, shellfish, and meat meals of the public in Singapore

Understanding different patterns of fish consumption is an important component of the assessment of risk from contaminants in fish. While there have been extensive studies of fish consumption in Western cultures, less attention has been devoted to the role of fish and meat in the diets of people in other cultures. A survey of 212 people living in Singapore was conducted to examine the relative importance of fish, shellfish, and other meat in their diets and to ascertain whether there were differences as a function of age, income, education or gender. As expected, fish and shellfish played an important role in their daily diets. On average, people ate fish in about 10 meals a week, chicken for eight meals, and shrimp and pork for about six meals each. While nearly 8% never ate fish, 18% ate fish at all 21 meals a week and over 20% ate shellfish for all 21 meals. Income explained about 14% of the variation in the number of fish meals consumed, and age explained about 8% of the variation in number of chicken meals per week. There were no gender differences in the number of meals of each type. People less than 26 years old ate significantly more pork, chicken, and other meat meals and fewer shellfish meals than older people. People with higher incomes ate significantly more fish meals than those with lower incomes. Chinese individuals ate significantly more meals of pork, chicken, and other meat than other ethnic groups, and they ate only 26% of their meals at home, while others ate 33% of their meals at home. The data indicate a great deal of variation in the number of meals of fish, shellfish, and other meats eaten by the people interviewed, making dietary and risk assessments challenging.

Venturing Where Vine and Olive Don’t Grow: Diet and Cultural Diversity

Unfamiliar food and drink encountered outside the Greek world were sometimes distasteful to Greeks and could have unpleasant side-effects on them. When Greek travelers encountered oils other than the familiar olive, drinks other than wine, and breads not made with barley or wheat, they not only described them but also reported adverse reactions, though the local inhabitants ate and drank with relish and impunity. Cultures could thus be defined by climate and crops because these determined what people ate and drank.

Circadian rhythms, jet lag, and shift work, with particular reference to athletes

Changes in individuals’ sleep-wake cycles lead to negative side effects. This review considers how side effects can be reduced, the recommendations being based largely on work performed at our institute. Subjects journeying to Aus-tralia had symptoms of jet lag that did not adjust synchronously, and the best predictors of jet lag were their travel arrangements. The value of melatonin in reducing jet lag was not confirmed but, in a laboratory-based study, evening administration of melatonin did not result in worse performance the next morn-ing. The effects of exercise upon the phase of the body clock were insubstantial. Gut temperature, unlike insulated axilla temperature, was an acceptable substi-tute for rectal temperature. Ascertaining by questionnaire why people ate or did not eat at a particular time indicated that night work exerted a considerable disruptive influence, one of the main factors being time pressure. Compared with day workers, night workers had less appetite, ate cold rather than hot meals, and felt more bloated after a meal. Actimetry provided objective measures of the adjustment of the sleep-wake cycle to time-zone transitions and to night work. These measures could be applied to data from long-haul pilots, in whom there are both time-zone transitions and night work.

Goods, Power, History: Latin America's Material Culture. By Arnold J. Bauer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Pp. xx, 245. $50.00, cloth; $18.00, paper.

This delightful, highly readable book—entirely suitable for undergraduate teaching and for interested nonprofessionals (my mother loved it)—presents almost nothing new in the way of research, and indeed relatively few “facts” with which historians of Latin America are not already familiar; but it pulls together bits and pieces from various secondary works and travel accounts in such a fresh and exciting way that a book-length treatment is amply justified. Bauer takes very seriously, and uses systematically, material that most of us are likely to insert almost haphazardly into our lectures in order to spice up the presentation of dry statistics and abstract models of change: how people ate (not just their basic foods but also their cooking methods and equipment, and some pretty funky dietary practices), the ways they built and decorated their homes, the clothes and others items of self-ornamentation they chose or were allowed to wear—in short, the things they acquired. Using changes over time in patterns of consumption of these ordinary goods, he retells the story of Latin America (with a strong emphasis on Mexico, Peru, and Chile) from before the conquest to the present day. He divides the story into six chapters, covering pre-Columbian goods, “contact” goods (i.e., the immediate postconquest period), “civilizing” goods (the remainder of the colonial period, some 250 years), “modernizing” goods (the long nineteenth century, up to about 1920), “developing goods” (from the 1920s to the 1970s), and, finally, “global” goods (the 1980s to the present).

Food and Drink in Medieval Poland (review)

152 Reviews These are intrinsically fascinating lines of inquiry, broadening the study of texts into a wider cultural context, and usefully reuniting fields of study, so that the late medieval period can be approached as a more integrated whole. As in earlier publications in the long-running EDAM series at Kalamazoo, the arguments are judiciously handled and persuasive. The detailed attention given in the edition to dialect and textual matters successfully adapts scholarly techniques developed for manuscript study to this early printed text. Textual emendations to de Worde's edition, and more important variant readings by previous editors are listed. This is thefirstprinted edition of The Worlde and the Chylde to offer a full set of explanatory textual notes, an analysis of verse structures, and a glossary of archaic or unfamiliar words. In general, the edition gives long overdue assistance and encouragement to readers seeking to come to terms with this difficult but rewarding work. Cheryl Taylor School ofHumanities James Cook University Dembinska, Maria, Food and Drink in Medieval Poland, trans. Magdalena Thomas, revised and adapted William Woys Weaver, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999; cloth; pp. xxiii, 227; 40 b/w illustrations; RRP US$29.95, £22.50; ISBN 0-8122-3224-0. Food and Drink in Medieval Poland is the culmination of a project started Dembinska as a doctoral dissertation at Warsaw University back in 1963. William Woys Weaver's adaptation of Dembinska's original work includes new material by Dembinska, as well as revisions and explanations by Weaver based on Magdalena Thomas' translation. Weaver makes Dembinska's research more accessible to an English-speaking audience. H e admits: 'it is not the book that Maria Dembinska wrote, but it captures the essential parts of the food story as she assembled it' (p. xiv). Many ofthe words and all ofthe recipes, however, are Weaver's. Dembinska argues that food culture transcends social and economic classes to form part of a truly national Polish identity. She interprets this food culture, not as distinctively native dishes, but as what Polish people ate. She describes medieval cuisine as 'simple things artfully reshaped tofita Polish notion of appropriate taste' (p. 146). Poland was a multi-ethnic society, Reviews 153 particularly in the Middle Ages. Peasant migrants from the south and the east as well as Byzantine and other European delegations increasingly arrived in Poland. In tow they brought their native cuisines and adapted them to the local foodways existent since the Neolithic era. Dembinska describes a blended cuisine tailored to local availability and tastes. This synthesis of cuisines attests to the international flavour of medieval Polish life and the varied origins of a 'national' identity. She addresses the questions of when a dish becomes distinctly Polish and who is a Polish cook in thefirsttwo chapters. As a country with fluctuating borders and both migrant and immigrant populations, her definition of 'Polish' by cultural standards such as food and foodways is more relevant than a geographic understanding ofnational identity. To tell this story, Dembinska relies on the archaeological data, manuscript sources and purchase orders from court and noble accounts. N o native cookery books survived the period. The few relevant manuscript recipes are of limited use since the more c o m m o n fare was passed on orally and never committed to ink. However the lack of cookery books is almost incidental as Dembinska's book is primarily about how people used food in their lives to express social, political and economic relationships. Dembinska treats food as m u c h more than sustenance. The production and distribution of food at court was the economic and social lifeline for an array of suppliers. A s evidence of food's importance, Dembinska points out that the wine steward and often the Chefde cuisine were noble men themselves, their positions considered an honour. Furthermore food often served as a 'gift' in political negotiations, from the procurement of rare delicacies on politically astute occasions to the pecking order in which every meal at court was served. Dembinska addresses all ofthese issues and her analysis ofthe meaning of food and foodways is a great contribution to our understanding ofthe complex and multifaceted role food consumption...

Ancient molecules and human prehistory

DNA and other molecules found in ancient remains are yielding new information about the origins, spread, interaction, and culture of early humans. Molecules of animal fats preserved in archaeological pottery have shown that in medieval societies people ate non-ruminant animals, such as pigs, but burned tallow from ruminants, such as sheep and cattle. Geochemical analysis of bitumen in the Middle East has documented ancient trade routes. Studies of molecular genetic diversity have shed light on when and how cattle were domesticated. Analysis of human hair from remains up to 5200 years old has revealed the diets of those ancient people. DNA recovered from other remains has also provided evidence for theories about the origins and spread of agriculture, and human migration into the Pacific.