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1 Answers 2019-03-11
Hi everyone!
I’m Rachel Herrmann, a historian who studies food and its absence. I work at Cardiff University, in Wales. My particular interests are Native American history, the American Revolution, and histories of slavery. You can read more about me on my website: https://rachelbherrmann.com/
In 2011 I wrote an article on cannibalism and the Starving Time in Jamestown for the scholarly journal the William and Mary Quarterly, which led to an edited collection on cannibalism with the University of Arkansas Press. I’m here with Kelly Watson today to talk about this collection with you. Here’s a description of that collection:
Long before the founding of the Jamestown, Virginia, colony and its Starving Time of 1609–1610—one of the most famous cannibalism narratives in North American colonial history—cannibalism played an important role in shaping the human relationship to food, hunger, and moral outrage. Why did colonial invaders go out of their way to accuse women of cannibalism? What challenges did Spaniards face in trying to explain Eucharist rites to Native peoples? What roles did preconceived notions about non-Europeans play in inflating accounts of cannibalism in Christopher Columbus’s reports as they moved through Italian merchant circles? Asking questions such as these and exploring what it meant to accuse someone of eating people as well as how cannibalism rumors facilitated slavery and the rise of empires, To Feast on Us as Their Prey posits that it is impossible to separate histories of cannibalism from the role food and hunger have played in the colonization efforts that shaped our modern world.
I’ve written the introduction and conclusion for this volume, as well as a chapter called “‘The Black People Were Not Good to Eat’: Cannibalism, Cooperation, and Hunger at Sea.” If you head over to the press page for To Feast on Us as Their Prey, you can click on the “contents” page to read the book’s introduction: https://www.uapress.com/product/to-feast-on-us-as-their-prey/ This is where I discuss the recent Jamestown findings, the state of cannibalism studies, and the contributions of each author in the collection. My chapter is about slave narratives and abolitionist texts and how they offer us lots of different ways to think about hunger, violence, and cooperation in the late eighteenth century.
Today I'm joined by Kelly L. Watson, an Associate Professor of History and a member of the faculty in Women's and Gender Studies at Avila University in Kansas City, MO. She is the author of Insatiable Appetites: Imperial Encounters with Cannibals in the North Atlantic World published by NYU Press (hardback 2015, paperback 2017): https://nyupress.org/books/. Her essay "Sex and Cannibalism: The Politics of Carnal Relations between Europeans and American 'Anthropophagites' in the Caribbean and Mexico" was published in To Feast on Us As Their Prey. For more information, visit http://www.kellylwatson.com
We’re looking forward to your questions!
54 Answers 2019-03-11
I’m writing an essay for a history assessment and I want to include a historian who criticises the Turner Thesis, or at least someone who gives a different interpretation to Frederick Jackson Turner. Does anyone have any recommendations?
1 Answers 2019-03-11
The region of Languedoc in southern France and the Occitan language both owe their names to the mediaeval classification of Romance languages into langues d'oïl, langues de sì and langues d'oc. However, I believe this classification was first devised by Dante Alighieri in the late 13th/early 14th century. How did people before that time refer to the western Mediterranean coast of France and the language spoken by its inhabitants?
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The first passenger railway in India was constructed in 1853, 7 years after the Railway Regulation Act of 1846 which mandated that Great Britain use standard gauge.
I would have thought, at this point, it would have been much more practical to simply import standard gauge equipment from the UK, rather than having to build new equipment (and the tooling for said equipment) from scratch.
The common explanation is that standard gauge did not have enough stability to handle powerful cyclones. Yet, by the time of independence, India actually had more meter (metre) and narrow gauge railways than broad.
3 Answers 2019-03-11
Any significantly detailed description of the history of the last two centuries or so is inevitably going to make mention of some of the great social changes that have unfolded across the world. Unions and other labour movements rising throughout the 1800s and then being broken under Thatcher. Civil rights-type movements have gradually given more equality to minorities. Voting rights have expanded from being restricted to rich landowners in the early 1800s to nearly everyone today.
The High Middle Ages covered a similar length of time as the French Revolution until the present does, and humans born in 1000 wouldn't like being oppressed any more than those born in 2000 - at various points during this period there must have been efforts to 'change the rules'. Yet when the HMA are discussed, there is often very little mention of any social movements other than the Magna Carta (which is often presented as a reaction to heightening taxes and then not discussed again). Why does this perception of the HMA as unchanging exist, and what would a more realistic view of the period look like?
1 Answers 2019-03-11
I know the US forced trade upon Japan, but is that all? Was it just external forces or did inner conflict contribute too ?
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I don't understand how people selling their stocks all of a sudden caused it to crash. Was it because they were selling at a loss? Please explain.
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How did the Jewish scientists and engineers working for NASA during the space race feel about having to work with scientists who worked for the Nazis?
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When did we define breakfast food as specifically for breakfast, i.e. eggs, bacon, pancakes, are not thought of as a regular food for other meals? There is not as much a distinction between the kinds of food we eat for lunch and dinner, they're more interchangeable.
And is this a specifically American occurance? I suspect it has something to do with the 1950s and the old food pyramid and a marketing scheme, but I would love some insight.
2 Answers 2019-03-11
Hollywood depictions of medieval life seem to feature a lot of people casually walking around with swords/other weapons, was this actually common? Would the average Joe make sure to bring his sword if he were just going down to the pub? Would he even own a sword?
Thank you for your insight!
1 Answers 2019-03-11
Was there any conversation within the U.S government about using a nuclear weapon/weapons against Hitler during WW2. I’m just wondering how the war would of progressed if Japan didn’t attack Pearl Harbour? I understand that it may be (what if) territory.
1 Answers 2019-03-11
I am doing a project on the Dutch East India Company and I am wondering if you wonderful historians could point me the right direction as far as sources go. Online sources are best as it's extremely hard for me to get books right now. I know this sub isn't quite for this sort of thing so if anyone wants to be my source instead of pointing me towards one I would of course love that too.
Thanks to anyone for taking the time to answer my question.
Love, BumbleToad
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This is assuming the Hashishin actually existed, of course. If they didn't, where did the stories about them come from?
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Question: What is the quintessential book/series of books that give an overview of American history for someone who is new to history and wants to start from the ground up? I am terribly ignorant of history and want to educate myself. Any suggestions are much appreciated. 😁
1 Answers 2019-03-11
So, as the title says, I'm looking for good books about the history of maps, how to read them, understand them, why was mapped in 16 century made in that and that way etc. I tried to find by myself but I only came across general books about maps, nothing that seems really good from a historical perspective.
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I was doing some reading on Wikipedia when I came across this infographic about jus solis vs jus sanguinis citizenship. Why does "birthright citizenship" seem to be an idea almost exclusive to the Americas? Why is there such a split in the philosophies of citizenship in those two continents compared to the rest of the world? It seems to be mostly in former New World colonies that these ideas exist, is it tied to that?
1 Answers 2019-03-10
The new Das Boot series triggered this question with me. If you were assigned to a u-boat, did you know your life was probably over? Or was there simply no way of knowing, as a subject of Nazi Germany?
2 Answers 2019-03-10
