Research Paper

In  response paper, identify an important new concept, theory, or insight about globalization from Steger Chap. 2 and discuss it in relation to the assigned readings by Mintz “Asia’s contributions to world cuisine” and Allen & Sakamoto “Sushi reverses course.”

WORD LIMIT: 400 words (approximately three paragraphs)

Three files are for Chap.2 and two links are for Readings by Mintz and Allen & Sakamoto.

http://apjjf.org/-Sidney-Mintz/3135/article.html

http://apjjf.org/2011/9/5/Rumi-SAKAMOTO/3481/article.html

Sushi Reverses Course: Consuming American Sushi
in Tokyo

Matthew Allen & Rumi Sakamoto (2011)

Global cuisine/Culinary culture
Tues. 2/6: Sidney W. Mintz, “Asia’s Contributions to World Cuisine,” japanfocus.org (2009)
 
Today: Matthew Allen & Rumi Sakamoto, “Sushi reverses course: consuming American sushi in Tokyo.” japanfocus.org (2011)

Wed. Feb. 14 Recitation
Upload Chap. 2 response paper to Sakai Assignments
Deadline: Tues. Feb. 13, 10:oo PM

Clicker quizzes 1 pt.
Scoring is based on:
(1) participation
(2) correct answers

Globalization in history
Steger Chap. 2 “Globalization in history: is globalization a new phenomenon?”
Sidney W. Mintz, “Asia’s Contributions to World Cuisine,” japanfocus.org (2009)
Matthew Allen & Rumi Sakamoto, “Sushi reverses course: consuming American sushi in Tokyo.” japanfocus.org (2011)

Globalization dynamic (Steger)
Prehistoric: divergence

Globalization dynamic
Prehistoric: multidimensional divergence

Globalization dynamic (Steger)
Contemporary: convergence (global-local nexus)

Globalization dynamic
Contemporary: multidimensional convergence

Globalization dynamic (Steger & Mintz)
Multidimensional/Present superimposed on past

Allen & Sakamoto
How do they theorize the contemporary globalization dynamic?

Electronic devices OFF

Sushi’s global reach
Estimated 20,000 sushi restaurants outside Japan
45,000 in Japan

Sushi mystique: murasaki (soy sauce)–agari (green tea)

Conveyor belt sushi 回転寿司

“How to make sushi rolls”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKUSI8ElgRc (3:30)

“How to make sushi rolls”
Sushi is a “Japanese” dinner or appetizer (finger food)
“Classic” sushi rolls: California roll (with avocado); Philly role (with cream cheese)
Or, invent your own combination
Sushi is as “creative” as it is delicious

Sushi as “glocal” product
http://www.foodiggity.com/tag/sushi/page/2/ Foodiggity website
Bullet Train (conveyer-belt) sushi
Sushi Tacos
Star Wars soy sauce dishes
Kit-Kat sushi (=kitto-katsu “surely win”)

Culinary globalization
“Sushi reverses course: consuming American sushi in Tokyo”
“Reverse import” (gyaku yunyū) 逆輸入

American sushi in Tokyo
Rainbow Roll Sushi (Azabujūban)
Industrial chic décor, high prices, emphasis on fun
Genji Sushi New York (Roppongi Hills)
Signs in English, modest prices, emphasis on health (using organic brown rice and etc.)

“Otherness” (Difference)
American sushi is exotic in Japan, and this inspires Japanese young people to consume it.

“Fetish”
The marketability and desirability of American sushi in Japan is primarily from its symbolic (fetishized) value.

Example: French pastry in Japan
Symbol of sophisticated taste
Eating French pastry shows the consumer’s appreciation of high culinary standards

How to make Mille feuille (Napoleon)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnyEzaPbdAQ (4:07)

Mille feuille (Napoleon) Japan

Hybrid sushi “Napoleon”

Two kinds of culinary symbolic value (in Japan)
Fetishized “other” (French pastry)
Fetishized “self/other” (American sushi, hybrid sushi Napoleon))

2 types of culinary hybridization
McDonalds-type
Non-McDonalds-type

“McDonaldization” (Ritzer 1993)
McDonaldization meets consumer’s needs or desires in forms that are:
Efficient
Standardized
Tightly controlled

Big Mac
https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=Big+Mac&backchip=g_6:australia&chips=q:big+mac&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjKor270JbZAhUMtlkKHc9vA18Q3VYIJigA&biw=1280&bih=615&dpr=2

1. McDonalds-type
McDonalds-type culinary hybridization leads to such products as the teriyaki chicken burger

Teriyaki chicken burger
https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=teriyaki+chicken+burger&backchip=g_6:japanese&chips=q:teriyaki+chicken+burger&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjSxKbJ0ZbZAhVQwlkKHZOXATMQ3VYIJigA&biw=1280&bih=615&dpr=2

2. Non-McDonalds-type
Production and consumption of American sushi in Tokyo represents a different type of culinary hybridization:
Creative (not efficient)
Unpredictable (not standardized)
Playful (not tightly controlled)

2 kinds of culinary hybridization
Standardized, predictable (“McDonaldization”)
Creative, unpredictable (“Sushification,” from the verb: sushify something)

Origin/destination binary collapses
When Philly sushi roll with cream cheese and California roll with avocado is served as “Japanese” in the US, and “American” in Japan, where is the origin, and where is the destination?
Localities cannot be defined as simply the “origin” and/or “destination” of a cultural artifact or practice.
Rather, localities contribute to the production of something that supersedes both (or multiple) localities, with the product even returning to the point of origin in refreshing new forms.

Globalization processes
Cultural globalization is not a uni-lineal (in one direction) process of hybridization, often through localization, but involves back-and-forth movement in cultural flows.

Globalization dynamic (Steger)
Contemporary: convergence (global-local nexus)

Globalization dynamic
Contemporary: multidimensional convergence

Globalization dynamic (Steger & Mintz)
Multidimensional/Present superimposed on past

Globalization dynamic (Allen & Sakamoto “back-and-forth movement”)
Divergence/convergence, multidimensional/superimposed

Jerome Charles White, Jr. (b. 1981)
Stage name: Jero (ジェロ)
African-American, Japanese grandmother
First black enka singer in Japan
Enka is often viewed by the music industry as commercially obsolete, but Jero revitalized the genre by blending it with hip hop
Many enka singers wear kimono in their performances; Jero’s hip hop image (later, 1930s Harlem Rennaissance style) is one of the many factors that contributes to his popularity

Jero “Umiyuki” (Ocean of Snow) 2008
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9c9oSlmOOs (4.26)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUt18XwGyWg (2:47)

Origin/destination binary
Allen & Sakamoto: Localities and even people cannot be defined as simply the “origin” and/or “destination” of a cultural artifact or practice.
Rather, localities and people contribute to the production of something that supersedes both (or multiple) localities, with the product or person even returning to the point of origin in refreshing new forms.
But in case of Jero, he seems to be locally isolated in his new origin/destination, not globally connected.

Jero’s websites (Japanese market)
http://www.jero.jp/pc/ (official website in Japanese)
http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/-/Artist/A021548.html Victor Entertainment (not available in US)

Globalization in history: is globalization a new phenomenon?

Manfred B. Steger, Globalization, chap. 2

Chap. 2 “Globalization in history: is globalization a new phenomenon?”
Our focus: Understanding globalization through the foods we eat

World cuisine/Culinary culture
Tues. 2/6 Sidney W. Mintz, “Asia’s Contributions to World Cuisine,” japanfocus.org (2009)
 
Thurs. 2/8 Matthew Allen & Rumi Sakamoto, “Sushi reverses course: consuming American sushi in Tokyo.” japanfocus.org (2011)

Chap. 2 Recitation on Wed. Feb. 14
Response paper due Tues. Feb. 13 at 10:00 pm

Chap. 1 Recitation: “Globalization: a contested concept”
Steger’s theory of globalization: Global-local nexus
Beijing Olympics 2008 in East Asian context
North Korean Mass Games and Third Worldism in Guyana 1980-92

Global-local nexus

Global
International
“West”

Local
National
“Rest”

Tools for analysis
Globalization is defined by the links between dichotomies
Binaries (global/local) are not exclusive but work together
Global-Local Nexus is a Horizontal relationship, not Vertical
Globalization is multi-dimensional
“Parable of the elephant”
Globality (social condition) is uneven
Global imaginary (consciousness of ourselves and others) is product of our existence & participation on the global stage

Electronic devices OFF

Chap 2 Globalization in history
Is globalization a new phenomenon?

“Where do we begin?”
Post-1989? Some scholars limit globalization to post-1989 to focus on the recent quantum leap in the pace of change.
19th century? Other scholars look to the Industrial Revolution and other developments in the 19th c.
16th century? Others look to 16th c. and the emergence of modernity, when trade routes first connected Eurasia, Africa, and America.
Prehistory? Finally, a few say these processes have been unfolding for thousands of years.
“Parable of the elephant”: each perspective contains important insights.

Globalization unfolds over time
There are deep, historical roots for the current increase in economic & social interdependence and rise in the global imaginary.
New technologies stand upon earlier innovations from earlier centuries.

Globalization unfolds over time
The dynamic (or direction) of globalization processes changes over time

Clickers ON

Question
What term does Steger use to describe the “dynamic” (or direction) of globalization in the pre-historic period?
Divergence
Convergence
Homogenous
Civilized

Steger
“Perhaps the best way to characterize the dynamic of this earliest phase of globalization would be to call it ‘the great divergence’—people and social connections stemming from a single origin but moving and diversifying greatly over time and space.” (p. 24)

Question
What term does Steger use to describe the “dynamic” (or direction) of globalization in the contemporary period?
Divergence
Convergence
Homogenous
Civilized

Steger
“The best way of characterizing this latest globalization wave would be to call it ‘the great convergence’—different and widely spaced people and social connections coming together more rapidly than ever before.”
(p. 36)

Globalization dynamic:
Prehistoric period: divergence

Out of Africa 6-8 million years ago

Globalization dynamic
Contemporary period: convergence

“Is globalization a new phenomenon?”
Steger’s answer:
“[In the following chapters], we will limit the application of the term ‘globalization’ to the contemporary period while keeping in mind that the dynamic driving these processes actually started thousands of years ago.”

Steger’s thesis
Humanity’s progress toward globality is marked by crossing through important technological thresholds
Personal computers, internet, cell phones, digital cameras, high-definition TV, satellites, jets, space travel, supertankers
What is a threshold?

Threshold (from carpenter’s handbook)

Tamara D. Kontrimas watercolor “Sacred Threshold”

Technological thresholds
Steger identifies 5 separate periods when humanity crossed certain distinct technological thresholds.
Each period is distinguished by accelerations in social exchanges and expansion in geographic scope.

Chronology of globalization
Steger claims that his chronology is not linear:
“Full of unanticipated surprises, violent twists, sudden punctuations, and dramatic reversals….” (p. 21)

Chronology of globalization
Steger identifies five periods in the history of globalization:
1. Prehistoric (10,000-3500 BCE)
2. Premodern: Age of Empires (3500 BCE-1500 CE)
3. Early modern (1500-1750)
4. Modern (1750-1980s)
5. Contemporary (from 1980s)

3. Early Modern (1500-1750)
European powers were able to expand outward by sea for several inter-related reasons:
New technologies:
advanced navigation techniques
Political changes:
Reduced power of Roman Catholic Church due to Protestant Reformation

3. Early Modern (1500-1750)
New technologies & political changes led to the rise of the merchant class
Origin of modern capitalist economies

4. Modern (1750-1980)
The Industrial Revolution was a product of new technologies
Carbon-based energy sources fueled manufacturing and trade.
coal, petroleum (oil)
electricity
Positive and negative aspects

4. Critique of European led Modernity
Europe saw itself as leading the world to civilization and enlightenment, but it often exploited other countries and treated them unfairly.
Global interconnections existed primarily to enrich Western capitalist enterprises.
[In East Asia, strategic Chinese ports were divided among European powers]
[Japan took over from European powers and expanded into Korea, Northeast China (Manchukuo), Southeast Asia, and the South Pacific.]

4. Modern population growth
Waves of immigration transformed societies and social dynamics.
Modern period also witnessed a huge population explosion.
From 760 million in 1750, to 3.7 billion in 1970 (now over 7.4 billion).

4. Modern growth in trade
By World War I (1914), trade equaled 12% of GNP for industrialized countries.
This level not reached again until 1970.

Clickers ON

Question
Why did global trade shrink as percentage of GNP between 1914-1970?
Fewer technological innovations in this period.
Emergence of economic nationalism in this period.
Reduced level of consumerism in this period.

Economic nationalism
Economic nationalism led to two devastating World Wars.
A new world order emerged from the ashes of World War II, dominated by USSR and USA, and characterized by division into their separate spheres of influence in the Cold War.

5. Contemporary (from 1980s)
Collapse of USSR in 1991 accelerated emergence of a single global market and the processes driving globalization.
The contemporary period is the focus of Steger’s chapters 3-7

1. Prehistoric (10,000-3500 BCE)
Around 12,000 years ago, the human species achieved true global dispersal over the whole earth when hunter/gatherers finally reached the southern tip of South America. [map on p. 23]

10,000 BCE complete coverage

For most of human history up to 12,000 years ago:
Interaction among bands of hunters/gatherers was limited and unsystematic.

1. Prehistoric (10,000-3500 BCE)
Around 12,000 years ago, some hunter/gatherers began to cultivate crops and domesticate animals.
Farming and herding represent new technologies

Specialization in farmer/herder communities
Craftsmen: iron tools, jewelry, canals, pottery, baskets, buildings.
Bureaucrats: kept accounts of supplies, extended control of rulers.
Soldiers: explored and acquired new land, extended control of rulers.

Clickers ON

Question
What allowed specialized occupations to develop in farmer/herder communities?
Fire and iron tools
Writing and the wheel
Food surpluses

Agriculture & animal husbandry
Due to food surpluses, farmer/herder communities could support specialized groups of people not directly involved in farming.

2. Premodern 3500BCE-1500CE
By 3500 BCE, Steger claims that two new technologies allowed farmer/herder communities to reach a new level in the process of globalization and enter the Premodern Era.

Question
Identify the two new technologies that allowed farmer/herder communities to reach the next level in the process of globalization and enter the Premodern Era:
Fire and iron tools
Writing and the wheel
Dams and irrigation canals

2. Premodern 3500BCE-1500CE
Two new technologies allowed farmer/herder communities to reach a new level in the process of globalization and enter the Premodern Era:

Writing in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and central China (between 3500-2000 BCE ).
The Wheel in South-West Asia (3000 BCE).

Invention of writing
Writing spread rapidly throughout the Eurasian continent within a few centuries and spurred globalization processes
Spread ideas & allowed long-distance communication
Made it possible to coordinate complex social activities
Allowed administration of larger states

Invention of the wheel
Use of wheeled carts or vehicles spread rapidly throughout Eurasian continent within a few centuries and spurred globalization processes
Animal-drawn carts helped speed transport
Permanent roads and infrastructure connected distant places
Faster transportation of people & goods increased regional commerce and interaction

Invention of the wheel
Steger: Wheel invented “around 3000 BCE in Southwest Asia”
Wikipedia: “Wheel invented in the mid-4th millennium BCE, near-simultaneously in Mesopotamia (Sumeria), Indus Valley, the Northern Caucasus, and Central Europe”
The question of the origins of wheeled vehicles remains unresolved

Ancient scripts 3500-2000 BCE
Mesopotamia
Egypt
China

Ancient scripts
Mesopotamia
Cuneiform script
Egypt
Heiroglyphic script
China
漢字　Hanzi script (Chinese characters)

Cuneiform script (extinct)

Hieroglyphic script (survives in altered form as alphabet)

Hanzi (the only surviving ancient script)

2. Premodern 3500BCE-1500CE
Due in large part to writing and the wheel, the premodern period was the Age of Empires.
Egyptian; Persian; Macedonian; Aztecs and Incas (America), Roman; Indian; Byzantine; Islamic Caliphates; Holy Roman Empire; Ghana, Mali, Songhay (Africa); Ottoman

2. Premodern 3500BCE-1500CE
All of these empires were characterized by long-distance communication and exchange of:
Culture
[Culinary culture: foods, cooking methods]
Technology
Goods
Disease

Clickers ON

Question
Of all the world’s great pre-modern empires, which empire does Steger identify as the most enduring and technologically advanced?
Egyptian
Roman
Ottoman
Byzantine
Chinese

China’s advanced technologies
Redesigned plowshares
Hydraulic engineering
Gunpowder
Tapping of natural gas
The compass
Mechanical clocks
Paper
Printing
Silk and metalworking

Question
In the mid-14th century the bubonic plague, or Black Death, killed about what percentage of the population of China, the Middle East, and Europe?
10-15%
30-35%
50-55%
90-95%

2. Premodern trade networks
The negative side of trade networks was the spread of infectious disease.
The bubonic plague killed 1/3 of the population of China, Middle East, and Europe in mid-14th c.

2. Premodern trade networks
The positive side of trade networks was that they led to population growth, urban growth, and cultural and religious encounters.
These encounters turned local religions into major world religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.

2. Premodern trade networks
Premodern trade networks did not extend across the Atlantic & Pacific Oceans.

Steger p. 28

“Asia’s Contributions to World Cuisine”

Sidney W. Mintz (2009)

1

Global cuisine/Culinary culture
Today: Sidney W. Mintz, “Asia’s Contributions to World Cuisine,” japanfocus.org (2009)
 
Thurs. Feb. 8: Matthew Allen & Rumi Sakamoto, “Sushi reverses course: consuming American sushi in Tokyo.” japanfocus.org (2011)

Wed. Feb. 14 Recitation
Upload response paper to Sakai Assignments
Deadline: Tues. Feb. 13, 10:oo PM

Review:
Steger Chap. 2 “Globalization in history: is globalization a new phenomenon?”
Stages of globalization defined by humanity crossing through technological “thresholds”

Stages of globalization
What technological breakthrough does Steger identify that allowed humanity to cross into each new stage of globalization?
1. Prehistoric (10,000-3500 BCE)
2. Premodern: Age of Empires (3500 BCE-1500 CE)
3. Early modern (1500-1750)
4. Modern (1750-1980s)
5. Contemporary (from 1980s)

Globalization dynamic (Steger)
Prehistoric: divergence

Globalization dynamic
Prehistoric: multidimensional divergence

Steger: Pre-Modern Era (Age of Empires) 3500 BCE-1500 CE
The Chinese Empire was the most enduring and technologically advanced of the world’s empires
The most extensive trade route in the world was the “Silk Road,” which Steger calls a land route.

What is the Silk Road?
A combined overland & overseas trade route that crossed the Eurasian landmass and linked its ports

Shosoin 正倉院　Imperial storage house 701-760, Nara, Japan

Close-up of log structure

Shosoin History: “time capsule”
Holds items donated by Empress Komyo between 756-760 in memory of her late husband, Emperor Shomu.
Located on the grounds of Todai-ji Temple in Nara, where the Daibutsu (Great Buddha) is located.
Some items originated in India, Greece, Rome, Egypt, Persia, Korea, and Tang Dynasty China; others were manufactured domestically.

Shosoin crystal bowl (Roman) 8th c.

Atlantic Ocean

Pacific Ocean

Steger: Early modern period (1500-1750)
“During these two centuries, Europe and its social practices emerged as the primary catalyst for globalization after a long period of Asian predominance.” (p. 28)

3. Early Modern (1500-1750)
European powers could not spread overland into Africa or Asia due to Muslim powers that blocked their way.
Instead, they turned westward by sea to find a new trade route to India.
Objective: Trade in spices

During these 250 years, Europe was the leader in globalization.

Why wasn’t China the leader of globalization?
Steger, p. 26: “By the 15th century CE [1405-1433], enormous Chinese fleets consisting of hundreds of 400-foot-long ocean-going ships were crossing the Indian Ocean and establishing short-lived trade outposts on the east coast of Africa.
“However, a few decades later, the rulers of the Chinese Empire’s series of fateful political decisions to turn inward halted overseas navigation and mandated a retreat from further technological development.

Map of Zheng He’s Seven Voyages

Zheng He’s fleets visited Arabia, East Africa, India, Indonesia and Thailand. The extend of Zheng He’s voyages are hard to determine but it is reasonable to assume that with China’s invention of the compass, it allowed him to reach parts of Africa, Australia and many areas around the Pacific.

Image of Giraffe Being Lead Into the Ming Zoo

Cont.
“Thus, the rulers cut short their empire’s incipient industrial revolution, a development that allowed much smaller European states to emerge as the primary historical agents behind the intensification of globalization.”

Alternate explanation
Starting in the early 15th century, Ming dynasty China experienced increasing pressure from Mongolian tribes to the north.
In recognition of this threat, in 1421 the Ming Emperor Yongle moved the capital north from Nanjing to present-day Beijing.
From the new capital he sent military expeditions to defend the northern borders.
The expenditures necessary for these land campaigns directly competed with the funds necessary to continue naval expeditions.

Treasure Ship (bao-chuan)

The Ming treasure ship are the type of ships that Zheng He voyaged in. His fleet included probably an overall of 62 treasure ships. The measurements noted above for the Ming Treasure ship liken its size to a football field. The treasure ships supposedly can carry as much as 1,500 tons.

West: Zheng He’s 1405-1434

Zheng He’s fleets visited Arabia, East Africa, India, Indonesia and Thailand. The extend of Zheng He’s voyages are hard to determine but it is reasonable to assume that with China’s invention of the compass, it allowed him to reach parts of Africa, Australia and many areas around the Pacific.

East: Vasco Da Gama’s route 1497-99

Electronic devices OFF

Sidney W. Mintz
“Asia’s Contributions to World Cuisine,” japanfocus.org (2009)

Mintz’s thesis (echoes Steger’s)
World cuisine, or global cuisine, is a dynamic process (not a stable system)
The process is continuous, ongoing, and surprisingly ancient

World food history (1)
Gradual and uneven spread of:
plants and animals
foods and food ingredients
cooking methods and traditions

World food history (2)
Interpenetration of local food systems now takes place with great speed on a world-wide scale, but it has its roots in the past

World food history (3)
“The current vogue for global analysis ought not to blind us to the ancient history of this phenomenon.”

Wheat-based culinary culture
Stretches from northern China to southern Europe
Developed several millennia ago

Steger, premodern period 3500 BCE-1500 CE (p. 24)
“Thanks to the auspicious east-west orientation of Eurasia’s major continental axis—a geographical feature that had already facilitated the rapid spread of crops and animals suitable for food production along the same latitudes—the diffusion of these new technologies to distant parts of the continent occurred in only a few centuries.”

Eurasian landmass from space

(Anderson: The Food of China)
Asia and Europe are not separate entities, but a patchwork of neighboring peoples
Through migration or invasion
they took and gave
what they grew & what they cooked
over long centuries

Innovation in food culture
“Whether we have in mind an ingredient, a plant, an animal, a cooking method, or some other concrete culinary borrowing, when such things spread and they come into the hands of receiving farmers, processors, or cooks, they have been detached from some particular cultural system; and when they are taken up, they become integrated into another, usually different one.”

Is global cuisine becoming the same?
No: There is a continuous, creative culinary process that always makes cooking new and different and defies standardization

Is global cuisine becoming the same?
Possibly: Standardization of food habits may come from large-scale economic changes that move masses of people around, shift the rural-urban balance, or create big migrant labor forces

The Columbian Exchange
Completely remade the world diet
Sweet potato crossed the Pacific westward from the new world in the 16th c., probably entering China via the Philippines
Corn & peanuts soon followed

The Columbian Exchange (1492)

European market for spices
Mintz: Trade in Eastern spices to Europe was cut by rise of Ottoman Empire in 1453
Cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, turmeric, black pepper, ginger
(Columbus’s voyages were inspired by a desire to find a sea route to obtain these Eastern spices)

Columbian Exchange: Steger
World diet was transformed during Steger’s Early Modern Period (1500-1750), when trans-oceanic travel began
Led to population explosion in Modern Period (1750-1980)
From 760 million in 1750, to 3.7 billion in 1970 (now over 7.4 billion).

Steger: Premodern trade networks
The negative side of trade networks was the spread of infectious disease.
The bubonic plague killed 1/3 of the population of China, Middle East, and Europe in mid-14th c.

Steger: Modern immigration
Waves of immigration transformed societies and social dynamics.
Mintz: bringing their foods, flavors, cooking methods

Small group discussion
In the history of globalization, do you think that the crossing of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans around 1500 is most consistent with:
the early dynamic of divergence,
the contemporary dynamic of convergence
a turning point in the dynamic from divergence to convergence?

Globalization dynamic (Steger)
Prehistoric: divergence

Globalization dynamic
Prehistoric: multidimensional divergence

Globalization dynamic (Steger)
Contemporary: convergence (global-local nexus)

Globalization dynamic
Contemporary: multidimensional convergence

Mintz: Complexity of culinary exchange (1)
Interchanges of culinary culture in the premodern era (corn, potatoes) were being superimposed upon those of the remote past (wheat, spices)

Mintz: Present superimposed on past
Dynamic of Convergence (Steger)

Globalization dynamic (Steger & Mintz)
Multidimensional/Present superimposed on past

Mintz: Complexity of culinary exchange (2)
Speed of diffusion of culinary culture may be fast or it may be slow

Mintz: Asia’s gifts to the West
Tea
Rice
Soy

Rice: one of Asia’s greatest gifts
Introduced to Europe after 711 when the Moors invaded Spain
Rice has displaced other grains in many societies as main source of starch (carbohydrate)

Tea
Introduced at English court in the 17th c. by Queen Catherine of the Portuguese noble house of Braganza, in the reign of King Charles II
One of the first true commodities, along with sugar

Soy
Soybeans have made an enormous contribution to Western diet, in form of cooking oil and protein-rich animal food, very different from their use in Asia
chickens, pigs, cows are fed soybeans
their meat is then fried in soybean oil
humans benefit from soy indirectly

World soy production 2008

Drawbacks of Western use of soy
Enables people to eat less healthily at the top of the food chain, rather than more healthily near the bottom
Brazil and Argentina are major exporters of soy to China, where it is used as animal feed (following Western model of soy use)
Negative results:
Increase in animal protein consumption in Asia
Destruction of rainforests in the Amazon