After our Egyptian unit, it was easy to understand why the Egyptians would find salt so important. Their burials demanded the preservation of the body, and mummification used salt, so it would make sense for salt to be viewed with importance. Personally, I think that inventing salted meat such as delicious, chewy jerky is more valuable to present day, but bunches of archaeologists would probably argue with me on this one. Silly doctorate holders, one bite of deer jerky and they'd change their minds.
Really, I thought that learning about the other areas of Africa was more interesting, most likely because we haven't studied it before. I can't imagine having entire cities made out of salt, or having words to describe different salt compositions. It's strange that an area with so much desert would still value salt so highly; I would think that avoiding salt would help the Africans stay hydrated, but clearly that isn't the case. Still, I think if I was in a massive camel caravan traveling for weeks across a desert, I would pack massive amounts of H2O and leave the NaCl at home.
The thing that really impressed me about this article was that salt has still been a pretty big deal to Africans in modern times. After they were introduced to purified salt, they would add impurities to get a different taste. Salt seems like a strange thing to be picky about, but I guess that I'm pretty picky about the fat content in milk, and it sounds like some of these salts are entirely different compounds, so perhaps that preference makes more sense than mine. Also, they had a quote from a 1957 cook book that talked about reusing salt! My grandma is the queen of saving food and recycling (she was born during the Great Depression, so she has all sorts of nifty tricks for making a bottle of soap last for six months and stuff), but she doesn't reuse salt.
On a side note, did anyone else notice that this author also wrote a book about the importance of cod?! This guy's mom must have been a chef and his father must have been a historian. He has some crazy interests, but I bet he would rock at jeopardy. "Pepper during the Persian Wars for 400, please!"
The Best Is Yet to Come Film à Regarder
4 years ago
4 comments:
Dale I think it is so weird and crazy about the whole salt city thing. I mean I think about it and be like the can not be true. What if it rains? What happens to the city then? Like did they have no common sense about the whole thing or is it just me?
I thought being picking about the purity of salt was weird too but when you compared it to milk it made a lot more sense. Little changes in somethings can make a big difference. So you grandma saves everything and makes nothing into something also? Mine does too, and I love her for it.
Eric, it was the dessert. Rain isn't a big concern!
Eric, There are parts of North Africa (in the Sahara) where rainfall has never been recorded in human history.
Dale,
His book "Cod" is about how Portugal went from being a small tiny coastal insignificant country, to being a massive sea power, by using Salt, to preserve Cod, captured off the coasts of Scandanavia and Greenland, then selling it back to Europe to make $$$
I have yet to read it, but I'm told it's much in the same model as this type of book and writing style
Mr. Farrell
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