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The Use and Abuse of Chocolate in 17th Century Medical Theory
Ken Albala
Cacao and chocolate were first introduced to Europe both as food and medicine. However, physicians had difficulty classifying them within the dominant system of humoral physiology and their arguments eventually undermined the authority of this system, especially as new scientific methods of analysis gained popularity. Authors in the late 16th and early 17th centuries attempted to restrict the use of chocolate to specific pathological states, but later, particularly in Northern Europe, and in competition with other purveyors, the therapeutic applications of chocolate were extended so broadly as to ultimately make any real medical use seem obsolete. This aided the transformation of chocolate from a medicinal food to a purely recreational drink in subsequent centuries. The case of chocolate provides an excellent example of how products once considered medicinal gain popular appeal with the aid of medical controversy.
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The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food and Drink Industries
Ken Albala and Gary Allen
The business of food and drink is for better and worse the business of our nation and our planet, and to most consumers how it works remains largely a mystery. This encyclopedia takes readers as consumers behind the scenes of the food and drink industries. The contributors come from a wide range of fields, and the scope of this encyclopedia is broad, covering from food companies and brands to the environment, health, science and technology, culture, finance, and more. The more than 150 essay entries also cover those issues that have been and continue to be of perennial importance. Historical context is emphasized and the focus is mainly on business in the United States.
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Reproduction and State Building Along China’s Frontiers
Gregory Rohlf
This article analyzes population resettlement to western China during contemporary times within a historical framework that emphasizes gender. During the 1950s most relocatees to Qinghai were men, following the historical pattern set by Qing policies. Empirical data also show that the PRC government explicitly recruited women for relocation to border and remote areas. Women were moved to western regions as somewhat gender-neutral workers and also to serve in their traditional roles as wives and mothers. In both roles, women were a crucial component in state-building policies in border and remote areas. In fact, because sovereignty could not be permanently established without a naturally reproducing population, one can argue that reproduction was, and is, a basic component of state-building—an assertion that gets little attention in analyses of social and political change in border regions. This article describes the consolidation phase of territorial expansion as a feminine or yin process that relied upon incremental, organic growth, or "soft" assertions of power. Government documents, published materials, census records, and journalistic reporting are used to demonstrate these patterns and processes.
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Women as State-Builders in Qinghai: Evidence from the 2000 Census
Gregory Rohlf
During the Qing dynasty, the expansion of the Chinese empire was led by male-dominated institutions. This pattern continued into the first decades of the People's Republic of China. Qinghai province was on the receiving end of largely male population transfers beginning in the 1950s. In the 1960s and 1970s, in-migration continued at lower levels but the gender balance of in- and out-migration shifted. Official population figures show that the population of Han women grew faster than Han men in the 1960s and 1970s despite ongoing male resettlement and sex ratios at birth that favoured males. The faster rate of growth for Han women is therefore most likely to be the result of population transfers to Qinghai, rather than births or deaths. One can also see evidence of population transfers of women in the 1960s and 1970s in two middle-aged cohorts of Qinghai's urban population in 2000 that are dominated by females. It is likely that this bulge in the numbers of middle-aged women in Qinghai's municipalities has been produced by population transfers and that it reflects a state policy to adjust the imbalanced gender ratios it had created in the 1950s.
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A Renaissance Dream Banquet
Ken Albala
Francesco Colonna's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (The Strife of Love in a Dream) of 1499 is a bizarre architectural-erotic fantasy whose imagery has often perplexed commentators. One particular banquet scene has defied scrutiny. This paper decodes the meal as a typical Renaissance banquet, as harmonious and balanced as any painting or edifice, yet offering an image of divine feeding. The flavors, ingredients and meal structure all reflect current culinary aesthetics as well as Neo-Platonic love theory, occult symbolism and humoral medicine.
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