Fusion Foodways of Africa's Gold Coast in the Atlantic Era [electronic resource].

ISBN:

9789004234093

Title:

Author:

La Fleur, James D.

Personal Author:

La Fleur, James D.

Publication Information:

Leiden : BRILL, 2012.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (230 p.)

Series:

Atlantic World

General Note:

Description based upon print version of record.

Contents:

Contents; Maps, Illustrations, and Word Lists; Preface and Acknowledgements; Notes on Linguistic Evidence and African Languages; Chapter One Finding History in Early Afro-Atlantic Foodways; Grist for the Mill: Africanist Historiography of Pre-Colonial Agriculture; Directions; Investigative Themes; Chapter Two Introducing the Land to Culture: An Interpretation; Early Foraging to 25,000 BCE; Specialized Foraging, 25,000 BCE to 10,000 BCE; Intensified Foraging from 10,000 BCE; From Foraging to Farming; Initial Farming from 500 BCE; Mature Farming, Circa 1400 CE; Conclusion

Chapter Three Seeds of Change: Early African Experimentation with Foreign StarchesThe Agro-Historical Milieu; Plantains; Maize; Asian Rice; Conclusion; Chapter Four You Reap What You Sow: The Profits and Perils of the New Starchy Staples; Going for Gold with Plantains; In Retrospect; Allada Communities аnd Culinary Cross-Currents; Baked Bread аnd Biscuits; Kenkey; Opportunities Brewing; Sowing and Savoring Wealth; Insecurity and Impoverishment Amid Scarcity and Violence; Impoverishment in Times of Plenty; Conclusion; Chapter Five The Porcupine's Shame: Bearing the Burden of Cassava Culture

Problems in the Earliest Records of IntroductionIntroducing Cassava; Africanizing Cassava Culture; Outsiders and Renewed Innovation with Cassava; Colonial Postscript; Conclusion; Chapter Six Finding Food in Afro-Atlantic History; Reflections & Prospects; Fusion Foodways; Conclusion; Works Cited; Index

Subject Term:

Agriculture -- Ghana -- History.

Crops -- Adaptation -- Ghana -- History.

Food crops -- Ghana -- History.

Food habits -- Ghana --History.

Plant introduction -- Ghana -- History.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view book

Publication Date:

2012

Publication Information:

Leiden : BRILL, 2012.

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
641.30309667	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ON-DEMAND	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

As most people in Atlantic-era West Africa--as in contemporary Europe and the Americas--were farmers, fields and gardens were the primary terrain where they engaged the opportunities and challenges of nascent globalization. Agricultural changes and culinary cross-currents from the Gold Coast indicate that Africans engaged the Atlantic world not with passivity but as full partners with others on continents whose histories have enjoyed longer, and greater, scholarly attention. The most important 'seeds of change' are not to be found in the DNA of crops and critters carried across the seas but instead in the creativity and innovation of the people who engaged the challenges and opportunities of the Atlantic World.