REVIEW BY CARLY JONES
If there is one thing that unites the many, incredibly varied cultures that have inhabited the world throughout human history, it is that we all need to eat. Catching, cultivating, cooking, and consuming food have been key concerns for communities stretching back thousands of years.
Eating is not just a source of sustenance, however. Shared meals play an important social role, forging bonds between families and communities and marking major milestones in our lives, while some foodstuffs hold a special ceremonial significance or are forbidden by dietary taboos. Food-related culture has also fired the human imagination, giving rise to an eclectic array of tools and technologies, artistic creations, and even new building-types: kitchens, restaurants, pubs.
Any attempt to trace this consistent but complex relationship risks biting off more than you can chew, but in this wide-ranging book, Jenny Linford serves up a very satisfying overview. In around 250 pages, she covers a huge geographical and chronological span, focusing not just on what past populations ate, but how we have fed ourselves over time, as well as examining how this need has shaped our material culture, drawing on the collections of the British Museum to illustrate each point with a wealth of interesting artefacts.
