![]() ![]() ![]() A couple of curious errors, such as attributing the famous comment “Kill them all. ![]() There developed a whole semiotics of salt, and Kurlansky deconstructs it. The Incans, Aztecs, and Mayans rose to power partly on the back of salt control of it made and unmade royal houses in Europe and the Far East. In salt, politics and food mix continually, if uncomfortably. From there Kurlansky follows salt through its deployment by the Egyptians on to the Basques, who salted the cod that they chased all the way to North America a thousand years ago, and on through essentially all of history. They also used it to preserve the wondrous 1,000-year-old egg, which “takes about 100 days to make, and will keep for another 100 days”-give or take, evidently, 365,000 days. Salt enters written history (as so many things do) with the Chinese, who had the first known salt works, imposed the first known salt tax, and fought the first known salt war. Its importance has trailed endless strife. Salt keeps the muscles pumping, the blood flowing, the brain firing. But maybe he has a point: Without salt, Kurlansky states at the outset, there would be no life, let alone a nifty preservative for everything from herring to mummies. Perhaps the author slightly oversells his subject by claiming it is far more important and interesting than the evolution of language or the harnessing of fire. A lively social history that does for salt what Kurlansky previously did for Cod (1997). ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |