Traditional Dietary Culture of Southeast Asia : A Culinary History

by Matsuyama, Akira

• ISBN13: 9780710307293
• ISBN10: 0710307292
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-01-01
• Publisher: Taylor and Fran

Summary

Foodways are the key to the strongest and deepest traces of human history, and this pioneering volume is a detailed study of the development of the traditional dietary culture of Southeast Asia, stretching from Laos and Vietnam to the Philippines and New Guinea. Beginning in the Paleolithic era and continuing to the present day, the author portrays the dietary life of the area and the many changes that have produced a cuisine that though influential and popular globally today has never before been studied in such depth. Beginning with the physical and social formation of the Southeast Asian world, the work covers the Neolithic food production economy, the ancient hunting cultures of the pre-European age, the development of agriculture and of alcoholic drink-making, the influence of the European colonial age on traditional dietary culture, the contemporary food practices of the area including agriculture and stock raising, and the ancient traditional foods that survive today, such as black sugar, fish sauce, and soybean products, which are so widely used in fusion cuisine. Here is the history behind Southeast Asian recipes and restaurant menus -- a history of invasion, invention, and enslavement that is both fascinating and scholarly, supported by full geographical, archaeolgical, biological, and chemical data. Based largely upon Southeast Asian sources which have not been available up until now, this is essential reading for anyone interested in food, culinary history, and in an area of the word that is rapidly developing and changing.

Table of Contents

Preface	viii
Explanatory notes	xiv
Whole map of Southeast Asia	xv
Introduction
Geographical characteristics of Southeast Asia	1	(2)
Traditional dietary culture and traditional foods	3	(4)
Formation of the Southeast Asian world
Period of crustal movement	7	(9)
The glacial period of the Quaternary	16	(8)
Appearance of humans in Southeast Asia and their genealogy	24	(4)
Distribution and migration of human populations	28	(15)
Natural environments of Southeast Asia	43	(8)
Dietary culture in the prehistoric times
Paleolithic age	51	(17)
Transition from the Paleolithic age to the Neolithic age	68	(19)
Neolithic age of food-production economy	87	(24)
Dietary culture in the pre-European age
At the beginning of the historical age	111	(4)
Dietary culture during the early stage of the pre-European age	115	(6)
Dietary culture during the early stage of the pre-European age found in inscriptions	121	(21)
Stone reliefs of the Borobudur Buddhism site	142	(18)
Dietary culture during the late pre-European age	160	(15)
Temple reliefs of the late stage of the pre-European age	175	(10)
Dietary culture of the pre-European age found in old Chinese historical records	185	(18)
Development of alcoholic-drink making in the pre-European age	203	(8)
The European colonial age
The dietary culture of Southeast Asia at the beginning of the 16th century as found in navigation records during the age of geographical discoveries	211	(4)
Navigation records by Europeans in the 16th century	215	(21)
Javanese dietary culture in the modern age described in The History of Java	236	(10)
T.S. Raffles
Dietary culture in Dutch colonial days described in Dagh-Register Casteel Batavia and Nederlandsch-Indisch Plakaatboek	246	(6)
Commercial crops: The increase in production of sugar, coffee and tea (A case study on Java)	252	(23)
Characteristics of Javanese traditional dietary culture in the Dutch colonial age	275	(6)
Present dietary culture of Southeast Asia
Comparison of traditional dietary culture of the prehistoric age with that of the present day	281	(1)
Agriculture, stock raising and dietary life in mainland region	282	(12)
Agriculture, stock raising and dietary life in archipelagic region	294	(6)
The dietary life in West New Guinea	300	(2)
Hunters and gatherers existing in Southeast Asia	302	(3)
Changes in agricultural practice and the tradition of staple food culture	305	(5)
Traditional foods surviving to the present day
Sugary sap from the flower stalks of palm trees and palm wine	310	(9)
Black sugar and sago	319	(8)
Traditional fermented foods	327	(14)
Soybean products	341	(13)
Fishery salt-preserved foods and fish sauce	354	(8)
Starters used for food fermentation	362	(20)
Concluding Remarks	382	(4)
Notes	386	(29)
References	415	(16)
A list of quotations of tables, figures and photographs	431	(3)
Acknowledgements	434	(1)
Appendix table (Traditional foods in Southeast Asian countries)	435	(13)
Index	448