Sweetness And Power

1970 Words4 Pages

	Sweetness and Power is a historical study of sugar and its affect on society and economy since it was first discovered. Sugar has had a large impact on society and the economy that is not noticeable unless thoroughly studied. The following is an analysis of the work done by Sidney W. Mintz in his attempt to enlighten the "educated layperson".

	Mintz uses a very basic system for organizing the tremendous amount of data found within in the book. The book is divided into 5 chapters: "Food, Sociality, and Sugar", "Production", "Consumption", "Power", and "Eating and Being". Each of these chapters discusses different issues dealing with the main idea while moving in a more or less chronological order. For example, the chapter entitled "Production" begins by discussing the means by which sugar was produced in its earliest existence, and then ends by discussing more modern forms of production. Within the chapter, Mintz branches off and discusses various effects sugar has had on the economy and society. However, to fully understand the structure of the book, each chapter must be looked at individually to see how each is organized.

	Chapter one begins by describing the connection between different groups of society and the food that each of them eats. Mintz argues that food is a factor in which one can identify and categorize a society and/or those who belong to that society, which is shown on page 3 with the line "Food choices and eating habits reveal distinctions of age, sex, status, culture, and even occupation." Later in the book, Mintz will continue this contention by describing sugar as a symbol of power and nobility. Another important idea revealed to the reader in chapter one is the source of focus for the book, which is shown in this statement on page 5:

Specifically, I am concerned with a single substance called sucrose, a kind of sugar extracted primarily from the sugar can, and with what became of it. The story can be summed up in a few sentences. In 1000 A.D., few Europeans knew of the existence of sucrose, or can sugar. But soon afterward they learned about it; by 1650, in England the nobility and the wealthy had become inveterate sugar eaters, and sugar figured in their medicine, lit...

... middle of paper ...

...resented in the book. He does a good job of supporting all of his arguments with the proper source, however, he does not explain these sources to the fullest extent. The assumption is made that the reader clearly knows how the sources relates to the argument at hand, but sometimes the passages that Mintz cites are unclear. Also, Mintz understands that a field such as anthropology requires fieldwork to be strong. However, in that same line on page 213, Mintz states, "Those strengths continue to lie in fieldwork (there is little in this book I confess)." By this, Mintz himself has identified another one of the few flaws present in his book.

	Sweetness and Power is a strong study relating the evolution of sugar to societal growth as well as to economic change. Despite the flaws contained within the structure of the book and the lack of fieldwork, the book is an excellent collection of data regarding sugar, a topic that most people do not think of as being a major factor in the lives they live today. Mintz forces the "educated layperson" to look around the world today, and really think about what it would be like without the luxury of sugar.

Show More
Related

  • Slave Trade: What Drove Sugar Trade?

    855 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sugar was first grown in New Guinea around 9000 years ago, which New guinea traders trade cane stalks to different parts of the world. In the New world christopher columbus introduced cane sugar to caribbean islands. At first sugar was unknown in Europe but was changed when sugar trade first began. Sugar trade was driven by the factors of production land which provided all natural resources labor what provided human resources for work and capital which includes all the factories and the money that’s used to buy land. Consumer demand was why sugar trade continued to increase.

    Read More

  • Sugar Trade Dbq

    881 Words  | 2 Pages

    Kit-kats, Hershey bars, Skittles, and Jolly Ranchers. The reason these sweets, and many other products, are so popular is because of their sugar content. It’s hard to imagine that something used in nearly every food today was practically nonexistent at one point. But this is true- sugar wasn’t introduced globally until the 1500’s. Following this introduction, the trade that sprung up would come to be one of the most successful and profitable in the world. The Sugar Trade’s success was driven by many factors. Out of those several factors, the ones that promised success were high consumer demand, willing investors with a lot of capital, and the usage of slave labor.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Sugar Love By Richard Cohen

    951 Words  | 2 Pages

    For example, Cohen provided the time frame of which sugar was domesticated 10,000 years ago by the natives of New Guinea. He also explained how it rooted from island to island serving different purposes as well as how it was refined and industrialized (82-86). Additionally, he allowed the readers to connect on a personal level with Nick Scurlock by sharing some of his background, home life, and goals (82-97). As well as tying in the darker side of sugar, Cohen gave voice to the lives that were taken for sugar. He informed the readers of the 100,000 slaves harvesting sugar. African Americans replaced Native Americans when they all died out. Mutilation was a punishment and dying was a way to be free (86-87). Furthermore, Cohen obtained information regarding sugar from Dr. Richard Johnson, a Nephrologist, from Aurora, Colorado. The text states that more Americans are suffering from health issues than they were in the 20th century and 35 years ago. An increase of sugar relates to an increase risk of heart disease and diabetes. Limiting the amount of sugar can lead to a healthier status

    Read More

  • Food in Mary Rowlandson's The Sovereignty and Goodness of God

    2284 Words  | 5 Pages

    Neither life nor culture can be sustained without food. On a very basic level, food is fundamentally essential for life, not simply to exist, but also to thrive. A means by which carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, nutrients, and calories are introduced into the body, food is a mechanism of survival. However, on a more abstract level, food is also fundamentally essential for culture by establishing its perimeters and dimensions and in shaping its authenticity and character. Food becomes the carbohydrates and calories that maintain any culture. Food offers a dynamic cross-section of man's tendencies. "Nourishment, a basic biological need," argues anthropologist Sidney Mintz, "becomes something else because we humans transform it symbolically into a system of meaning for much more than itself" (7). By examining food consumption and preparation, much is discoverd regarding the intricacies of culture. The preparation and consumption of food in Puritan society are reflected in Mary Rowlandson's The Sovereignty and Goodness of God. Rowlandson's view of food and admissions of hunger in the infancy of her captivity cast a revealing light upon the roots of her conceptions and ideas about food and, more generally, about her culture's conceptions and ideas about food. As the conflict between her soul and her stomach raged over food, Rowlandson's attitudes toward the Native Americans' preparation and consumption of food reflect the socialization of the Puritans to believe that every meal ...

    Read More

  • Sandler Food Ethics Summary

    616 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sandler begins his book by first explaining the structure of his work and then goes on to talk about his first major topic, food systems. He defines food systems as a network of processes and infrastructures that produce and deliver food to us. From this definition he comes to the definition of the global food system and what that means to us as a consumer. The global food system is the an ever changing process that delivers food to people in a timely manner, at low cost. The need for the global food system backed by the argument that we need it to feed all 7.2 billion people who reside on the earth. This system is decreasing the amount of agricultural land a person is using while increasing the amount of

    Read More

  • The Relationship between Sugar and Slavery in the Early Modern Period

    3555 Words  | 8 Pages

    Sugar in its many forms is as old as the Earth itself. It is a sweet tasting thing for which humans have a natural desire. However there is more to sugar than its sweet taste, rather cane sugar has been shown historically to have generated a complex process of cultural change altering the lives of all those it has touched, both the people who grew the commodity and those for whom it was grown. Suprisingly, for something so desireable knowledge of sugar cane spread vey slow. First found in Guinea and first farmed in India (sources vary on this), knowledge of it would only arrive in Europe thousands of years later. However, there is more to the history of sugar cane than a simple story of how something was adopted piecemeal into various cultures. Rather the history of sugar, with regards to this question, really only takes off with its introduction to Europe. First exposed to the delights of sugar cane during the crusades, Europeans quickly acquired a taste for this sweet substance. This essay is really a legacy of that introduction, as it is this event which foreshadowed the sugar related explosion of trade in slaves. Indeed Henry Hobhouse in `Seeds of Change' goes so far as to say that "Sugar was the first dependance upon which led Europeans to establish tropical mono cultures to satisfy their own addiction." I wish, then, to show the repurcussions of sugar's introduction into Europe and consequently into the New World, and outline especially that parallel between the suga...

    Read More

  • Comparison Of Obesity In The Film 'Fed Up'

    1020 Words  | 3 Pages

    However, the outcome was different from his desired result due to strong protest from the dairy and livestock industry, so the Congress instead urged people to buy lean meat and less fat food so the dairy and livestock industry do not go out of business. This created the fat-free boom in the market in the 1980s. However, food companies began to put more sugar in their products because the taste was bad when they reduced fat in the food. Now, the sugar intake of Americans has doubled compared with before. In the American market, there are approximately 600,000 different food products, and 80% of those include sugar. Although sugar is written in various forms and names, one suggests that it’s bad in any form, especially if taken too much. Sugar consumed naturally through fiber-rich fruit or vegetable should be fine, but the added sweeteners stimulate the hormones that increase insulin. High insulin prevents people from thinking they are full, and thus crave more food. This causes many diseases. Of course one meal high in sugar will not kill them, but the problem is that people generally exceed daily sugar intake in one meal alone when consuming process food. We eat more processed and convenient food instead of fruits, vegetables, and

    Read More

  • The Economic and Political Factors Affecting the U.S. Sugar Subsidy Program

    6201 Words  | 13 Pages

    Consequently, an accurate model must combine what we know from mainstream economics and political economy. Before outlining the theoretical framework, however, the following section reviews the history of the sugar subsidy.

    Read More

  • The Pleasures of Eating

    1568 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout the essay, Berry logically progresses from stating the problem of the consumer’s ignorance and the manipulative food industry that plays into that ignorance, to stating his solution where consumers can take part in the agricultural process and alter how they think about eating in order to take pleasure in it. He effectively uses appeals to emotion and common values to convince the reader that this is an important issue and make her realize that she needs to wake up and change what she is doing. By using appeals to pathos, logos, and ethos, Berry creates a strong argument to make his point and get people to change how they attain and eat food.

    Read More

  • White Bread Chapter Summary

    824 Words  | 2 Pages

    For example, at first he said that higher class of people would eat white bread and then it changed to a poor class of people eat white bread. To prove his argument the author uses a collective of history about white bread. I think the authors wrote this book to try to education people on the history of food in North America. This book benefits the course by giving the course a very clear and real life example of how one food item to impact food production. This book also, shows us how changes to our food could be potentially harming us. The information in this book can relate to field of sociology because, white bread effect an entire society and Bobrow – Strain discussed the aspect that white bread on class, race, gender roles and culture. This book can intersect with global food politics and globalization

    Read More

  • What Are You Buying When You Buy Organic Analysis

    1356 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this second to last section, we learn that our decisions about how we want our food produced and delivered count towards social virtue. Emile Durkheim’s The Division of Labor in Society is one of the founding texts of modern social theory, and draws a distinction between what Durkheim called mechanical and organic solidarity. Mechanical solidarity is largely a premodern form while organic solidarity flows from the division of labor. In organic solidarity according to Durkheim, individuals depend on one another for various tasks. However, in mechanical solidarity, people are independent but they are also aware of what each person is doing. They all have a different task that they are completing in order to survive. In these, societies you did not need to know who grew the food that was on your plate or for that matter who made your plate (435). This is Shapin’s most convincing argument in the whole essay, the logos he uses is very well done. The evidence behind his argument is well defined and thought out. His use of Emile Durkheim’s text in his argument of the morals in food helps bring the argument together. This brings us to the final most convincing argument in the entire

    Read More

  • Food And Power In The Hunger Games

    1882 Words  | 4 Pages

    Emrah Peksoy wrote an article called “Food as Control in the Hunger Games Trilogy” and compared food to a controlling aspect used in society. He discusses how dystopian writers use food as a concept and an underlying image to show how important food is to a culture. The connection Peksoy makes with Collins’ novel is how she uses “… constant employment of food related discourse and food vocabulary metaphorically show characters’ own political, cultural and personal understandings of the society…” (79). This connection goes to make the imagery of food stronger for the reader to understand the power hunger has over a person. Peksoy made a point about how the novel revolves around food even if it seems unintentional to the reader. He states about the way Collins wrote how “one of the key scenes in the novel takes place between President Snow and Katniss while they are having tea and cookies” (82). Even though the food is not significant to the importance of the scene, it is a subliminal message given by Collins showing the prominence of food by making an important section in the novel surrounded by

    Read More

  • Sugar

    1538 Words  | 4 Pages

    Probably some of the most pleasurable and enjoyable memories of a person has to do with sweets. When thinking back to birthdays, there is always the memory of the wonderful cake that mother beautifully made and decorated with frosting and glazes. A typical night out with dad can be transformed into a magical evening with a trip to the ice cream parlor. The end of a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner turns heavenly when a hot apple pie is brought to the table and topped with delicious, melting vanilla ice cream. A good wedding is never complete without the cutting of the splendid multi-level wedding cake, when the happy new couple gets to playfully shove and smear cake and white frosting into each other’s smiling faces. Everyone knows that as a child, the only good part about going to the dentist is getting the candy bar at the end of the visit. Why do some people get sick after eating too much suger? Some people do not even know that the abuse of sugar can lead to negative effects on your body. There is something strangely enjoyable and resplendent about the consumption of sugar. Why is it that sugar is so deliciously enjoyable and at the same time a food product that has many negative affects on people’s health?

    Read More

  • Evaluating Mintz's Sweetness and Power

    3808 Words  | 8 Pages

    With such an obsession with sweet foods, there is an obvious desire for an explanation of how such a once unknown substance took center stage on everybody's snack, dessert, and candy list. That's where Sidney W. Mintz comes into play. He decided to write this book Sweetness and Power, and from the looks of all the sources he used to substantiate his ideas and data, it seems that he is not the first person to find the role that sugar plays in modern society important. By analyzing who Mintz's audience is meant to be, what goals he has in writing this book, what structure his book incorporates, what type, or types, of history he represents within the book, what kind of sources he uses, and what important information and conclusions he presents, we can come to better understand Mintz's views and research of the role of sugar in history, and how much it really affects our lives as we know them.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Sugar Consumption

    1957 Words  | 4 Pages

    We are all familiar with sugar. It is sweet, delicious, and addictive; yet only a few of us know that it is deadly. When it comes to sugar, it seems like most people are in the mind frame knowing that it could be bad for our health, but only a few are really taking the moderate amounts. In fact, as a whole population, each and everyone of us are still eating about 500 extra calories per day from sugar. Yes, that seems like an exaggerated number judging from the tiny sweet crystals we sprinkle on our coffee, but it is not. Sugar is not only present in the form of sweets and flavourings, it is hidden in all the processed foods we eat. We have heard about the dangers of eating too much fat or salt, but we know very little about the harmful effects of consuming too much sugar. There still isn’t any warnings about sugar on our food labels, nor has there been any broadcasts on the serious damages it could do to our health. It has come to my concern during my research that few

    Read More

More about Sweetness And Power

Open Document