The Civilization of Illiteracy Part 55

Dsseldorf/Kln: Diedrichs, 1982.

Wilhelm states that, in the context described, Fuh-Hi emerged: "He reunited man and woman, ordered the five elements and set the laws of mankind. He drew eight signs in order to dominate the world." The eight signs are the eight basic trigrams of I Ging, the Book of Changes (which attracted Leibniz's attention).

King Frederick Barbarossa (Frederick I of the Holy Roman Empire, 1123-1190). Well known for challenging the authority of the Pope and for attempting to establish German supremacy in religious matters.

Joan of Arc (1412-1431). A plowman's daughter who, as the story goes, listened to the voices of saints Michael, Catherine, and Margaret. Thus inspiring the French to victory over British invaders, she made possible the coronation of Charles II at Reims. Captured by the English, she was declared a heretic and burned at the stake. In 1920, Pope Benedict XV declared her a saint.

Jan Hus (1372-1415). Religious reformer whose writings exercised influence over all the Catholic world. In De Ecclesia, he set forth that scripture is the sole source of Christian doctrine.

Martin Luther (1483-1546). A priest from Saxony, a scholar of Scripture, and a linguist, who is famous for having attacked clerical abuses. Through his writings (The 95 Theses), he precipitated the Reformation.

Moslem armies defeated the forces of the Holy Roman Empire, led by Charles Martel, at Poitiers (cf. J.H. Roy, La Bataille de Poitiers, Octobre 733, Paris: Gallimard, 1966).

Crusades: a series of military expeditions taking place from 1095 to 1270) intent on reclaiming Jerusalem and the holy Christian shrines from Turkish control.

David Kirsch poses the questions: Is 97% of human activity concept-free, driven by control mechanisms we share not only with our simian forebears, but with insects? (Today the Earwig, Tomorrow the Man? in Artificial Intelligence, 47:1-3, Jan. 1991, p. 161).

The Bible on CD-ROM is a publication of Nimbus Information Systems (1989). The CD-Word Interactive Biblical Library (1990), published by the CD-Word Library, Inc. offers 16 of the world's most used Bible texts and reference sources (two Greek texts, four English versions).

Secular G.o.d-building in the Soviet Union: Ob ateizme i religii.

Sbornik Statei, Pisem i drughich materialov (About atheism and religion. Collected articles, letters, and other materials) by Anatoli Vasilevich Lunacharskii (1875-1933), Moscow: Mysl, 1972.

This is a collection of articles on atheism and religion, part of the scientific-atheistic library. See also Maxim Gorky, Untimely Thoughts (translated by Herman Erolaev). New York: P.S.

Ericksson, 1966.

Ernest Gellner, Scale and Nation, in Scale and Social Organization (F. Barth, editor).

"Max Weber stressed the significance of the way in which Protestantism made every man his own priest" (p. 143).

Glen Tinder. Can we be good without G.o.d? in Atlantic Monthly, December, 1989.

Michael Lewis. G.o.d is in the Packaging, in The New York Times Magazine, July 21, 1996, pp. 14 and 16.

Lewis describes pastors using marketing techniques to form congregations. The success of the method has led to branch congregations all over the USA.

Tademan Isobe, author of The j.a.panese and Religion, states: "The general religious awareness of the j.a.panese does not include an ultimate G.o.d with human attributes, as the G.o.d of Christianity.

Instead, j.a.panese sense the mystery of life from all events and natural phenomena around them in their daily lives. They have what might be called a sense of pathos" (cf. Web positing of August, 1996, http://www.ariadne.knee.kioto-u.ac.jp).

A Mouthful of Microwave

From a strictly qualitative perspective, the amount of food people eat is represented by numbers so large that we end up looking at them in awe, without understanding what they mean. The maintenance of life is an expensive proposition. Nevertheless, once we go beyond the energetic equation, i.e., in the realm of desires, the numbers increase exponentially. It can be argued that this increase (of an order of magnitude of 1,000) is higher than that antic.i.p.ated by Malthus. On the subject of what, how, and why people eat, see:

Claudio Clini. L'alimentazione nella storia. Uomo, alimentazione, malattie. Abano Terme, Padova: Francisci, 1985.

Evan Jones. American Food. The Gastronomic Story. Woodstock NY: Overlook Press, 1990.

Nicholas and Giana Kurti, Editors. But the Crackling is Superb.

An Anthology on Food and Drink by Fellows and Foreign Members of the Royal Society. Bristol, England: A. Hilger, 1988.

Carol A. Bryant, et al. The Cultural Feast. An Introduction to Food and Society. St. Paul: West Publishing Co., 1985.

Hilary Wilson. Egyptian Food and Drink. Aylesbury, Bucks, England: Shire, 1988.

Reay Tannahill. Food in History. New York: Stein and Day, 1973.

Charles Bixler Heiser. Seed to Civilization. The Story of Food.

Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1990.

Margaret Visser. Much Depends on Dinner. The Extraordinary History and Mythology, Allure and Obsessions, Perils and Taboos, of an Ordinary Meal. Toronto, Ont.: McClelland and Stewart, 1986.

Esther B. Aresty. The Delectable Past. The Joys of the Table, from Rome to the Renaissance, from Queen Elizabeth I to Mrs.

Beeton. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1978.

Maria P. Robbins, Editor. The Cook's Quotation Book. A Literary Feast. Wainscott NY: Pushcart Press, 1983.

The Pleasures of the Table (compiled by Theodore FitzGibbon). New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.

Charles d.i.c.kens. American Notes. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985. (pp. 154-155). On the symbolism of food, informative reading can be found in:

Carol A. Bryant. The Cultural Feast: An Introduction to Food and Society. St. Paul: West Publishing Co., 1985.

Lindsey Tucker. Stephen and Bloom at Life's Feast: Alimentary Symbolism and the Creative Process in James Joyce's Ulysses.

Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1984.

In L'aile ou la cuisse (Wing or Drumstick), a 1976 French film directed by Claude Zidi, Luis de Funs became, as the French press put it, "the Napoleon of gastronomy" fighting the barbarian taste of industrial food, seen as a real danger to the authentic taste of France.

At the initiative of the Minister of Culture, a Conseil National des Arts Culinaires (CNAC) was founded in 1989. Culinary art and gastronomic heritage were made part of the French national ident.i.ty. Awakening of Taste (Le reveil du got) is a program launched in the elementary schools. A curriculum originating from the French Inst.i.tute of Taste is used to explain what makes French food taste good. The CNAC provides a nationwide inventory of local foods. A University of Taste (Centre de Got) would be established in the Loire Valley.

Jean Bottero. Mythes et Rites de Babylone. Paris: Librairie Honor Champion, 1985.

Reallexikon der a.s.syriologie. Vol. III, Getrnke (Drinks), pp.

303-306; Gewrze (Spices), pp. 340-341; Vol. VI, Kche (Cuisine), pp. 277-298. Berlin/New York, Walter de Gruyter, 1982.

La Plus Vieille Cuisine du Monde, in L'Histoire, 49, 1982, pp.

72-82.

M. Gabeus Apicius. De re conquinaria (rendered into English by Joseph Sommers Vehling, New York: Dover Publications, 1977) first appeared in England in 1705, in a Latin version, based on the ma.n.u.scripts of this work dating to the 8th and 9th centuries. Apicius was supposed to have lived from 80 BCE to 40 CE. This book has since been questioned as a hoax, although it remains a reference text.

Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella. De re rustica. (12 volumes on agriculture. Latin text with German translation by Will Richter). Mnchen: Artemis Verlag, 1981.

Roland Barthes. Empire of Signs. New York: Hill and w.a.n.g. 1982.

(Originally published in French as L'Empire des Signes, Geneva: Editions d'Art Albert Skira, S.A.

"The dinner tray seems a picture of the most delicate order: its frame containing, against a dark background, various objects (bowls, boxes, saucers, chopsticks, tiny piles of food, a little gray ginger, a few shreds of orange vegetable, a background of brown sauce)...it might be said that these trays fulfill the definition of painting which according to Piero della Francesca is merely demonstration of surfaces and bodies becoming even smaller or larger according to their term" (p. 11).

"Entirely visual (conceived, concerted, manipulated for sight, and even for a painter's eye), food thereby says that it is not deep: the edible substance is without a precious heart, without a buried power, without a vital secret: no j.a.panese dish is endowed with a center (the alimentary center implied in the West by the rite which consists of arranging the meal, of surrounding or covering the article of food); here everything is the ornament of another ornament: first of all because on the table, on the tray, food is never anything but a collection of fragments, none of which appears privileged by an order of ingestion; to eat is not to respect a menu (an itinerary of dishes), but to select, with a light touch of the chopsticks, sometimes one color, sometimes another, depending on the kind of inspiration which appears in its slowness as the detached, indirect accompaniment of the conversation...." (p. 22).