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Columbian Exchange Religion

Decent Essays

How Buddhism, Christianity, and The Columbian Exchange Made an Impact on Food History

In Rachel Laudan’s “Chapter 3: Buddhism Transforms the Cuisines of South and East Asia, 260 B.C.E – 800 C.E.” of her Book, Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in World History, she shares her perspective on the role Buddhism played in transforming the cuisines of Asia. Buddhism is a universal religion with various branches that became prominent in the third century B.C.E. when people began to question separate state sacrificial religion and transition to a universal religion (Laudan pg. 128). Along with this religious transition came a transition in cuisine as well. The earliest Buddhist cuisine contained steamed or boiled rice, sugar and ghee, shunned meat, and …show more content…

In Kenneth F. Kiple’s Chapter 14 and 15 of his book, A Movable Feast he explains the Columbian exchange through his point of view. Chapter 14 gives us a look at the items transferred from the new world back over to the old. Kiple points out that Europe originally struggled with the acceptance of many of the food stuffs that came over from America (Kiple pg. 136). Europe had many fears and worries related to the attempt of trying the food sent over from the Americas. After Europeans got over their initial fear of the new world food they began to see how greatly it could benefit them. Kiple shares the extreme benefits potatoes had on Europe in his chapter 14. He also recognized the squash, pumpkin, turkey, and various other food stuffs from America that soon gained acceptance in Europe (Kiple 138-141). Kiple explains that all these new foods impacted the calorie intake of the Europeans as well as resulted in a population growth. Food that made its way from America to Africa also had the same results, Africa like Europe experienced a rapid growth in population. Kiple recognizes that although population growth sounds good it can also soon result in food scarcity, which is what it did until these old world countries became more willing to accept new American food, learn how to grow and prepare it, and in result prosper (Kiple pg. 143-145). Chapter 15 of Kiple’s book highlights the old world foods that made it to new world territory through the Columbian exchange. The territory of Oceania had nothing to offer the old world. Most of where their foods came from were sent over from the old world (Kiple pg. 153). On the other hand, we already know from the previous chapter that America had lots to offer the old world and the

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