Published as Sidney W. Mintz, Food Enigmas, Colonial and Postcolonial, Gastronomica Winter 2010, Vol. 10, No. 1, Pages 149–154 , DOI 10.1525/gfc.2010.10.1.149 © 2010 by the Regents of the University of California.

Copying and permissions notice: Authorization to copy this content beyond fair use (as specified in Sections 107 and 108 of the U. S. Copyright Law) for internal or personal use, or the internal or personal use of specific clients, is granted by the Regents of the University of California for libraries and other users, provided that they are registered with and pay the specified fee via Rightslink® on Caliber (http:// caliber.ucpress.net/) or directly with the Copyright Clearance Center, http:// www.copyright.com. FoodEnigmas, 385 pp. 385 The caribbean islands caribbean The review essay review Colonial and Postcolonial and Colonial The Caribbean Multilingual Dictionary of Flora, Fauna Flora, of Dictionary Multilingual Caribbean The Barry Higman Barry and Foods in English, French, French Creole, and Spanish and Creole, French French, English, in Foods and Diane Vernon Diane Jamaican Food: History, Biology, Culture Biology, History, Food: Jamaican Kenneth Bilby, Bernard Delpech, Marie Fleury, and Fleury, Marie Delpech, Bernard Bilby, Kenneth Jeannette Allsopp Jeannette gastronomica: the journal of food and culture and food of journal the gastronomica: Puerto Rico en la olla: ¿Somos aún lo que comimos? que lo aún ¿Somos olla: la en Rico Puerto L’Alimentation des Noirs Marrons du Maroni: du Marrons Noirs des L’Alimentation University of the West Indies Press, 2008 Press, Indies West the of University Cruz Miguel Ortíz Cuadra Ortíz Miguel Cruz ing across oceans, both east and west beyond Eurasia, could Eurasia, beyond west and east both oceans, across ing Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago: and Trinidad Barbados, Jamaica, Madrid: Ediciones Doce Calles, 2006 Calles, Doce Ediciones Madrid: vocabulaire, pratiques, représentations pratiques, vocabulaire, would then peddle back home, with huge success. To do so, do To success. huge with home, back peddle then would documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/divers09-10/010010226.pdf Kingston, Jamaica: Arawak Publications, 2003 Publications, Arawak Jamaica: Kingston, lvi + 184 pp. Illustrations. Illustrations. pp. 184 + lvi Cayenne, French Guiana: Institut Français de Recherche Scientifique Recherche de Français Institut Guiana: French Cayenne, photocopy or reproduce article content through the university of california press california of university the through content article reproduce or photocopy although famous for sunshine, hurricanes, and outrages— and hurricanes, sunshine, for famous although people there had to eat. to had there people xiii + 393 pp. Illustrations. Available online at http://horizon. at online Available Illustrations. pp. 393 + xiii xix + 580 pp. Illustrations. Illustrations. pp. 580 + xix the first place, ever, that adventurers from empires stretch- empires from adventurers that ever, place, first the else, everywhere like and, conundrums; of full is there food of story entangled and many-stranded the But food. their pour le Développement en Coopération ( Coopération en Développement le pour set out to produce food, far from Europe itself, which they which itself, Europe from far food, produce to out set for famed not forgotten—are others acknowledged, some The region stands out in world history because it was it because history world in out stands region The $ 40.00 (paper) 40.00

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sidney w. mintz w. sidney $ $ 55.00 (paper) 55.00 70.00 (cloth) 70.00 and their surrounding shores, surrounding their and , vol.10, no.1, pp.149–154, issn 1529-3262. 1529-3262. issn pp.149–154, no.1, vol.10, , orstom ), 1989 ), ’ s rights and permissions web site, http://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintinfo.asp. doi: 10.1525/gfc.2010.10.1.149. doi: http://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintinfo.asp. site, web permissions and rights s © 2010 by the regents of the university of california. all rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to permission for requests all direct please reserved. rights all california. of university the of regents the by 2010 Agrarian, deeply divided into free people and slaves, the slaves, and people free into divided deeply Agrarian, Who came to the islands, and what they ended up eating, up ended they what and islands, the to came Who Portuguese colonies, such as Cabo Verde), and many from many and Verde), Cabo as such colonies, Portuguese years. That brutal fact is closely linked to Caribbean food. Caribbean to linked closely is fact brutal That years. its constant threat—these colonies were odd mixtures of mixtures odd were colonies threat—these constant its were outcomes that turned upon the organization of the of organization the upon turned that outcomes were islands were also divided by foods for export versus foods versus export for foods by divided also were islands lands, conquered newly in outposts tropical wells—became who produced them would remain in chains for centuries. for chains in remain would them produced who hereditary status was added. Those institutions lasted for 350 for lasted institutions Those added. was status hereditary laborforce, putting placeinsystems chattelof laborwhichto labor was as degraded as they. (In the (In they. as degraded as was labor groomed were whites where societies in Living landless. food specific culturally of variety dizzying a represented conglomerates of the post-Columbian world. Those peoples Those world. post-Columbian the of conglomerates the (e.g., outliers its and Europe South from some comers, to centuries, of course the over led, labor defenseless cally dragged. These bits of seized land, then—the early agricul- early then—the land, seized of bits These dragged. different parts of Asia (such as China and India). Hence India). and China as (such Asia of parts different agrarian food factories for the delivery of desirable con- desirable of delivery the for factories food agrarian ancient on the other. The insatiable need for cheap, politi- cheap, for need insatiable The other. the on ancient pioneer societies into which they were, for the most part, most the for were, they which into societies pioneer knowledge and food preferences. Defenseless in new lands, new in Defenseless preferences. food and knowledge tural equivalents of today’s foreign-owned mines and oil and mines foreign-owned today’s of equivalents tural their for slavery then and coercion upon relied they though, they did what they could with what they knew culinarily, knew they what with could they what did they human multicultural and multilingual, multiracial, first the for settings were shores surrounding their and islands the new- other of masses great and Africa, sub-Saharan from peoples varied culturally of millions of importation the socially the and hand one the on modern technically the to disdain even stooping to pick up a handkerchief, their handkerchief, a up pick to stooping even disdain to typically were growing the did who people The eat. to reality. everyday an became they which in societies the to sumer goods not producible in temperate climes. Yet those Yet climes. temperate in producible not goods sumer some of it remarkable. But they did so with difficulty. with so did they But remarkable. it of some The slave-based plantations gave a distinctive shape distinctive a gave plantations slave-based The Because they depended on coercion—violence, and coercion—violence, on depended they Because u.s. South, what South, 149

GASTRONOMICA WINTER 2010 this really meant is still expressed by a familiar phrase there: reader-friendly graphs and charts. An appendix lists the “to work like a nigger.”) foods mentioned, by popular and scientific names and, very The production of local foods varied in time and space, helpfully, their dates of introduction to Jamaica. from island to island, and on nearby shores. Plantations So lucid is this book that the reader may be lulled were rarely locales for the production of local food. Where into thinking that the text itself is unsubtle. It is not. slaves were allowed to grow food for themselves, usually on Fundamental lessons in biology are intermixed with more inferior plantation land, they did so, at times with great suc- sophisticated lessons in history and food sociology. Let me cess. Once free, they went on doing so in places like Haiti mention only three, the first being Higman’s gentle but or Jamaica. The three islands that remained Hispanic lon- remorseless examination of what Jamaicans actually do eat. gest—Cuba, Santo Domingo, and Puerto Rico—nurtured That may sound silly, after what has been said here already. sturdy peasantries of their own. Today, these peasantries are But Higman slowly untangles what Jamaicans actually eat disappearing under the combined pressures of rural poverty, from what they like, and from what they are said to eat. He quixotic Cuban reforms, food dumping by countries with lists what surveys dating from the late 1990s found to be subsidized agriculture, the seductions of McDonald’s, and the most commonly eaten foods, including callaloo, rice other miracles of modernity. and peas, chicken, yellow yam, and green banana. Some Jamaica, the subject of Barry Higman’s masterful of these commonly eaten foods—chicken in many forms, work, was a Spanish colony until 1655, and then a British and rice and peas—are also among the most popular foods: colony until 1962. It was the largest, most profitable, and people both like them and eat them. Better said, people like economically most important Caribbean colony of the them and can afford to eat them regularly. On the other United Kingdom. Though a great deal has been written hand, ackee and salt fish (dried cod)—so loved by the tour- about Jamaican history at large, few scholars ever looked ism folks and touted relentlessly as the genuinely authentic seriously at its food history or the eating habits of its people. Jamaican dish, loved by many if not most Jamaicans, and Higman’s book fills a real void, and does so handsomely. known to just about anyone who has spent even a few hours Nowhere in the literature known to me is there any histori- as a tourist in Jamaica—are not on the common food list. cal conspectus of the food of an entire society that rivals Salt cod costs too much. Price always figures heavily in how Jamaican Food in completeness or in clarity. taste is accommodated. What Higman does is uncover the connections of food There is irony here. Sir Eric Williams, the great to the rest of life: in his own words, he tries “to understand Trinidadian historian, refers to the dependence of the why Jamaicans eat what they eat, how they define Jamaican Newfoundland fishery upon the shipment of dried salt cod food and how their choices changed over time [because]… to the West Indies and quotes an eighteenth-century writer [t]hese are important questions that provide insight into the who describes salt cod as “fit for no other consumption” but social, cultural, agricultural, economic and political history by slaves.1 By the twentieth century, however, bacalao or of Jamaica. In everyday life, these choices are at least as baccalà (as we gourmets have learned to call it) was becom- important as decisions as to whom to vote for and what to ing too expensive for most Jamaicans. have faith in” (p.xvii). A second case lies in Higman’s approach to the subject The bulk of the book consists of twelve simply written, of callaloo, in which he demonstrates that exemplary care is

WINTER 2010 enormously rich chapters, the titles of most of which—such the constant companion of his zeal. Describing and quoting 150 as “Roots,” or “Stems, Leaves” or ”Molluscs, Crustaceans, historical works on Jamaica in which callaloo is discussed, Insects, Reptiles”—are self explanatory. Chapter 11 is entitled he shows how the term has been used over time for several “Salt, Earth, Water.” The concluding chapter consists of ten different plants from widely different botanical families— and one-half pages of text, plus two pages of illuminating amaranths, chenopodiums, and phytolaccas—spreading historical world maps, Jamaica at their center. Except for thus across a vast botanical space. (Modern cookbooks may the Rev. John Lindsay’s fine-colored natural history plates suggest spinach, which is a chenopodium, as a substitute; GASTRONOMICA of 1770–1775, and a couple by W.J. Titford, the materials or collard greens or kale, which are brassicas.) The seven- accompanying the text are elegantly simple drawings, show- teenth- and eighteenth-century authors he quotes were not ing, for example, the named parts of the inside of a mango; slouches; a number of solid early botanical identifications the anatomy of the green turtle; the edible parts of a pig; were made. But these wild, weedy plants are all edible; the processing equipment needed to prepare and detoxify they are normally peeled, cut small, and stewed with many Manihot esculenta, called cassava, or manioc; and some other ingredients; and there is no doubt that all were used Jamaica, historically and taxonomically, he makes clear that clear makes he taxonomically, and historically Jamaica, is eaten may be called it. called be may eaten is in such stews. The stews themselves were also called also were themselves stews The stews. such in laloo less randomly. Cassidy and LePage’s dictionary lists seven lists dictionary LePage’s and Cassidy randomly. less different ideas or substances are mixed together, more or more together, mixed are substances or ideas different callaloo sorts of sorts As Higman launches into the story of story the into launches Higman As s. Today, because a stew is composed of various things, various of composed is stew a because Today, s. callaloo is also used to mean an object or situation in which in situation or object an mean to used also is , noting that in recent usage, recent in that noting , 2

callaloo any green that green in cal- Jamaicans use the term both for “almost any green leafy green any “almost for both term the use Jamaicans vegetable” and for “a particular plant” (p.104). There is a is There (p.104). plant” particular “a for and vegetable” identified by botanist C. Dennis Adams as Adams Dennis C. botanist by identified when Jamaican talk about ‘ about talk Jamaican when viridis plant called plant from b.w. higman, higman, b.w. from Above: , and of which, Higman writes, “it is…certain that is…certain “it writes, Higman which, of and , Rev. John Lindsay, John Rev. jamaican food: history, biology, culture culture biology, history, food: jamaican callaloo , which people grow in their gardens, their in grow people which , Coconut Tree Coconut callaloo ’ with specificity, they specificity, with ’ , 1766. , (uwi press, 2008), plate 7. plate 2008), press, (uwi Amaranthus 151

GASTRONOMICA WINTER 2010 mean A. viridis” (p.106). But Adams identified two other not at all. Among the documented negative health effects in plants called callaloo by Jamaicans, plants which are also Africa are nutritional neuropathies, chronic endemic goiters, amaranths and are also used in callaloo stews and other- and, in the worst cases, death from acute cyanide intoxication. wise (A. spinosus and A. dubius). Adams identified a fourth Once the chief “bread” of the Jamaican people, cassava plant that locals call callaloo that is not even an amaranth: meal baked into “bammy” cakes, only faintly altered from Phytolacca rivinoides. Over more than two centuries, the ancient Arawak originals, was swiftly disappearing at the Jamaicans have been using all of these plants in their stews. time when I was doing fieldwork in Jamaica in the 1950s. There are no confusions about the separate botanical identi- Higman points out that, though still greatly prized, the cas- ties of these plants. But the term callaloo, used both as a sava flour won by much labor from this tuber could not local label for a particular plant, and as a handy name for compete with imported “minute cereals” and other less labor- plants of that sort, is indeed confusing. (In other places, of intensive breadstuffs and porridge bases. But Caribbean course, such as Trinidad, callaloo means yet other things.) migrants abroad still consume quantities of cassava flour. The callaloo that Jamaicans buy in markets or grow Higman’s conclusions take note of the local preference themselves today Higman describes as a fast-growing, weedy for salty, sweet, fat, and spicy hot, and the partial congru- plant that can be peeled, chopped, and cooked, adding ence of Jamaican taste with the fast foods that have diffused nutrients, vitamins, and a pleasant bitter taste to other foods. rapidly and globally. Though Jamaica’s own fast foods add It is both popular and (I assume) affordable. I infer these the hot-spicy taste—based to some degree on the capsicums, leaves and stems are primarily A. viridis; but I dare to sup- such as the Scotch Bonnet cultivar—to the other tastes, the pose that a bunch of such leaves might also contain one or similarities of their fast foods to the worldwide corporate more botanically different plants. specialties are many. Jamaican fast food flourishes alongside And, finally, there is Higman’s examination of manioc “international” fast food; and chicken (including feet, back, (cassava). This is a rhizome or tuber, which is to say, its and gizzard) has become the flesh of choice. The Jamaican food material is stored underground. There were once said liking for animal protein is strong. That it has settled upon to be two “types” of manioc, bitter and sweet. But in truth chicken more often than on pork or beef is largely to be there were varying quantities of cyanogenetic glucosides explained by differences in cost. The chicken has become to be found in manioc plants; those with large quanti- the rib steak and pork chop of the Caribbean poor. In terms ties could be deadly if eaten undetoxified. Once thought of available animal protein, the outcome could, of course, classifiable into bitter and sweet varieties, it is now known be worse, as I have suggested in the case of the Marianas that toxicity can vary with age, climate, and soil. There is and Papua New Guinea.3 Higman calls attention to the only one species to which all varieties belong. This tuber— way Jamaicans think of their dishes as potent national the world’s only major poisonous food staple—was brought symbols, but he also makes plain that most Jamaicans must to the Antilles from the South American mainland by choose their daily foods in terms of their available time for Arawakan-speaking pioneer farmers, after 500 a.d. shopping and cooking; their energy; and, of course, their North Americans know one widely used cassava prod- pocketbooks. uct: its flour, called tapioca and sold as “seeds” or “pearls” As a historian, particularly of the British West Indies, of starch—a common modern pudding ingredient made who lived and taught in Jamaica during much of his

WINTER 2010 from the detoxified juice of the plant’s underground tuber. professional life, Higman’s grasp of that island’s history is 152 The manioc itself was the single most important domesti- unparalleled. His book is a rich repository of knowledge, cated food source in pre-Columbian Amazonia; it is still and because food is such an intimate and inescapable fea- a core feature of Brazilian cuisine, a major food of Native ture of daily life, one gets here an inside look at the food of Amazonia, and the leading tuber food source in Africa today. a people, brought alive through time. The book is a hand- The aboriginal arrivants in the Antilles brought some model for anyone who might aspire seriously to do detoxification technology and tools from Amazonia, too. the food history of a whole society. I urge its reading upon GASTRONOMICA Higman supplies a flow chart of Jamaican cassava processing, all students of food. with nice sketches of the processing tools. Detoxification is Like Higman’s study, Ortíz Cuadra’s Puerto Rico en absolutely necessary, if there is any doubt about the quantity la olla, ¿Somos aún lo que comimos? (“Puerto Rico in the of cyanogenetic glucosides, to avoid death or physical Pot: Are We Still What We Ate?”) is a pioneering work, damage. Interestingly, when manioc reached Africa, the one unfortunately not yet available in English. It is the first effective detoxification method diffused unevenly with it, or history of the foods and eating habits of the Puerto Rican Americans now call “cilantro” ( “cilantro” call now Americans United States seized the island. Plantations have largely have Plantations island. the seized States United For the preceding four hundred years there was a large pop- large a was there years hundred four preceding the For Jamaicans. In considering the history and changing place of place changing and history the considering In Jamaicans. yautía Puerto Rican per capita meat consumption, which began which consumption, meat capita per Rican Puerto Puerto Rico’s major foods: rice and beans; the aroids called aroids the beans; and rice foods: major Rico’s Puerto Sugar plantations became important after 1815 but then but 1815 after important became plantations Sugar various foods in succession he makes frequent use of materi- of use frequent makes he succession in foods various verified by the confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to Sotomayor Sonia Judge of confirmation the by verified is a is indices of modern life. modern of indices and obesity in measured be can success Our island. with work. In Puerto Rico especially, we’ve had a roaring success, roaring a had we’ve especially, Rico Puerto In work. has had a substantial rural farm population growing a growing population farm rural substantial a had has rising in the 1950s. the in rising ulation of free white and colored Spanish-speaking people, Spanish-speaking colored and white free of ulation but the two are very different. Ortíz seeks to tell us about us tell to seeks Ortíz different. very are two the but organized in chapters that slightly resemble Higman’s; resemble slightly that chapters in organized the on stamps food federal of program ever-larger an by backed are mainland the on subsidies farm the because produc- food local off killing for talent the islands, both dients composing the composing dients North herb love/hate the own); their of book a deserve declined, only to be revived in wholly new form after the after form new wholly in revived be to only declined, diabetes rates, fitness-club fees, ephedrine use, and other and use, ephedrine fees, fitness-club rates, diabetes more. once disappeared als, much of it from novels, and from early reports. early from and novels, from it of much als, the for employs Higman than style humanistic more ably in increases staggering the and beans; and rice well, are, and slaves never exceeded 13 percent of the population. the of percent 13 exceeded never slaves and people, whose existence, if once in doubt, has recently been recently has doubt, in once if existence, whose people, farming was never completely eliminated by the plantation the by eliminated completely never was farming the Puerto Rican people through their food in a notice- a in food their through people Rican Puerto the ingre- of bundle mysterious) somewhat (and magical the to the term here—until the end of the nineteenth century. nineteenth the of end the here—until term the Rico Puerto of Commonwealth The Court. Supreme the to agricultural producers in the United States, has been at been has States, United the in producers agricultural to subsidies federal by possible made food, cheap with tion system, the proportion has been declining since 1899. On 1899. since declining been has proportion the system, of type this While food. island’s the of fraction significant sixteenth century but was not a plantation colony—as I use I colony—as plantation a not was but century sixteenth mid- the as early as plantations and slaves, cane, sugar 1898–1899. in Spain from seized The island is one of those Caribbean places that had that places Caribbean those of one is island The Unlike Jamaica, from the beginning Puerto Rico Puerto beginning the from Jamaica, Unlike Ortíz’s book, published two years before Higman’s, is Higman’s, before years two published book, Ortíz’s Ortíz, keenly aware of all this, traces the history of history the traces this, all of aware keenly Ortíz, u.s. culantro and possession (estimated 2010 population: 4.1 million), 4.1 population: 2010 (estimated possession malanga , an entirely different plant, equally essential equally plant, different entirely an , (one Old World, one New, which New, one World, Old (one sofrito , without which rice and beans and rice which without , Coriandrum sativum Coriandrum ) along ) Aluku, Paramaka) descended from slaves who fled the the fled who slaves from descended Paramaka) Aluku, Americans have learned to call to learned have Americans Though understandably incomplete, it begins to bring some bring to begins it incomplete, understandably Though fine works one ends up wondering whether, finally, the finally, whether, wondering up ends one works fine I began working there in 1948 are suffering from obesity from suffering are 1948 in there working began I are really Ricans Puerto Ricans may still be what they eat; but what they eat they what but eat; they what be still may Ricans Puerto Eastern Caribbean, Eastern spoken creoles the also others—but among Dutch, English, Ortíz wonders whether “Tell me what you eat and I will I and eat you what me “Tell whether wonders Ortíz you eat and I will tell you who you are”; or even “Tell me “Tell even or are”; you who you tell will I and eat you Maroons of the Maroni are three named tribes (Ndyuka, (Ndyuka, tribes named three are Maroni the of Maroons is surely not what they ate before. Near the end of his story his of end the Near before. ate they what not surely is wistfully recalls—there has been a sea change in the nature the in change sea a been has recalls—there wistfully when you eat and I will tell you who you are.” Charming are.” you who you tell will I and eat you when mastery of such complexity. A slim paperback, it represents it paperback, slim A complexity. such of mastery reader will find it a joy to browse. to joy a it find will reader creole language heavily influenced lexically by English, English, by lexically influenced heavily language creole Caribbean Dictionary Caribbean choices what determines really “Who be: to has question by the number of automobiles or automobiles of number the by on the Guianese mainland. These people, who speak a a speak who people, These mainland. Guianese the on and Trinidadians, Jamaicans, Surinamers, Haitians, by of home cooking has been accompanied by decreases in decreases by accompanied been has cooking home of in people of grandchildren The life. daily Rican Puerto of (including assistance governmental receiving families of of the the of two among case this in cooperation, of hours untold of veritable a to order others. French, settler/conquerors—Spanish, European the of chayotl and diabetes today. Now there is little or no scarcity of scarcity no or little is there Now today. diabetes and newcomer comparative this even which of appeared—some and food habits) of the Maroons of the Maroni. The The Maroni. the of Maroons the of habits) food and lexicon a is It sociologist. a and botanist, a anthropologists, available?” are these of both In bittersweet. also is book his learned, and physical activity; increases in salt, sugar, and fat consump- fat and sugar, salt, in increases activity; physical tell you who you are” will be replaced by “Tell me where me “Tell by replaced be will are” you who you tell foods. once-loved and traditional many of loss the and tion; decline sorrowful a here, as there But island. the on food when malnutrition from suffering were who countryside the dis- now have that eaten once foods the by or stamps), food seventeenth-century sugar plantations of Dutch planters planters Dutch of plantations sugar seventeenth-century sheer mountains of scholarly cooperation and years of work. of years and cooperation scholarly of mountains sheer This is a region of many languages, not only those those only not languages, many of region a is This Near the end of his story, Ortíz asks whether Puerto whether asks Ortíz story, his of end the Near Like Allsopp’s Like alimentation ), is called is ), Sechium edule Sechium still chocho Dictionary, L’Alimentation Dictionary, (perhaps best translated as foods foods as translated best (perhaps calalú militôn what they ate. Whether one judges one Whether ate. they what is a valuable first step toward the toward step first valuable a is , the pale green cucurbit we North we cucurbit green pale the , in Jamaica, in of cuisines, and weirdos like this like weirdos and cuisines, of in Haiti, etc. Jeannette Allsopp’s Jeannette etc. Haiti, in chayote tv sets, or by the number the by or sets, christophene (from Nahuatl (from is the product the is in the in 153

GASTRONOMICA WINTER 2010 now live in the Maroni/Marowijne River region. The river My aim here, beyond describing and sketchily evalu- is the uncertain boundary between French Guiana and ating these books, is to call attention to the richness and Suriname. This work is a thesaurus of the everyday culi- variety of food studies of a certain sort. All four of these nary (and, partly, both material and religious) life of these works are by authors who had accuracy of reportage much remarkable people. Only students whose daily work brought in mind, and were willing to work mightily to achieve ade- them into close association with the Maroons could have quate detail. None of them is going to become a bestseller. produced it. It should be mentioned that this was a product Their authors deserve the praise—and warm thanks—of of unpaid, spare-time cooperation by people devoted to gastronomes everywhere.g Maroon welfare, and working on medical research. Though primarily a lexicon or specialized dictionary, L’Alimentation notes is a source of valuable information at the junctures of food 1. Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery (Chapel Hill: University of North and religion on the one hand, and food and illness on the Carolina Press, 1944), 59. other. Though the book is catalogued by the Library of 2. F(rederick) G. Cassidy and R(obert) B. LePage, Dictionary of Jamaican English, 2d ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980). Congress and a copy of it reposes there, it is, to say the least, 3. Sidney W. Mintz, “Afterword,” Ethnology 47:2 (2009): 129–135. a difficult work to come by. WINTER 2010 154 GASTRONOMICA