First day of class and we're already jumping into a quick in-class activity. We were asked to research some info/background on bread beforehand for our Concept Map activity.
Concept Map
This time we're creating a concept map based on bread in different continents such as Africa, Europe, America, Australasia and Asia. My group chose Europe and from there, we had to create a concept map about bread and how it affected certain topics such as history, social, politics, economy and culture. Attached below is my group's concept map.
We covered the topic starting from history and how bread came to be in Europe- starting from Ancient Greeks to the Romans, continuing to the Middle Ages and Britain till it leads up to modern Europe including some additional facts about the Bakers Guild, how the Great Fire of Britain was started by a baker and more.
Continuing on, bread is used in social setting from religious offering to symbol of status. Religion wise, bread was mainly used as an offering by the Greeks to the Goddess of Harvest, Demeter while in Christianity, bread became a symbol of sharing between Christians as Jesus Christ multiplied bread to share between crowds as depicted in the Bible. In terms of status, the colour of bread showcases the status difference between the rich and poor as white bread is more expensive due to the bleaching of flour and the connotation of white being a pure colour- thus making white bread an exclusive food for the rich while brown bread was for the poor or the masses as it is easy to obtain and doesn't hold any special connotation. Meanwhile in Britain, a household that bakes its own bread is considered to be a wealthy family as they are able to afford cooks and the machinery required to bake it in the comfort of their own home rather than buying it from a bakery- where most people go to obtain bread.
Political wise, bread became one of the causes that started riots in France leading up to the French Revolution. This started from the Flour War that started in 1775 when the prices of flour and wheat was poorly controlled by the government- which caused the price of these item to be controlled by the free market that caused the price to inflate excessively until the working class couldn't buy these ingredients. This caused riots as most French citizens rely heavily on bread as a part of their diet. Thus, the price surge caused citizens- especially the poor to riot for a better government in place.
As the riots soon lead up to the French Revolution, it is no surprise that this whole situation affected the economy of France as it caused the price and redistribution of bread, wheat and flour to be closely monitored and strictly controlled to avoid inflation and riots to be repeated. Meanwhile in Britain, the British Baking Industries Research Association (BBIRA) created the Chorleywood Baking Process in 1962 as a way to make the mass production of bread faster while using less energy and money but still maintaining good quality. This indirectly increased Britain's economy as bread can be produced faster and are able to be shipped out to the public quicker.
As bread has affected the history, social, politics and economy of countries in Europe, its no surprise that it also plays some role in the cultural aspect of Europe. In certain parts of Eastern Europe, bread is offered alongside salt to guests as they first arrive as a symbol of hospitality. While Syracuse creates bread resembling female genitals as offering to fertility deities during fertility festivals to increase a person's chance of being fertile.
Connection
After finishing the concept map, we pasted each of our map and connected any similarity from our concept map to other continents content. For an example, in America's history they stated something regarding the white bread being available only for the rich while brown bread for the poor- thus since Europeans also had that social connotation we connected strings to the similar information. Thus, showing how one singular object had the similar meaning/function in different area of the world.
It's quite astonishing to me how bread can affect so many aspects in a certain area of life from being a symbol of offering to deities and a symbol of hospitality to causing riots to affecting a country's economy. This activity makes me feel like everything is somewhat interconnected to each other no matter how insignificant it can be to certain people or area. Maybe I'm looking at it too much but I truly do agree with bread being a symbol of sharing and connectivity with others because it's such a hearty yet simple meal that's eaten by every walks of life. From the poor to the rich- everyone has eaten bread at least once and the memory of eating bread is usually connected to eating breakfast- which is a very communal meal where you're surrounded by family members or friends. Therefore, it's connotation of sharing and connectivity is very much applied to that memory that we all have with bread.
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