29 January - 5 February 2012 - Storytelling

Part 1: Who needs a mustard plant?

“Beneath the favorite tale of the moment
a deeper story always lies waiting to be discovered.”
(Thomas Moore)

Honore Daumier - Resting clowns
 
“Mustard … with its pungent taste and fiery effect is extremely beneficial for the health. It grows entirely wild, though it is improved by being transplanted: but on the other hand when it has once been sown it is scarcely possible to get the place free of it, as the seed when it falls germinates at once.” (Pliny the Elder, Natural History 19.170-171)

Part 2: On the way to innocence
“We are born naïve, but we can grow into innocence …”
 (Thomas Moore)

“In all societies, both simple and complex, eating is the primary way of initiating and maintaining human relationships …. Once the anthropologist finds out where, when, and with whom the food is eaten, just about everything else can be inferred about the relations among the society’s members …. To know what, where, how, when, and with whom people eat is to know the character of their society.” (Peter Farb and George Armelagos, Consuming Passions: The Anthropology of Eating)