Category Archives: Colonial

Mungo Park, an 18th Century Ethnologist Explores West Africa

Posted on 22/04/2015 by dianabuja

Mungo Park is the first explorer/writer of the 18th century who attempted to interpret local people and places from a local point of view He was influenced by principles and practices of the Enlightenment. picture source – http://www.vialibri.net In this entry we … Continue reading →

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Posted in Africa-West, Agriculture, Arab traders, Colonial, Cuisine, Ethnography, Food, Mungo Park | Tagged Agriculture, Benowm, crops, Moors, Nankeen breeches, West Africa | Leave a comment

Easter Season in Egypt, 1834: ‘Smelling the Breeze’, Making Kishk, Eating Colored Eggs & Salted Fish

Posted on 02/04/2015 by dianabuja

Manners and Customs of The Modern Egyptians, by E. Lane, is a two-volume set filled with lore about Egypt during the author’s time (1834). And although it makes for fascinating reading, the book is now largely ‘put down’ by post-colonial theorists … Continue reading →

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Posted in Colonial, Colonialism, Cuisine, Egypt, Food, Recipes | Tagged Cairo, Copts, Easter, Edward William Lane, fasiikh, food, Kishk, Manners and Customs of The Modern Egyptians, Passover, shamm al-nasiim, Upper Egypt | 5 Comments

Provisioning Rome with Grain – And the Workers must eat, Too!

Posted on 18/07/2014 by dianabuja

Rachel Laudan has put up a most interesting blog on food production and distribution in ancient times, focusing on the problems of provisioning Rome; she says > Provisioning Rome, one of the world’s largest cities, if not the largest with … Continue reading →

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Posted in Alexander the Great, Colonial, Colonialism, Egypt-Ancient, Food, Graeco-Roman era, History-Ancient | Tagged Egypt, Grain, Payment in kind, Rachel Laudan, Rome | 3 Comments

The Egyptian Book of the Dead; what Egyptologists have to say and an imaginative reinactment

Posted on 02/05/2014 by dianabuja

For you upcoming weekend enjoyment, a reposting of this popular blog. The following videos dramatize a bit of the life of the 19th century Egyptologist E Wallace Budge and his discoveries in Egypt; together with brief remarks by several 20th and 21st … Continue reading →

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Posted in Colonial, Egypt-Ancient, Magic, Nile Valley | Tagged Book of the Dead, E Wallace Budge, Egypt, Egyptian afterlife, Egyptian Book of the Dead, Egyptologists, Egyptology, Wallace Budge | Leave a comment

Excursion to the Pyramids of Gizeh, August 25, 1842

Posted on 19/12/2013 by dianabuja

The intrepid global traveller Ida Pfeifer visited the Holy Lands and Egypt in 1842. While in Egypt she traveled to Giza and climbed the great pyramid. Below is a description of her adventure, take from a longer blog on her … Continue reading →