Tastes of Paradise

In Tastes of Paradise, Wolfgang Schivelbusch traces the social histories of commodities that have become integral components of modern society. It appears that Schivelbusch considers commodities as goods only, which is evident from the subject of his work. For Schivelbusch, commodities such as pepper, coffee, tobacco, beer, etc., are ascribed meaning through their uses and the social contexts in which they are consumed. He affirms what we have already determined through our class discussions – that commodities are, by their nature, dynamic and transitive. This is evident in the case of chocolate. Chocolate consumption was initially consumed by the Spanish and French aristocracy and even held religious connotations. Yet, with several innovations, such as the development of the chocolate bar or milk chocolate, chocolate underwent a sort of infantilization, being relegated to the realm of children (as well as women). The same could be said of tobacco, whose social meaning depended on the method of which it was imbibed (pipes and cigars for men; cigarettes for women – a symbol of women’s emancipation). Schivelbusch illustrates for us the process of adoption for most commodities, in particular items whose status was initially that of luxury. He defines two phases that a product passes through: a heroic phase, in which the item changes the status quo (he uses the phrase “altering reality”) and a conformist phase, in which there is no significant change in social dynamics, but rather the product undergoes mass consumption (affirms and stabilizes the new social position of the commodity). It appears that there are several factors that can move a product from its initial heroic phase to its conformist phase. In the case of spices such as pepper, it was the eventual oversaturation of the market that drove pepper from the realm of the elite and the sacred to its common place on the tables of the middle and lower classes. Schivelbusch affirmed many of the newly formed conceptions I had made regarding commodities, and was an excellent follow up to Mintz. I appreciated his well-informed, concise, and comprehensive analysis of several different commodities. An excellent read!