Sidney W. Mintz in his book « the Sweetness of Power » studies the history of sugar and how it became so popular in the whole world. Why was sugar so popular? Mintz said it is because of sweetness. As a matter of fact, everybody does like sweetness even if it is not the same way. Mintz even tried in the first chapter of his book to find out why and how do people like sweetness. Apart from that, we can notice that there is something global about sugar. In class we came up with a definition of globalization as a movement of goods, information or ideas, and finally people. Let us see then how can sugar be relevant when we talk about globalization.
Coming from the south Pacific, sugar was made in the Caribbean region for British consumption and other European countries. Therefore, sugar moved all around the world and today almost everybody consumes sugar at least once per day. Then sugar was not transported from the south Pacific to other places, but it is the idea of it. Some people saw it, came back with the idea of sugar and started producing it in the Caribbean. Finally, sugar was made in the Caribbean by slaves deported from Africa and other places. Sugar fabrication therefore implied a movement of goods, information, and people.
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2 comments:
i don't think sugar popularity was made of information movement because how did they do to product sugarcane or sugarbeet without bringing these plants on their countries and product it. For me it is only thanks to goods movement.
Mamdaou, could it be because of both the movement of goods and ideas? Where does the word sugar come from? The medicinal recipes using sugar?
Think it over,
Your instructor
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