(Below--Diana and Actaeon by Titian c. 1556. A valuable painting of certain provenance and with some naked ladies in it)
According to Wikipedia, provenance is not to be confused with "provence" which is a scenic location in the south of France--and is in fact the south of France--which is, itself, of fairly certain provenance because it's been pretty geologically stable throughout recorded history and has not been hidden in a warehouse, painted over by the "nouveau riche" or accidentally mislaid during any armed conflicts. 
(Left) Map of France. Provence, which is also of certain provenance, is toward the lower right)Provenance is generally less likely to be applied as a term or concept to things like food, because the food we eat often doesn't have a long enough history to make its general whereabouts at all uncertain. Or at least we hope it doesn't.
Of course, the cultural habits we bring to foods and cuisines might have a long history, but since those aren't always all that tangible, it's not terribly common to really discuss provenance. (I think the right word for this is "foodways" but the theory is a little complicated and I frankly don't quite get it all.)
At least, these are the sorts of things my friend pointed out to me when I expressed some discomfort about the "provenance" of some beaver meat he was offering to allow me to eat. Or, rather, was explaining that he had gotten as leftovers from a guy during a kind of historic "interesting and edible animals" or "exotic and edible animals" or some such event in New England. He assured me that even though he forgot the beaver one night in the car, that it had been pretty cold out and it was perfectly fine. (And I should explain here that there are legal venues for obtaining beaver meat and that not all beaver species are endangered and that the beaver in question was handled humanely.)
I had an image of a juvenile beaver stuck in a car seat in the back of my friend's car,
gnawing on leftover bags of fast food refuse and cheap paperback books. (NB: my friend never eats fast food and took umbrage at my imagination placing the beaver in the back seat of my own car.) In any event, the hapless beaver did not gain in culinary succulence from this explanation.(Right) Big Mac--a type of fast food that neither contains, nor is routinely consumed by, beavers.
When I was studying early American Literature, I learned a lot about beavers as cultural artifacts. I had not really been aware, for example, that the entire country of Canada was a result of the early fur trade, and that one of the reasons that Quebec is still francophone is that the first trappers were from France and had become very culturally enmeshed there.
When I was studying early American Literature, I learned a lot about beavers as cultural artifacts. I had not really been aware, for example, that the entire country of Canada was a result of the early fur trade, and that one of the reasons that Quebec is still francophone is that the first trappers were from France and had become very culturally enmeshed there.
Beavers remain pretty popular in Canada, and "Roots" uses one as its mascot or logo or what have you...on my last trip there I even bought a really cute cuddly toy beaver wearing a shirt with a beaver on it for my niece (She promptly "killed" it with one of the plastic dinosaur 'chompers' I bought her brother. I understand that the plastic dinosaur found the cuddly beaver to be "yummy.")(Left: a beaver skeleton. Still good even if it has been left out in the car overnight.)
The day after I bought the cuddly beaver, I was at Lake Louise with a group of Italian colleagues after a meningitis and septicaemia meeting (it was much more fun than it sounds), and one of them asked what was up with all the beavers in Canada. I explained about the fur trade and the trappers and mentioned that the economic basis of the founding of settlements in North America was based on the beaver as a major export. It was probably somewhat boring, especially when compared with the lake and the cuddly toys.
He termed my explanation the "beavercentric view" of America. I kind of liked that as a term, but I could not really find a good way to work this into the beavercentric conversations I was having with my friend as the beaver in question languished in his freezer. Six months later, he was still offering it to me and told me I had only myself to blame if the beaver was getting freezer burn because the initial offer had been made as soon as he found it in his car. I was having a hard time arguing with this logic.
(Below) beaver lodge. Beavers spend a lot of time building these to create small ponds because beavers like small ponds. People who own trout streams do not appreciate the level of achievement this entails (beavers being only rodents) because they would prefer to be able to fish for the trouts and not have their parking places flooded. Some of these are brook trout.
Unfortunately, the beavercentric conversation took a turn at this point because I used the word "provanance" and my friend (like most of my friends) has a much better vocabulary than I do. He is also a bit more literal.
I was, in the tradition of Humpty Dumpty, paying "provenance" extra to mean not simply "I have no real idea where this beaver came from or how it has been handled since it was humanely killed" but also "I do not think of the back seat of your car as a place that I'd like to store food overnight."
He, on the other hand, made a point of explaining all the activities of the beaver from the time of its humanely handled death.
It made my life look quite boring and humdrum.
(above right) 1871 illustration of Humpty Dumpty by John Tenniel, a really good artist (although this copy might not really be art because it's mechanically reproduced). This is the Humpty Dumpty that pays words extra. Others just dance around and fall off things.
My friend took the opportunity at this point to tell me that it was more likely that there were items of uncertain provenance in all the fast food I was eating.This was kind of a low blow, because of course I have read quite a number of books about fast food and how the industry can be quite mean to the animals and that my hamburger or hot dog might really be made of an unpleasant combination of snouts and corn syrup.
I don't believe this, exactly, but I have been eating kind of a lot of hot dogs since I got back from Ljubljana, which I blame on the nice man from the comic book store and his tale of the hot dogs of Ljubljana.
I'm still not consuming any beavers.
All images are in the public domain. beaver photos, Humpty Dumpty image, and map of France are in the public domain because their copyrights have expired. big mac photo by evan-amos.
hamburger and hot dog images by the National Cancer Institute of the United States.
2 comments:
This is the kind of thing that makes me believe that you have a vastly superior memory, as compared to my own. I didn't see you taking any notes during our not-so-noteworthy banterish conversation, and yet here it is -- I suppose --, lovingly and expertly summarized, as though some omniscient narrator was viewing and recording it for later.
When are you going to commit to writing a book? I look forward to reading it some day, but I can't until you write it, right?
This is why I believe that you have a much better memory than my own. I didn't see you taking any note during our not-so-noteworthy conversation, and yet here it all is, lovingly summarized -- I suppose, as though some omniscient narrator had conscientiously collected it for later use.
When are you going to commit to writing a book? I look forward to reading it, but I can't until you write it, right?
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