"...mein Acker ist die Zeit", Aufsätze zur Umweltgeschichte - Oapen

Comments on contributions to
“Health versus Wealth – the biological and economic
standards of living” – Fondatione Istituto Internazionale
die Storia Economica “F. Datini”, Prato (I),
26-30 April 2010
Bernd Herrmann 730
Thursday April 30 th
Session: Health versus Wealth –The Biological and Economic
Strandards of Living. Comment (pp 587-590)
The session opened with two most impressive papers which demonstrated how
biological basics are interweaved with complex human standards of living. In fact,
it is the biological aspect or the biological part of these features that opens insight
into societal conditions. Meat consumption and human body height become convincing
proxydata for standards of living.
Following earlier ideas by Fernand Braudel, Soens & Thoen stressed that gross
meat consumption in medieval Europe seems rather unique in terms of global
history. Meat consumption was a social marker in their region and time of focus.
730 Zuerst erschienen in: Le interazioni fra economia e ambiente biologico dell’Europa preidustriale
secc.XIII-XVIII. – Economic and biological interactions in pre-indsutrial Europe from the 13th to
the 18th centuries. Atti della «Quarantunesima Setimana di Studi», 26-30 aprile 2009 a cura di Simonetta
Cavaciocchi. Fondazione Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica « F.Datini », Prato. Serie
II, 41. Firenze University Pres. S. 587-590, 594-596, 611-612. – I wish to thank the organizers of the
conference and the Fondazione Datini for inviting me and making my participation possible. The
provident help and support by staff from the Fondazione was highly appreciated.