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| MATTERS OF TASTE | |
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ACTIVITIES (RECOMMENDED FOR GRADES 4 - 8) |
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1) A Dangerous Pineapple
Objective: Students will learn about Dutch trade during the Golden Age; they will be introduced to Dutch culinary history and early Dutch medical thought.
Step One. As Dutch ships established contact with an increasing number of ports during the seventeenth century, Netherlanders were introduced to a variety of new foodstuffs, including coffee, tea, tobacco, pineapple, and spices. Moralist physicians of the period often responded to this influx of new items with strong opinions; one physician recommended drinking at least eight cups of tea a day in order to remain healthy, while another issued the grave warning that pineapple might cause “gastric ailments from the Orient.”
Step Two. Divide the class into groups of three to five students; have each group work together to determine a food item that would have been new to the Netherlands during the seventeenth century. Groups should conduct additional research in order to establish the chosen food item's place of origin, how much it would have cost, where a Netherlander might have purchased it, and—most importantly—what effects its consumption was thought to have on the human body.
Step Three. Have each group write a script for an infomercial advertising the benefits of a newly discovered foodstuff, or for a public service announcement issuing a warning about a dangerous new food fad. Encourage students to conduct “market research” in order to determine the audience to which their commercial should be directed for maximum effectiveness. If students choose coffee, for example, their commercial should address men, since coffee-drinking was largely a masculine habit during the seventeenth century.
Step Four. Have each group present its infomercial or public service announcement to classmates; encourage students to include appropriate dress or props in their performances.
Step Five. Engage the class in a brief discussion. Encourage students to make connections between the occasional fanaticism and food phobia of Dutch culture and the diet fads, nutrition supplements, and artificial sweeteners and fat substitutes of American culture today. |
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2) Beverwijck Brochures
Objective: Students will understand the role of trade in the establishment of New Netherland; students will review the concept of patroonship. Students will engage with a primary source. |
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3) "Even if it rained milk..."
Objective: Students will understand the role emblem books and proverbs played in seventeenth-century Dutch society. They will be briefly introduced to some of the important foodstuffs in the early Dutch diet.
Some scholars believe that Dutch Golden Age genre paintings reference emblem books—collections of illustrated proverbs—in order to send a moralistic message to viewers. Many of these proverbs reference foodstuffs, especially the bread and cheese that were mainstays of the seventeenth-century Netherlander’s diet.
Step One. Show students sample pages from seventeenth-century Dutch emblem books. Engage students in a brief discussion in order to encourage them to look closely at the illustrations; you might ask students to consider the line quality, coloration, level of detail, etc. of these books. Since these small-format, black and white images lend themselves to photocopying, you may wish to provide each student with his or her own sample to reference as (s)he completes the project.
Step Two. Create a list of food-related Dutch proverbs for students to reference as they work. A table of relevant sayings and their approximate meanings has been provided below, but you may also wish to consult the Dictionary of 1000 Dutch Proverbs, edited by Gerd de Ley.
Step Three. On one side of a sheet of drawing paper, have students write the literal English translation of their chosen proverb in large, clear letters. Instruct them to write the “true” cultural meaning beneath it.
Step Four. On the other side of this sheet of paper, have students illustrate their chosen proverb. The illustrations of Cats, Adriaen Van de Venne and other emblem writers tend to express the cultural—rather than the literal—meanings of proverbs, but students will nonetheless enjoy depicting a literal interpretation of one of these sayings. Encourage students to be creative with their illustrations; proverbs sometimes sound humorous or nonsensical to those who are unfamiliar with them, and students should feel free to create whimsical drawings. If desired, have students echo the style of traditional emblem books by executing their drawings with a thin-tipped black marker or pen, or by incorporating line design.
Step Five. Collect student drawings and bind them together to make a class “emblem” book. Orient the pages so that readers will encounter the written proverb first and the drawing second, as they turn the page. If several students have chosen to illustrate the same proverb, place their contributions next to each other in the book so that readers can fully appreciate each student’s interpretation. |
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Literal English Translation
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Approximate Meaning |
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“Even if it rained milk, his bowls would be upside down.”
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He has bad luck. |
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“A kiss without a beard is like an egg without salt.”
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Beware of young love; it is rarely lasting or true. |
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“He talks like a sausage without the fat.”
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He doesn’t have much to say; he’s “tight-lipped.”
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“He fell with his nose in the butter.”
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He’s lucky.
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“It’s easy to cut big chunks from someone else’s cheese.”
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It’s easier to spend someone else’s money than it is to spend your own. |
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“When butter gets expensive, you learn to eat your bread dry.”
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When times are tough, you must adjust. |
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“Some people eat biscuits in order to save on bread.”
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Some people are “spendthrifts.” |
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“He who has cheese does not need dessert.”
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Beware of gluttony. |
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“The way you choose a melon, you should choose your friends.”
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Be careful of who you trust. (Dutch children accompanied parents or servants to market and learned at an early age to discern between fresh and spoiled foodstuffs.)
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4) Patriotic Still Lifes
Objective: Over the course of three to five class sessions, students will understand the concept of “still life” painting. Students will be introduced to Dutch trade and dietary patterns of the seventeenth-century, and will acquire knowledge about one critical lens through which these paintings can be viewed. Students will create their own still lifes.
Step One. Some scholars believe that Golden Age Dutch still life paintings were created to demonstrate pride in the trade economy of a newly independent and prosperous nation. During the first session of the project, engage students in a brief discussion to help them understand the concept of still life painting. Hang a reproduction of a seventeenth-century Dutch still life on the blackboard or in another area where all students can easily see it. Pose simple leading questions, such as:
*What are some of the objects depicted in the painting?
*Do these objects have anything in common with each other?
*Why do you think an artist might have chosen to depict these particular objects?
*Would you expect to see this particular arrangement of items “lying around” in your own home? Why or why not?
Guide students to the conclusion that still life paintings depict inanimate objects arranged in a display designed by an artist. Briefly explain that some scholars believe seventeenth-century Dutch artists presented foodstuffs and luxury items from around the world in order to demonstrate pride in their rich trade economy (For further information concerning Dutch trade during the Golden Age, consult the accompanying materials).
Step Two. Divide the class into groups of three to five students, and have them conduct research in the school library in order to determine the official food, drink, bird, animal, flower, etc. of New York State. Alternatively, have students research Beverwijck or present-day Netherlands in order to determine trade products or other cultural elements that might have been, or might be, sources of pride to residents of these communities.
Step Three. During a second session of the project, allow students time to complete their research. Have one member of each group report its findings to the entire class. Write responses on the blackboard, and have students work together to determine the cultural elements that they consider most relevant to a patriotic representation of New York. Encourage students to explain the reasons for their choices.
Step Four. In advance of a third session of the project, use students’ research to design and arrange a still life display in which the chosen cultural elements are represented.
Step Four. During the third session of the project, explain that Golden Age Dutch still life paintings are often recognized for their realism. Have students draw the display from observation, paying close attention to “real life” details. If possible, provide students with oil pastels, a simple and safe approximation of the oil paints used by seventeenth-century Dutch still life artists. |
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5) Beverwijck Childhood
Objective: Students will investigate day-to-day life in seventeenth-century Beverwijck. Students will engage with a primary source. (Optional: Students will experience traditional Dutch food.)
Step One. Anne Grant, a British woman who came to New Netherland as an infant, recorded her childhood impressions of Beverwijck in a memoir first published in 1808. Read the following passage, in which Grant describes a phenomenon of Colonial Dutch childhood. She writes:
The children of the town were all divided into companies, as they called them, from five to six years of age, till they became marriageable. Each company at a certain time of the year went in a body to gather a particular kind of berries, to the hills. It was a sort of annual festival, attended with religious punctuality.
The parents of these children seemed very much to encourage this manner of marshalling and dividing themselves. Every child was permitted to entertain the whole company on its birth-day, and once besides, during winter and spring. The master and mistriss [sic] of the family always were bound to go from home on these occasions, while some old domestic was left to attend and watch over them, with an ample provision of tea, chocolate, preserved and dried fruits, nuts, and cakes of various kinds, to which was added cider or a syllabub [a drink made with sweetened cream curdled with wine or spirits], for these young friends met at four, and did not part till nine or ten, and amused themselves with the utmost gaiety and freedom in any way their fancy dictated.
Step Two. Design a questionnaire regarding the experiences of the Dutch—and especially of Dutch young people—living in Beverwijck, and have students conduct research in order to locate responses. See “Books for Students” for a list of age-appropriate research materials. Sample questions include:
*Describe the school system in New Netherland.
*At what age were New Netherland young people expected to begin working full time?
*What did children do for entertainment?
*What did New Netherlanders eat on a day-to-day basis? What did they eat on special occasions?
*What types of clothes did New Netherlanders wear?
Step Three. Have students write a short “memoir” in which they describe an ordinary day—or a special event—from the perspective of a Beverwijck child. Before students begin writing, discuss the difference between a memoir and a more formal historical essay. How does Anne Grant’s memoir differ from another book about colonial history? In what ways might a primary text be more helpful than a secondary text? In what ways might it be more difficult to use as a research material?
Step Four (Optional). Point out that the class has successfully worked together to finish a task in much the same way that Beverwijck “companies” worked together to harvest berries. Offer the students a party of the sort described in Anne Gibson’s memoir; set a date for the event, and have students use the research that they have conducted to plan appropriate food, entertainment, and dress.
*If possible, you might divide children into groups of three or four and have parent volunteers come into your classroom to cook a traditional Dutch recipe with each of these groups (See “Resources for Teachers” for a list of Dutch cookbooks). If proper facilities are not available, however, students will enjoy Dutch-origin foods such as doughnuts, pancakes, cookies, and waffles, or the cider, hot chocolate, nuts and dried fruit that Gibson mentions in the passage above. |
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