Yours

Talk2016

Home Canning: Cultural Narratives, Technological Change & the Status of Traditional Knowledge

American Folklife Center

EducationScienceHistory

At the Library of Congress

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Drawing on filmstrips, posters, cartoons, newspaper captions, canning manuals, mail-order catalogs and other sources, Danille Christensen offered examples that explore how technological changes contributed to the dismissal or even demonization of women's experience-based domestic knowledge in the area of home canning. Shelf-stable canned goods -- heat-sterilized fruits, vegetables and meat preserved in sealed containers -- have been part of everyday American life since the mid-19th century. While industrial canning utilized metal tins and mechanized processes, other forms of canning came to rely on glass bottles and the domestic labor of women. But even in the early 1900s, the practice had multiple meanings: for some, home canning was old-fashioned, inefficient or embarrassing. For others, it was a valuable skill to be displayed in public and mobilized in times of need. In today's contexts of economic instability, automated systems, and cultural and environmental change, do-it-yourself canning is experiencing a revival. The process can be a way to recall people and places, to perform authentic or esoteric taste, and to enact abstract values such as stewardship or self-sufficiency. In the 21st century, more people are canning their own food, and more are writing about it. However, the histories of canning that crop up in everything from food magazines to microbiology textbooks have been strikingly similar: they invariably celebrate a single "father of canning" -- a man…

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Library of Congress
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English
Country
United States
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