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SUMMARY:The Tastes of Wine: Towards a Cultural History - Steven Shapin (Fr
 anklin L Ford Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University)
DTSTART:20120529T161500Z
DTEND:20120529T180000Z
UID:TALK38126@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ruth Rushworth
DESCRIPTION:ST Lee Professorial Fellow 2011-12: Professor Steven Shapin\n\
 nA lecture by Steven Shapin (Franklin L Ford Professor of the History of S
 cience at Harvard University) on the cultural and social history of how pe
 ople have tasted wine and talked about its tastes followed by a wine recep
 tion. \n\nAbstract\n\nHow have people talked about the organoleptic charac
 teristics of wines? How and why have descriptive and evaluative vocabulari
 es changed over time? These vocabularies have shifted from the spare to th
 e elaborate\, from medical implications to aesthetic analyses\, from a lea
 ding concern with 'goodness' (authenticity\, soundness) to interest in the
  analytic description of component flavours and odours. The causes of thes
 e changes are various: one involves the importance\, and eventual disappea
 rance\, of a traditional physiological framework for appreciating the powe
 rs and qualities of different sorts of aliment\, including wines\; another
  concerns the development of chemical sciences concerned with flavour comp
 onents\; and still another flows from changing social and economic circums
 tances in which wine was consumed and the functions served by languages of
  connoisseurship. The historical span surveyed here extends from Antiquity
  to the present and displays talk about wine tastes as a perspicuous site 
 for understanding aspects of wide-ranging social and cultural change.\n\nF
 ree and open to all no registration required. The lecture will be followed
  by a wine reception at CRASSH.  
LOCATION:CRASSH\, Alison Richard Building\, 7 West Road\, Cambridge\, CB3 
 9DT
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