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SUMMARY:Singing the praises of tea. Social hierarchy\, consumption and Asi
 atic luxury in the early modern Low Countries - Dr Wouter Ryckbosch (Unive
 rsity of Antwerp)
DTSTART:20150122T170000Z
DTEND:20150122T190000Z
UID:TALK56625@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:31344
DESCRIPTION:Across large parts of Europe exotic novelties such as tobacco\
 , porcelain\, cottons and tea turned from exclusive luxuries into everyday
  staples over the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. More
  social groups and strata than before were now drawn into the realm of mar
 ket consumption\, as sumptuary legislation and traditional moral anxieties
  with regards to the vices of luxury were seemingly abandoned. This change
  is generally understood as a crucial aspect in the so-called ‘consumer 
 revolution’\, leading the way to growing commercialisation and eventual 
 industrialisation (De Vries 2008\; Berg 2004). This paper sets out to stud
 y whether the introduction and adoption of tea drinking in the Low Countri
 es should be seen as a reflection of endogenous early modern social transf
 ormations\, or if it perhaps served as an agent of change itself. How were
  social hierarchies reflected\, transformed or perpetuated through the pra
 ctices of (and discourses on) preparing and drinking tea in the early mode
 rn Low Countries? Clues will be sought for in probate inventories\, trade 
 statistics\, scientific discourse\, and popular ballads.
LOCATION:History Faculty Board Room
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