Dietary Downfall: Examining the Role of Diet and Nutrition in the Depopulation of St. Kilda, Scotland

Duration: 39 mins 12 secs

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Description:	Short presentation given on 3 March 2023 followed by Q&A with Zsuzsanna Ihar, (Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge) on Dietary Downfall: Examining the Role of Diet and Nutrition in the Depopulation of St. Kilda (Research funded by the Wellcome Trust "From Collection to Cultivation" and Gates Cambridge) Coffee Break Seminars are a relaxed online learning and discussion platform for our food security community. Please find more on this series here: https://www.globalfood.cam.ac.uk/coffee-break-seminars

Description:

Short presentation given on 3 March 2023 followed by Q&A with Zsuzsanna Ihar, (Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge) on Dietary Downfall: Examining the Role of Diet and Nutrition in the Depopulation of St. Kilda (Research funded by the Wellcome Trust "From Collection to Cultivation" and Gates Cambridge)

Coffee Break Seminars are a relaxed online learning and discussion platform for our food security community. Please find more on this series here: https://www.globalfood.cam.ac.uk/coffee-break-seminars


Created:	2023-04-14 11:24
Collection:	Global Food Security
Publisher:	University of Cambridge
Copyright:	University of Cambridge
Language:	eng (English)


Abstract:	Abstract: How can we use historical records to better understand rural hunger? The human population of the now uninhabited archipelago of St. Kilda were, for centuries, depicted as having gannet-like appetites — voracious and unhealthy. Despite frequent sea-spray, poor quality soil, and bad weather preventing the cultivation of diverse and abundant crops, primitivity was put forward as the main cause underlying a number of illnesses endemic to the islanders. Indeed, instances of both famine and overconsumption were blamed on local mismanagement of food supplies, laziness, and a crude diet of potatoes, oatmeal, salted mutton, and seabird eggs. These arguments have been revived within the scientific community in recent decades, with a combination of archaeologists, medical historians, and conservationists arguing that the population of St. Kilda met their demise due to the unsustainable and toxic nature of local food preparation and consumption. Through attending to both archival accounts and contemporary findings, my presentation will trace the construction of St. Kilda's population as 'guilty subjects', inculpated in their own decline. It will reveal how medicalised dietary discourse has been taken up to justify changes to lifestyle, settlement, and cultural practice. I will finish by suggesting that the tragedy of St. Kilda was linked more to decisions made on the mainland than on the archipelago, with the belly of the community malnourished by structural injustice and interventionist logics. Speaker Biography: Zsuzsanna Ihar is a Gates Scholar and PhD candidate in History and Philosophy of Science (University of Cambridge). She is a part of the Wellcome Trust funded research project 'From Collection to Cultivation'. Her dissertation examines knowledge making practices and scientific expertise in militarised pastoral environments, with a focus on the Scottish Hebridean archipelago. She is interested in the conflicting imaginaries surrounding Northern peripheries and how these imaginaries generate different (and often clashing) forms of land use and land management. She looks at both historical and contemporary projects of depopulation, securitisation, conservation, and remediation. In her previous studies, she examined the intersections between extractive and military industry.

Abstract:

Abstract:

How can we use historical records to better understand rural hunger?

The human population of the now uninhabited archipelago of St. Kilda were, for centuries, depicted as having gannet-like appetites — voracious and unhealthy. Despite frequent sea-spray, poor quality soil, and bad weather preventing the cultivation of diverse and abundant crops, primitivity was put forward as the main cause underlying a number of illnesses endemic to the islanders. Indeed, instances of both famine and overconsumption were blamed on local mismanagement of food supplies, laziness, and a crude diet of potatoes, oatmeal, salted mutton, and seabird eggs. These arguments have been revived within the scientific community in recent decades, with a combination of archaeologists, medical historians, and conservationists arguing that the population of St. Kilda met their demise due to the unsustainable and toxic nature of local food preparation and consumption.

Through attending to both archival accounts and contemporary findings, my presentation will trace the construction of St. Kilda's population as 'guilty subjects', inculpated in their own decline. It will reveal how medicalised dietary discourse has been taken up to justify changes to lifestyle, settlement, and cultural practice. I will finish by suggesting that the tragedy of St. Kilda was linked more to decisions made on the mainland than on the archipelago, with the belly of the community malnourished by structural injustice and interventionist logics.

Speaker Biography:

Zsuzsanna Ihar is a Gates Scholar and PhD candidate in History and Philosophy of Science (University of Cambridge). She is a part of the Wellcome Trust funded research project 'From Collection to Cultivation'. Her dissertation examines knowledge making practices and scientific expertise in militarised pastoral environments, with a focus on the Scottish Hebridean archipelago. She is interested in the conflicting imaginaries surrounding Northern peripheries and how these imaginaries generate different (and often clashing) forms of land use and land management. She looks at both historical and contemporary projects of depopulation, securitisation, conservation, and remediation. In her previous studies, she examined the intersections between extractive and military industry.

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