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Culinary networks of power (Belgium, 2nd part 19th century)
| On July 22nd, 1868, the king and queen of Belgium had dinner with the future king of Italy and 25 other important guests. At the end of the meal, 2 kinds of ice cream were served. On September 27th, 1869, however, the military leaders of the country were treated to 3 kinds of ice cream at the end of the meal. Was this difference of any importance? Did this mean that the military leaders were more important than the Italian prince? Is the difference intentional?
The Archives of the Royal Palace in Brussels contain very rich information on menus and dinner guests during the reign of king Leopold II (1865-1909). For my research, I will analyze the menus and try to rank them. I will perform a social network analysis on the dinner guests, in order to find out whether subgroups were formed at the dining table and whether these groups reflected Belgian society of that time. And I will combine these data in order to tell something about the power of food at the Belgian royal court of the 2nd part of the 19th century.
I will be able to show the first results of these analyses at the ESSHC 2008.
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