Sweet, Salt, and the Language of Love Author(s): Sidney W. Mintz Source: MLN, Vol. 106, No.

4, French Issue: Cultural Representations of Food (Sep., 1991), pp. 852-860 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2904627 . Accessed: 16/06/2011 10:31
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Sweet, Salt,andtheLanguage ofLove1

W. Sidney Mintz

The two chemicallypurest substanceseaten by the human species are salt (NaCl) and sucrose (sugar) (C12H22011). Both are comform. In that form,they monly consumed in refined crystalline as we all know,similarin appearance. Dioscorides, describing are, (A.D.) herbal,compares (what we thinkto sugar in his first-century to salt: be) sugar There is a kindof concreted calledsaccharon, foundin reedsin honey, India and Arabia Felix,like in consistence salt,and brittle be to to broken between teeth, saltis (Forbes1966: 103). the as In spite of their similar appearances, however, the historiesof salt and sucrose are radicallydifferent. Salt has figuredin human diet for the whole of our species' history, least as a naturallyat occurring ingredient in other food (see, for instance, Nenquin 1961). Carnivoresingestsaltwithmeat; thathas probablybeen true as well for many groups withinthe human species, though we are omnivoresunlike,say,felinepredators.In those human societiesin which meat is less importantin daily diet, it has been contended thatthe consumptionof mineralsalt maybe higher.But thereis in factno good evidence to sustainthatview. It does appear thatsalt
1 The author thanks Prof. Ashraf Ghani for advice, and Ms. Luciene Pisa for heroic assistance in the library.Errors are the author's responsibility alone. Press MLN, 106, (1991): 852-860 ? 1991 by The Johns Hopkins University

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is consumed by many,possiblyeven most,human groups in quantities exceeding what may be physiologically necessary (Kaunitz 1956); moreover, those groups that do eat salt usually reveal by theirbehavior that theyregard it as a necessity(Gilmore 1955). Sucrose, or what we call sugar, an organic substance and not a mineralone, is historically fromsalt. It is extracted quite different in liquid formfromplants,the earliestof whichcultigensused for this purpose being the sugarcane, probably firstdomesticatedin New Guinea about 12,000 years ago, and only slowly diffused across the tropicaland subtropicalzones of the earth's surface. In contrastto sugar as we know it, honey-surely humankind'smost ancient sweetener-is documented as human food in cave paintings an estimated 20,000 years old. But the sugars in honey are mainly glucose and fructose; to honey and its relevance to this subject I shall return brieflyat a laterjuncture. Whether in the company of salt or of honey, sucrose in granular form-what we call sugar-is a latecomer as human food. Liquid sucrose, of course, had been consumed in fruitby the primate ancestors of Homosapiens, back no doubt forhundreds (and probably stretching of millennia. thousands) Salt, even when only a naturally-occurring ingredientin other is a common (if not essential) component of human nutrifoods, tion. Sucrose, on the other hand, is not only not essential; it is absolutely unnecessary. All carbohydrates,simple and complex, are transformed into glucose by digestion.Whetherwe are nourished on potatoes or apples, caviar or kidneys,the human gut draws no distinction.Thus, from the vantage-pointof nutrition, sucrose has no special role. Its calories are calorieslike any calories; it is, as it were, gristfor the same digestivemill. When we turnfromappearance, history, and body chemistry, to betweensalt and taste,however,the mostobvious of all differences sugar comes into view: one is salty,and the other is sweet. What a differencethat is! Strangelyenough, whetherthere are different tastereceptorsforsaltand sweetis not entirely certain.But thatthe tastesare differently whetheron the tongue or in the experienced, brain,is beyond dispute. Moreover,the receptorsthemselvesseem to be differently distributedon the surface of the tongue: sweet at the tip, for instance,bittermostlyat the back. (This is mostly why,one writertells us, we sip tea and gulp beer. It is also why childrenwho eat ice cream-as well as some of theirparents-lick upwards on either the spoon or the cone.)

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There is, further, emotion I can only label "covetous"-since an "lecherous" is no longer associated with food-that is linked with the tastingof sugar, as opposed to other tastes.Here is an illustration based on my own observations.If you have ever been interrupted by a verbal request whileeatingchocolate-a verbal request that required you to give an immediate verbal verbal responsethataccomyou may be able to recall a faintsensationof irritation to speak while swallowing.The cause of the panied your struggle once detected, is simple to remember. Because sweet irritation, tastes are experienced with the tip of the tongue, and since most in sounds require articulation the front the mouth,tastingsweet of while speaking are acts in conflict, both palpable and palatthings able, with each other. In effect,proper speech means swallowing the bolus of semi-meltedchocolate already in the mouth while losing foreverthe sweet sensationit promised-a terriblesacrifice, in the view of some. I thinkthat you will agree that while salt is the of profoundlyappealing to manypalates,its"weight," intensity of its taste,is quite different fromthatof sugar. experience Both substances,salt and sucrose, are powerfulmarkersof human experience, as well as building-blocksof nature. All green plants produce sucrose by photosynthesis, convertingwater and carbon dioxide into sucrose and oxygen.Oxygen-breathing organisms such as ourselves busily consume the oxygen (as well as the sucrose), and produce carbon dioxide. The sucrose we consume is certainlynot essential to our existence (though of course food of it some kind is). In contrast, may be thatwe need somesalt,though there are culturesthatactively eschew it. The sea is salty;amniotic fluid is salty; our blood is salty.The tendencyto romanticizeour involvementwith salt-the amnioticsac as everyman'socean, our bloodstream as the memoryof our marine origins,and so on-is to irresistible some authors (e.g., Tisdale 1988). But admittedly is it difficult conceive of this earth and its life withoutsalt. to For reasons having to do withthe evolutionof green plants,but also with the evolution of other formsof life,the same mightbe said of sugar. For human beings, descended fromarboreal fructivores, there seems to be some built-inpredispositiontoward the it sweettaste,privileging above all others.It mayindeed be the case for thatthe sweettastewas a flagof edibility primateswho, though omnivorous, consumed much fruit,and for whom sweet meant "safe." Carnivores, apparently lack a taste for sweetness who (Beauchamp, Maller and Rogers 1977); and unlikeherbivores,

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may consume mineral salt apart fromtheirother food, predators can get salt fromblood. Newborn human infantsrespond clearly to sweetness; indeed, De Snoo found evidence of fetalresponsivenesswhen sugars were introducedinto the amnioticfluid(De Snoo 1937: 88). Only sweetness-among the four "cardinal" tastes (salt, sour, bitter, and sweet)-evokes this positive response. And so, though they are in different so manyways,saltand sucrose both figurein strikingly of the architecture life on earth,both are immenselyimportantto contemporaryhumanity-and both, most of the time,are treated of as humdrum and everyday,hardlyworthy attention. Salt has probably been human food for as long as there have been humans. The anthropologicalevidence on salt use, salt colis lectingand saltmaking richand varied (e.g., Hunter 1940). While it cannot be claimed thatall peoples wantsalt (it is tabooed in some societies), and while the consumption of salt varies enormously worldwide,it seems clear that the craving for salt is ancient and widespread. because governments Both salt and sucrose are also interesting have for so long been interestedin them. State societies warm to joys affordedby the managementof popenergetically the fiscal ular resources. Though we are perhaps inclined to thinkof such management in the West in relationshipto tobacco, alcohol, and narcoticsin particular,it should not surprisethatcommoditieswe regard as everyday-salt and sucrose among them-have long been a subject of lively interest to those who live by revenues gleaned from the work of others. Since sucrose in the form of granular, semi-refinedsugar firstbegan to become available to masses of European consumers,beginningin the late seventeenth taxable item,a basis forimmense century, sugar has been a favorite and a playthingof modern economies. Since the Seccorruption, ond World War, the rise of carbonated beverages has shiftedthe since various sweetenerscan be fieldof play somewhat,particularly used in theirmanufacture.But that is another story.Perhaps one reason why sugars and sweetenersshould continue to be the darlings of transnationalcorporationswhile salt has lost that special whilesugar is role, is thatone's capacityforsalt-eating clearlyfinite, expandible-at least consumption seems to be almost pathetically in some cultures. of But my purposes today are not to pursue the intentions governmentor private enterprise,so much as the wanderingsof the

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heart. I pose the contrastbetween salt and sweet because the difimmediference between them is experienced withsuch startling all of us. The verywords evoke sensations,and the sensaacy by tions are acute. Who can fail to take note of the different images and sensorymemoriesproduced by speaking,on the one hand, of saltythingsand, on the other,of sweetthings-a corned beef sandwich or a salade nicoise, versus a chocolate soda or a mousse au chocolat? Salt has been associated withhuman diet foras farback as we can record its presence. It had, to our knowledge,no predecessor. But before there was sugar, therewas honey. Honey is the only importantfood we eat thathas been digested by someone, or something, else. (A less importantpredigestedfood is the concretedbird saliva thatfiguresin the makingof birds' nest soup.) Honey, the genuine is ancientsweetener, not universal,but itis knownto humans wherbees Melipona beechei ever the honey-collecting (New World) and (Old World) are found. Man-and woman-have Apis mellifica been honey-thievesfor millennia, as are their primate relatives. The Indians whom Claude Levi-Straussstudied in South America and greatlyesteemed honey. Those stingless were honey-thieves, South American Meliponidae produce honeyswhich,Levi-Strauss tells us: whohavenever to difficult describe those to and havea richness subtlety in and tasted them, indeedcan seemalmost unbearably exquisite flavor. afforded tasteor smell thananynormally A delight morepiercing by so and of breaksdown the boundaries sensibility, blursits registers, a he much so thatthe eater of honeywonderswhether is savoring the of 1952: 52). or burning with fire love(Levi-Strauss delicacy Unlike sugar, honey is of course to be found in the Bible (as well as in the Talmud, the Koran, and the Iliad). Samson's riddle involved honey; Israel was the land of milk and honey: the resurrected Christwas fed honey at Emmaus; and so on. Because of its familiarityin the ancient world, honey and its associations-bees, beehives, beeswax-are all weighted with symbolicsignificancein a of fromthatcharacteristic sugar.2 It is different manner strikingly almostpossible to claim thatsugar is the honeyof modernity (Mintz
2A comparison of Chaucerian and Shakespearean textssuggeststhat sugar had become far more importantin English societyover time. Sugar ("sugre") is hardly mentioned in Chaucer; honey is repeatedly invoked allusively. In Shakespeare, while honey is mentioned less. frequency, sugar is referredto withstartling

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1989), honey the sugar of the ancients.In any event,I cannotbegin to delve into honey symbolism here, though it properlybelongs in the storyto follow.3 The history sugar changed quite abruptly, of once itbecame well known in Europe. Carried to the New World by Columbus on his second voyage, the sugarcane had flourishedthere. Between the middle of the seventeenthcenturyand nearly the middle of the nineteenth,Europe became a big consumer of sugar. During that period, mostof it came fromsugarcane, and fromthe New World. These were also the centuriesof coffee,chocolate,and tea; sugar's transformation from rarityand medicine into necessityand food was achieved in the company of these exotic and-at that timestimulant still-unfamiliar, bitter, beverages. I have triedto describe that democratizationof consumption elsewhere,and will not impose it upon you now. To be sure, more could be said of the history sugar and salt. of But I would like instead to devote a few momentsto theirroles in verbal imagery.I stressthatthisis researchbut barelybegun. I am to trying explore in particularthe use of sweetnessas a vehicle for affective terminology.My reflections to this point are neither up methodicalnor conclusive;let me enumeratesome of them,merely as a basis for furtherdiscussion. First of all, while sweetness connotes affectionin some languages, it does not appear to do so in all. American English is rife withassociationsof thiskind. I do not thinkthatthe same may be said of French, Spanish or Italian. I intend to collectword lists,as a firststep in documenting what I expect to be culture-specific differences. Second-in English,at least-the other large categoryfor affective termsappears to consistof small, usually furry-or so-called "cuddly"-animals. In English,both categoriesare rifewithdiminutives, from "honey-baby" and "sweetie-pie" to "bunny" and "kitten."I shall not deal in what followswiththissecond category of terms,but wanted to take note of it in passing. (It may also be fair to observe that the confectionsof Easter combine these cate3 Bees are commonlyassociated withwork and purity.Beeswax was at one time the only permissiblematerialforcandles to be used in Catholic ritual.When Prince Henry, the sicklyson of Edward I (1272-1307), lay dying,the candles "made to his measure" (and possiblyin his likeness)to help him live were fashionedof beeswax. But theyhelped no more than the sugarymedicinesthe courtphysiciansprescribed

for or of widows prayed night hisrecovery. who all for him, theprayers thethirteen

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to gories,meanwhilecallingattention the famedreproductivepowers of chickens and rabbits,and the special significance eggsof for the earth's springtime rebirth.) highlyfitting Thirdly,in AmericanEnglish,sweetnesspermeatesothersemantic areas besides human relations; I can suggest a few of these Not onlyrevenge4but also music and usages by way of illustration. can be sweet; flowerssmell sweetly,people sing sweetly, sausage motors run sweetly,and persons can be sweet. Walter Payton is Sweetnesspersonified, because of the wayhe runs; Sugar Ray Robinson-the original "Sugar"-was sweet because of the way he boxed. Our usages for salt, sour and bitter,as well as for "hot" are In (piquant), more limitedand usually,less complimentary. colin other languages, I hope to be able to show lectingterminology that the cognate termsmeaning "sweet" are not polysemicfor the same domains, but maymean "soft"here, "slow" there,"agreeable" somewhere else. By the time the West was habituatedto its use, sugar was firmly installedin European tastesystems, and the figurative of sugar use in English terminologyfor positive affectwas secure. "Honey," "honeybunch," "honeymoon," and erotic terms such as "honey pot" are apparentlyquite old; to them was added "sugar," "sugar pie," "sweetie," "sweetie pie," "sweetheart," "muffin," "sugar daddy," and erotic terms such as 'jelly roll"-including the nowfamous line "it mus' be jelly 'cause jam don' shake like dat." The use of honey and sugar as vehicles for the descriptionof seem self-explanatory. itdoes not appear to Yet feelingsof love may be general to language, so much as culturally specific,whichraises I thinkthat the association between sweetquestions. interesting ness and love, and betweensweetnessand sexuality, by no means is Yet I suspect thatno one, at least in natural,but culturally specific. the West, is surprised by this association; people do not seem to
4 From Aristotle, who defines anger as a longing, accompanied by pain, for a real or apparent revenge for a real or apparent slight-far sweeterthan dripping honey down the throatit spreads in men's hearts. And fromHomer's Iliad (Book 18: lines 78-133; the Robert Fitzgeraldtranslation): Ai! let strifeand rancor perish fromthe lives of gods and men, withanger that envenoms even the wise and is far sweeterthan slow-dripping honey, clouding the hearts of men like smoke ... With thanksto Neil Hertz.

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need to learn to like sweet tastesin the fashion that theylearn to like the tastes of sour, salt, bitterand hot. Whether theyneed to vehicle is another matlearn to employ sweetnessas an affective ter-is not "mon p'titchouen sucre"an odd supplement to the original? But the association between sweetnessand positive affectis interestingfor another reason. If there were one taste one might expect to be linked withphysicallove, I suspectthatitwould not be the tasteof sweetbut the tasteof salt.The tastesof blood, sweatand tears are all saline. Indeed, only one liquid product of the human sweet,and thatis mothers'milk.(I except body tastesunmistakably It fromDiabetes the urine of those suffering mellitus.) seems to me unlikelythat we can explain this propensityto sweet imageryby referenceto mothers'milk.But then,what-if anything-are we to make of the sweetnessimagery? Firstof all, as I have just observed,it does not surpriseus. That itself,it seems to me, is of some interest.At the same time, the relationsappears to be of distribution sweet imageryfor affective specific-as is the per capita consumptionof sugar. Secculturally ondly, I see no reason not to suppose that the frequencyof such imageryis related in some importantmanner to the commonness of sweet things in the culture, and to the way people feel about of them. It is perhaps worthy note, for instance,thattwo societies famous the world over for theirfood, France and China, are also among those which tend to eat less, rather than more, sugar. Though I do not have any solid data yet,sweetnessdoes not seem at first glance to bulk largelyin the imageryof theirlanguages. But it would be of littleuse to hypothesizefurtherfromsuch meager data. We need to know both how much such and impressionistic imageryhas changed over time,and-to the extentpossible-how as variablethe imageryis, in termsof such distinctions class,region, to these queries are not available, and ethnic origin. The answers and will have to be collected. That task awaits the scholar.
TheJohns HopkinsUniversity

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Beauchamp, G. K., O. Mailer, and J. G. Rogers,Jr. 1977 Flavor preferencesin cats (Feliscatusand Pantherasp.) JournalofComparativeand Physiological 91(5):1118-27. Psychology

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De Snoo, K. 1937 Das trinkendeKind im Uterus.Monatschrift Geburtshilfe Gyndkologie und fir 105:88. Forbes, D. 1966 Studies Ancient in Vol. 5. Leiden: E. Brill. Technology. Gilmore, H. W. 1955 Cultural diffusionvia salt. American 57:1011-15. Anthropologist Hunter, H. V. 1940 TheEthnography Salt in Aboriginal North America. of Philadelphia: privately printed. Kaunitz, H. 1956 Causes and consequences of saltconsumption.Nature178(4543): 1141-44. Levi-Strauss,C. 1952 FromHoneytoAshes.Chicago: University Chicago Press. of Mintz,S. 1989 The conquest of honey by sucrose: a psychotechnical achievement. In Sugar. Essays to markthe125th Anniversary F.O. Licht.Ratzeburg: priof vatelyprinted. Pp. 11-17. Multhauf,R. P. 1978 Neptune's Salt. Baltimore:Johns Hopkins UniGift.A History Common of Press. versity Nenquin, J. 1961 Salt. A Study Economic in Dissertationes Gandenses. Prehistory. Archaeologicae Vol. VI. Bruges: De Tempel. Tisdale, Sallie 1988 Lot's Wife.Salt and theHuman Condition. New York: Henry Holt & Co.