MILLET, PANIS, SARRASIN, MAÏS ET SORGHO : LES MENUS GRAINS DANS LES SYSTÈMES AGRICOLES ANCIENS (France, milieu du XVIème siècle – milieu du XIXème siècle).

摘要

Until the XIX th century, the economical, alimentary and symbolic interests of small grains set them apart the mass of the winter corn. However the economic, demographic, geographic and social standing of so many different plants like birdseed, buckwheat, maize or sorghum is shown by the study of various sources materials, such as botany's treaties, manuals of agriculture, Napoleonic's statistics, and mails between administrators of provinces, farming handbook, market prices lists or legal publications. All of these plants are first difficult to identify in the XVIth century, but their designations become clearer with the Linnean system. They all belong to a coherent rural system. These spring grains are part taking to the rotations of crops. So they can replace the winter corn (wheat, rye). They are not suitable for making bread, but making gruel. This function is however unusual. First they feed cattle and smaller livestock, including, pigs and poultry. Next they are used to make some local handcrafts (long-handled brush with sorghum or mattress with maize's leaves). The urban demand in foie gras, capon and smoked ham justify keeping these culture, which are supposed to have all qualities to fatten smaller livestock. At last, when whe analyse all the documents for three centuries, culture and valorisation of minor grains are a perfect example of the strict separation of the tasks between men and women. Seeding, weeding fields, keeping poultry, selling in the market are female activities. Even though the erudite world (agronomists, botanists, medical doctors) find fault with all the minor grains, they resist and survive through the regional cooking (gaudes in Bresse, milias in Languedoc or pancakes in Britain).