Monica Caroline S.

Macadaeg 2014-20512
STS Agila (Vallejo) Reaction paper
Binalot Talks: Call Any Vegetable: Culinary Practices in Neolithic & Metal Age in Mekong River Delta

The lecture by Dr. Michelle Eusebio was informative in such a way that she introduced different types
of pottery that their team considered as part of their research such as Rach Nui, An Som, Lo Gach, and
Go o Chua. At first, I was curious on the terminologies for the pottery but I was enlightened when Dr.
Michelle discussed that their team focused in Southern Vietnam specifically in Lang Ahn. I was also
amazed that their research team exists to research on the culinary practices of people by examining and
analyzing the potteries used to cook their food. Aside from this, for me, I think this research needs a lot
of effort since they did not just consider these potteries but also the available food resources, cultural
practices, and community identities to dig more of the culinary practices of the given community. In line
with this, I commend the effort of their team as Dr. Michelle said that they try themselves to cook using
our “palayok” to compare the results with the potteries used by the Vietnamese people. But I agree
with the point raised by an audience from the talk which is about the number of times they cooked
using the “palayok” which could affect the results that the team should have. With this, I agree with him
since the team should take note of the number of times cooking as well as the number of residues from
the “palayok” to maintain accuracy of the team’s research.

Aside from this, I also find that the potteries discovered by the team from Southern Vietnam do have
similarities with our pottery here in our country as well as the ingredients that they use to cook such as
vegetables, fish, coconut milk, etc. As Dr. Michelle discusses other factors that their team have
discovered, I really think that their project is not simple but instead a complex one that deals not just
with the focus on culinary practices. Since they can track the potteries used as well as the ingredients
used, they are also able to track the food sources of these people. With this, their research could also
give results that will give information starting from the food sources and remains to the organic residues
and then to the research team’s conclusions. With this, I find this research very interesting since it deals
with a lot of factors and yield significant and accurate results. On the other hand, since this research is
complex and since the research requires information on certain plants and animals, they should define
these terms clearly so that they could maintain the accuracy of their research in terms of the conclusion
that they make which mostly depends on the organic residues present on the potteries considered.
Lastly, this research is interesting for it does not depend on the present day but also on different period
such as Neolithic and Bronze Age which again results to accurate conclusion since these culinary
practices have undergo different periods of time.