Re: Impact of staple food on Culture?
I think part of the reason that dates become a staple food in Arabia is because they were freely available (date palms are indigenous to the region) and the predominant culture was not an agricultural one which cultivated other things.The fact that much of the region is desert (and does not allow for much cultivation) also contributed to this, of course, but I think the culture influenced this as well.
On that note, have dates ever been a staple food in Pakistan? I read somewhere that archeological evidence of date cultivation was found at the site of Mehrgarh (in what is modern day Balochistan). Interestingly, this cultivation of dates is among the earliest evidence of farming and cultivation (of any kind, not just dates) in Southeast Asia. I would find it rather ironic if dates were never a staple food despite evidence of cultivation given that they were a staple food in Arabia where they were not cultivated as such.