Bread is one of the most popular wheat-based foods, often considered the essence of human civilization thanks to its significance that extends beyond simple nutrition. Often called ‘the staff of life’, it is part of the world heritage as all peoples on the earth have developed specific bread-centred myths, symbols and rituals. The importance of this essential aliment is reflected in its wide variety of shapes, flavours and recipes created over 10,000 years of existence, which acknowledges bread-making as a way to retrace the lost connection with Mother Earth and provides the simple enterprise with a mythical status. The metaphysical connotation of the common food has been extensively illustrated in universal literature, from the Bible to such renowned poets as Omar Khayyam, Kahlil Gibran and Dylan Thomas, and further on to contemporary writers like Anna Adams, Carol Rumens, Penelope Shuttle and Myra Schneider. Their lines praise the virtues of the gift of nature to humankind, the fu...

In the midst of all the troubles in the world right now--Gaza, Haiti, Ukraine, food scarcity, food precarity, environmental catastrophes, land occupation, modern-day genocides--I wrote a piece on bread, on its sanctity, its scarcity, its optics. I want to thank David Sutton and David Beriss who published it in Food Anthro. Here it is, in tribute to and to the memory of anyone who has ever been deprived of it or for whom bread was the only source of sustenance. https://foodanthro.com/2024/03/13/on-bread-alone/

Multiple interpretations of Matthew 6:11 have arisen among biblical scholars. This article aims to delve into the understanding of God in relation to the concept of ‘our daily bread’ as perceived by black women in the townships of Cape Town. Through the utilisation of indigenous storytelling methodology, this study will not only address the question of how the concept of ‘our daily bread’ contributes to the oppression of black women but also juxtapose it with the broader discourse surrounding the concept, Ukunyamezela yinkunzi (loosely translates to ‘perseverance is the key’). Furthermore, the indigenous storytelling methodology will uncover the nuanced experiences of black women concerning their perceptions of God within the context of their everyday lives.

1. Phraseology is a secondary semiotic system, in whi ch phrasemes are regarded as second-order signs, composed of pre-exi stent signs (Makkai 1978: 303). Being strictly conventional, the phraseological sig n requires an interpretant in order to reveal the significations that may lie behind the i mages. The phrasemes whose foundation can be ascribed to aspects of material c ulture of every day life, like food, seem to be more transparent. The food, in the phras eological imaginary, acquires a certain projection corresponding to the significati on that man bestows on it, it is a sign generating messages of friendship, love, hatred, co ntempt. Man, as sender that encodes the message into an adequate context, makes use of a culinary code that is generically known to all the members of the community. We say “generically” because there are numerous phraseological contexts that are expressed by food codes whose “keys” have been forgotten, the explanations having been reduced to formulas s...

Food is one of society’s elective channels for exchanging values, identity relations and pleasures. Food relations may be perceived as being analogous to language relations: both seem “natural”, they comply with non-debatable and unconscious rules learnt from an early age, in the family environment; like language, food undergoes modifi cation by the changes in the environment and refl ects specifi c social, economic and religious circumstances (Valeri,1989).

Bread and water are among the best-known Biblical metaphors for the Word of God. This article presents a study of their occurrence in the four Gospels against the backdrop of the Old Testament. However, an analysis of the explicit references to bread and water is not exhaustive with regards to the topic under discussion. Therefore, other terms that relate to them, such as food, spring, hunger, thirst, feeding, and drinking, are also of great interest. Studying the metaphors for the Word of God reveals both a continuation of the Biblical ideas within the four Gospels and a total novelty in the expression of the Word that became flesh (John 1 : 14).

A special example of religious tolerance is symbolized by the bread called Cipovka, which has a clear communicative role in the holidays of the annual and life cycle - Dužijanci and the feast of Szent István, (Day of New Bread). Cipovka is the unique bread that is only made in the Pannonian granary.