Food and Religion

It has become something of a scholarly truism that during the medieval period, gluttony was combatted simply by teaching and practicing abstinence. However, this dissertation presents a more nuanced view on the matter. Its aim is to examine the manner in which the moral discourse of dietary moderation in late medieval England captured
subtle nuances of bodily behavior and was used to explore the complex relationship between the individual and society. The works examined foreground the difficulty of differentiating bodily needs from gluttonous desire. They show that moderation cannot be practiced by simply refraining from food and drink. By refiguring the idea of moderation,
these works explore how the individual’s ability to exercise moral discretion and make better dietary choices can be improved. The introductory chapter provides an overview of how the idea of dietary moderation in late fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Middle
English didactic literature was influenced by the monastic and ascetic tradition and how late medieval authors revisited the issue of moderation and encouraged readers to reevaluate their eating and drinking habits and pursue lifestyle changes. The second chapter focuses on Langland’s discussion in Piers Plowman of the importance of dietary moderation as a supplementary virtue of charity in terms of creating a sustainable community. The third chapter examines Chaucer’s critique of the rhetoric of moderation in the speech of the Pardoner and the Friar John in the Summoner’s Tale, who attempted to assert their clerical superiority and cover up their gluttony by preaching moderation.
The fourth chapter discusses how late Middle English conduct literature, such as Lydgate’s Dietary, revaluates moderation as a social skill. The fifth chapter explores the issue of women’s capacity to control their appetite and achieve moderation in conduct books written for women. Collectively, the study illuminates how the idea of moderation
adopted and challenged traditional models of self-discipline regarding eating and drinking in order to improve the laity’s discretion and capacity to assess its own appetite and develop a healthy lifestyle for the community.

A partire dalla celebre definizione omerica della stirpe degli uomini mortali, «quanti ora vivono sulla terra e mangiano pane», ripresa dall’Odissea (VIII, 222), intendiamo analizzare il particolare significato culturale di un certo tipo di offerta incruenta, consistente nella consacrazione di pani e focacce rituali a una tipologia specifica di divinità del pantheon olimpio, all’interno di un contesto fortemente ideologizzato, dove «l’agrarietà diventa la cifra della “cultura” e della civiltà» che attraverso determinati riti «conferma se stessa» (P. Scarpi. 2002. Le religioni dei Misteri 1, p. XXXIII).
Tratteremo dunque, nella fattispecie, della funzione del cibo come marcatore di status in relazione all’ambito tesmoforico demetriaco, rispetto al quale il valore simbolico del sacrificio vegetale è significativamente posto, nelle Leggi platoniche (VI, 782c), in contiguità col mito eleusino della dea delle messi, all’interno di una «ideologia della terra» maturata in età soloniana e sotto i Pisistratidi.
Facendo leva su una costruzione teologico-filosofica che alimenta rappresentazioni legate a movimenti contestatari o riformatori, il filosofo ateniese sottolinea innanzitutto l’estrema arcaicità di un tipo di offerta (ἁγνὰ θύματα) – risalente a un tempo in cui gli uomini non osavano mangiare la carne del bue, vittima prototipica del sacrificio prometeico – programmaticamente connessa al regime alimentare puro praticato secondo lo stile di vita detto “orfico”, che notoriamente prevedeva l’astensione dal cibo carneo.
Sullo sfondo della società ateniese di fine V, inizio IV secolo a.C., la riflessione platonica appare particolarmente animata dalla volontà di ribadire l’identità civica della polis, attraverso il confronto, fortemente strumentalizzato, tra codici alimentari che vedono opporsi gli usi rituali degli orfici ai rituali cruenti attribuiti ancora ad alcuni popoli barbari avvezzi a «sacrificarsi l’un l’altro», condizionando di fatto una certa lettura dell’uso di consacrare offerte incruente agli dèi, che fu prassi particolarmente diffusa nell’antichità.

Elaborato in preparazione all'esame di psicologia delle scelte alimentari. Il testo presenta le varie scelte alimentari legate all'aspetto religioso. In particolare cerca di analizzare le motivazioni delle scelte alimentari legate al mondo dell'Islam

Özet

Yaradılış itibariyle inançların, yani dinlerin var olduğu bilinmektedir. Din insan ile yaratıcı arasındaki meseledir. Dinler mantığıyla, Allah insanı yiyecek ve içeceğe muhtaç olarak yaratmıştır. Yeme içme ile ilgili kuralları ilk insandan itibaren belirlemiş ve bazı sınırlamalar getirmiştir. Her birey kendi dinine, yani inandığı hayata göre davranış kalıplarını sürdürmekte, örf ve âdetlerini devam ettirmektedir. İlkel toplumlarda gıdalarla alakalı kurallar genel olarak tabu inancı etrafında şekillendiği için her klanın birbirinden farklı yeme ve içme kuralları oluşmuştur. Bu bölümde öncelikli olarak konunun anlaşılabilmesi için din kavramı ve toplumsal temelleri aktarılmıştır. Akabinde dinsel olgunun yeme-içme alışkanlıklarıyla ilişkisi açıklanmıştır. Bu ilişkinin ispati olarak farklı inançlardan örnekler verilmiştir.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Gastronomi, Mutfak Kültürü, Yemek ve Din, Mutfak ve Ritüel

Abstract

It is known that beliefs, religions, existed since the first man. Religion is the issue between man and the God. With the logic of religions, God created man in need of food and drink. It has established rules on eating and drinking from the first person and has some limitations. Each individual maintains patterns of behavior according to his/her own religion,  and continues his/her customs and traditions with the life he believes in. Since the rules related to food in general societies are generally shaped around taboo beliefs, each clan has different eating and drinking rules. In this section, the concept of religion and its social foundations are explained in order to understand the subject. Then, the relationship between religious phenomenon and eating-drinking habits was explained. Examples of different beliefs are given as proof of this relationship.
Key Words: Gastronomy, Cuisine, Food and Religion, Cuisine and Rituels

This article grapples with the unlikely combination of veganism, righteous black bodies, and servitude as expressed in the "divine holistic culture" of the African Hebrew Israelite Community (AHIC). Based on our ethnography of how the Community re-scripts strong, virile black male bodies from rough brutes to responsible and righteous patriarchs, we show how the Hebrew Israelites' vegan diet under-girds their Biblically based culture and fuels their salvation project. We propose the term "culinary redemption" to encapsulate the dramatic shift made by the AHIC from a theology based on salvation in the afterlife to a restorative cosmology in the here and now, and suggest that the food and foodways of other subaltern groups also provide powerful material for initiating social justice movements and religious change. Ethnography 0(0) 1-23 ! The Author(s) 2020 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions

This article grapples with the unlikely combination of veganism, righteous black bodies, and servitude as expressed in the “divine holistic culture” of the African Hebrew Israelite Community (AHIC). Based on our ethnography of how the Community re-scripts strong, virile black male bodies from rough brutes to responsible and righteous patriarchs, we show how the Hebrew Israelites’ vegan diet undergirds their Biblically based culture and fuels their salvation project. We propose the term “culinary redemption” to encapsulate the dramatic shift made by the AHIC from a theology based on salvation in the afterlife to a restorative cosmology in the here and now, and suggest that the food and foodways of other subaltern groups also provide powerful material for initiating social justice movements and religious change.

This article grapples with the unlikely combination of veganism, righteous black bodies, and servitude as expressed in the "divine holistic culture" of the African Hebrew Israelite Community (AHIC). Based on our ethnography of how the Community re-scripts strong, virile black male bodies from rough brutes to responsible and righteous patriarchs, we show how the Hebrew Israelites' vegan diet under-girds their Biblically based culture and fuels their salvation project. We propose the term "culinary redemption" to encapsulate the dramatic shift made by the AHIC from a theology based on salvation in the afterlife to a restorative cosmology in the here and now, and suggest that the food and foodways of other subaltern groups also provide powerful material for initiating social justice movements and religious change. Ethnography 0(0) 1-23 ! The Author(s) 2020 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions

Settling into a new society and wishing to have a visible presence in that new
environment are goals that require differing performances of the self. To be
accepted in an unfamiliar culture it can be helpful to minimize the difference
between one’s self and the existing inhabitants, while, to gain visibility, it is typically
advantageous to retain, and to present, an intriguing degree of difference. This
article, which looks at how the combination of religion and food forms a convenient
representational nexus for both of those goals, is drawn from our study, conducted
in New Zealand, that investigates the role that diasporic filmmakers play in public
culture. Our study focuses on the film Apron Strings (2008, directed by Sima Urale),
which was written by Shuchi Kothari, a member of the Indian diaspora and one of
several Asian female filmmakers bringing new textures to the New Zealand screen
(Zalipour). Apron Strings is Kothari’s first feature, but she has previously been
associated with two other projects: the documentary A Taste of the Place (2001,
directed by Susan Pointon) and the short film Fleeting Beauty (2005, directed by
Virginia Pitts). Both of Kothari’s early projects also deal with food as a medium for
both intercultural engagement and the support of self as well as the formation of
group identities through connections with religiosity. The responses of members of
the Indian community to the experience of viewing the film and the issues it raises
round out our study into this developing area of mediated public culture.

Food has a great effect on the formation of human thoughts and spiritual feelings. In addition to the science of medicine, what religions say about food is important. According to Islam, one of the causes of physical and spiritual degeneration in a society is food spoilage. In the Quran, Allah commands people to eat and drink clean things but not to waste them. While there are general principles regarding food and drinks in the Quran, there are details in the hadiths (words of the Prophet Muhammad). In this presentation, Islam's approach to food will be evaluated based on the verses of the Quran and the hadiths.

Identity negotiation is an essential process in the immigrant experience and, since “we are what we eat,” food can play an important role in the creation, presentation and maintenance of these negotiated identities. In this article I argue that by choosing which religious/cultural food practices to continue and which ones to alter, by choosing to label them in particular ways or to relegate them to specific places and times, my informants show the vast and varied ways that Muslims negotiate their identities in two distinct contexts of reception (COR): Paris, France and Montreal, Canada. I also suggest that these contexts of reception have a significant impact on the way that immigrants live their religious lives in the host society and that food practice is one avenue to investigate these effects. Consequently, through an ethnographic exploration of the experiences of Maghrebine Muslim immigrants in Paris and Montreal I contend that food can act as a lens into, and critique of, larger trends in the study of religion and migration.