41 research outputs found
âAt âAmen Mealsâ Itâs Me and Godâ Religion and Gender: A New Jewish Womenâs Ritual
New ritual practices performed by Jewish women can serve as test cases for an examination of the phenomenon of the creation of religious rituals by women. These food-related rituals, which have been termed ââamen mealsââ were developed in Israel beginning in the year 2000 and subsequently spread to Jewish women in Europe and the United States. This study employs a qualitative-ethnographic methodology grounded in participant-observation and in-depth interviews to describe these nonobligatory, extra-halakhic rituals. What makes these rituals stand out is the womenâs sense that through these rituals they experience a direct con- nection to God and, thus, can change reality, i.e., bring about jobs, marriages, children, health, and salvation for friends and loved ones. The ââamenââ rituals also create an open, inclusive womanâs space imbued with strong spiritualâemotional energies that counter the womenâs religious marginality. Finally, the purposes and functions of these rituals, including identity building and displays of cultural capital, are considered within a theoretical framework that views ââdoing genderââ and ââdoing religionââ as an integrated experience
Iconic dishes, culture and identity: the Christmas pudding and its hundred yearsâ journey in the USA, Australia, New Zealand and India
Asserting that recipes are textual evidences reflecting the society that produced them, this article explores the evolution of the recipes of the iconic Christmas pudding in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and India between the mid-nineteenth and the mid-twentieth centuries. Combining a micro-analysis of the recipes and the cookbook that provided them with contemporary testimonies, the article observes the dynamics revealed by the preparation and consumption of the pudding in these different societies. The findings demonstrate the relevance of national iconic dishes to the study of notions of home, migration and colonization, as well as the development of a new society and identity. They reveal how the preservation, transformation and even rejection of a traditional dish can be representative of the complex and sometimes conflicting relationships between colonists, migrants or new citizens and the places they live in
Gluttony, excess, and the fall of the planter class in the British Caribbean
Food and rituals around eating are a fundamental part of human existence. They can also be heavily politicized and socially significant. In the British Caribbean, white slaveholders were renowned for their hospitality towards one another and towards white visitors. This was no simple quirk of local character. Hospitality and sociability played a crucial role in binding the white minority together. This solidarity helped a small number of whites to dominate and control the enslaved majority. By the end of the eighteenth century, British metropolitan observers had an entrenched opinion of Caribbean whites as gluttons. Travelers reported on the sumptuous meals and excessive drinking of the planter class. Abolitionists associated these features of local society with the corrupting influences of slavery. Excessive consumption and lack of self-control were seen as symptoms of white creole failure. This article explores how local cuisine and white creole eating rituals developed as part of slave societies and examines the ways in which ideas about hospitality and gluttony fed into the debates over slavery that led to the dismantling of slavery and the fall of the planter class
A História da Alimentação: balizas historiogråficas
Os M. pretenderam traçar um quadro da HistĂłria da Alimentação, nĂŁo como um novo ramo epistemolĂłgico da disciplina, mas como um campo em desenvolvimento de prĂĄticas e atividades especializadas, incluindo pesquisa, formação, publicaçÔes, associaçÔes, encontros acadĂȘmicos, etc. Um breve relato das condiçÔes em que tal campo se assentou faz-se preceder de um panorama dos estudos de alimentação e temas correia tos, em geral, segundo cinco abardagens Ia biolĂłgica, a econĂŽmica, a social, a cultural e a filosĂłfica!, assim como da identificação das contribuiçÔes mais relevantes da Antropologia, Arqueologia, Sociologia e Geografia. A fim de comentar a multiforme e volumosa bibliografia histĂłrica, foi ela organizada segundo critĂ©rios morfolĂłgicos. A seguir, alguns tĂłpicos importantes mereceram tratamento Ă parte: a fome, o alimento e o domĂnio religioso, as descobertas europĂ©ias e a difusĂŁo mundial de alimentos, gosto e gastronomia. O artigo se encerra com um rĂĄpido balanço crĂtico da historiografia brasileira sobre o tema
Le temps de manger
Quels sont les rapports entre les temps, les rythmes sociaux et les pratiques liées à l'alimentation ? Dans quelle mesure celles-ci contribuent-elles à l'organisation du temps quotidien et des calendriers ? Dans quelle mesure sont-elles, en retour, réglées par les contraintes du temps ? On ne peut répondre à ces questions sans embrasser la diversité anthropologique, historique et sociale des conceptions et des usages du temps. Les études réunies dans ce volume invitent à des approches croisées : par exemple entre le temps des consommateurs et celui des producteurs, entre le temps des cultures sans horloge et le temps des sociétés hyperponctuelles, entre les civilisations qui associent temps linéaire et temps cyclique et celles qui ne croient qu'à un seul temps. Traiter du temps sous l'angle de l'alimentation aide, en spécifiant une notion spontanément concédée à la physique et à la philosophie, à la faire entrer dans le champ des sciences humaines