Between Feasts and Daily Meals. Towards an Archaeology of Commensal Spaces

292 Pages·9.861 MB·English

by  Pollock S. (Ed.)

Between Feasts
and D aily Meals
towards an archaeology
of commensal spaces
Susan Pollock (ed.)
BERLIN STUDIES OF THE ANCIENT WORLD
commensality – eating and drinking together
in a common physical and social setting – is a central
element in people’s everyday lives. This makes com-
mensality a particularly important theme within which
to explore social relations, social reproduction and the
working of politics whether in the present or the past.
Archaeological attention has been focused primarily
on feasting and other special commensal occasions
to the neglect of daily commensality. This volume
seeks to redress this imbalance by emphasizing the
dynamic relation between feasts and quotidian meals
and devoting explicit attention to the micro- politics
of AAAlllllltttaaaggg ((““tthhee eevveerryyddaayy””)) rraatthheerr tthhaann ssoolleellyy ttoo ssppeecciiaall
occasions. Case studies drawing on archaeological
( material) as well as written sources range from the
Neolithic to the Bronze Age in Western Asia and
Greece, Formative to late pre-Columbian com munities
in Andean South America, and modern Europe.
30berlin studies of
the ancient world
·
berlin studies of the ancient world 30
edited by topoi excellence cluster
Between Feasts and
Daily Meals
towards an archaeology of commensal spaces
edited by
Susan Pollock
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availableintheInternetathttp://dnb.d-nb.de.
©2015EditionTopoi/ExzellenzclusterTopoiderFreien
UniversitätBerlinundderHumboldt-UniversitätzuBerlin
Coverimage:Wallplaquewithfeastingscene,foundinNippur.
Baghdad,IraqMuseum.WinfriedOrthmann,Propyläen
KunstgeschichteVol.14:DeralteOrient.Berlin:Propyläen,
1975,Pl.79b.
Typographicconceptandcoverdesign:StephanFiedler
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CONTENTS
susanpollock
TowardsanArchaeologyofCommensalSpaces.AnIntroduction —7
paulhalstead
Feast,FoodandFodderinNeolithic-BronzeAgeGreece.Commensality
andtheConstructionofValue —29
katherync.twiss
TheComplexitiesofHomeCooking.PublicFeastsandPrivateMeals
InsidetheÇatalhöyükHouse —63
francescabalossirestelli
EatingatHomeand‘Dining’Out?CommensalitiesintheNeolithicand
LateChalcolithicintheNearEast —87
mariabiancad’anna
BetweenInclusionandExclusion.FeastingandRedistributionofMeals
atLateChalcolithicArslantepe(Malatya,Turkey) —111
jasonr.kennedy
CommensalityandLaborinTerminalUbaidNorthernMesopotamia —143
walthersallaberger
Home-madeBread,MunicipalMutton,RoyalWine.EstablishingSocial
RelationsduringthePreparationandConsumptionofFoodinReligious
FestivalsatLateBronzeAgeEmar —181
adelheidotto
DefiningandTransgressingtheBoundariesbetweenRitual
CommensalityandDailyCommensalPractices.TheCaseofLateBronze
AgeTallBazi —205
tamaral.bray
RitualCommensalitybetweenHumanandNon-HumanPersons.
InvestigatingNativeOntologiesintheLatePre-ColumbianAndean
World —225
christinea.hastorf
SteamedorBoiled.IdentityandValueinFoodPreparation —243
elliottshore
ModernRestaurantsandAncientCommensality —277
SusanPollock
Towards an Archaeology of Commensal Spaces.
An Introduction
Summary
Thecentralityofcommensality–eatinganddrinkingtogetherinacommonphysicaland
socialsetting–inpeople’severydaylivesmakesitaparticularlyimportantlocationfrom
whichtoexploresocialrelationsandtheworkingofpolitics.Therecentfocusinarchaeol-
ogyandrelateddisciplinesonfeastingandotherspecialcommensaloccasionsneedstobe
balancedbyattentiontodailycommensality,inwhichcrucialelementsofsocialreproduc-
tiontakeplace.Ihighlighttwoparticularformsofcommensalpractices,hospitalityand
provisioning,thatresonatewithmanyofthecasesdiscussedinthepapersinthisvolume.
Finally,Ipointtoalargelyneglectedareaofstudyinarchaeology,thatofhungerandits
implicationsforthepoliticsofcommensality.
Keywords:Archaeology;commensality;co-presence;hospitality;provisioning;dailymeals;
hunger.
Kommensalität–dasgemeinsameEssenundTrinkenineinemgemeinsamenphysischen
und sozialen Rahmen – spielt eine fundamentale Rolle im menschlichen Alltagsleben.
DiesezentraleBedeutungmachtKommensalitätzueinembesonderswichtigenAusgangs-
punktfürdieErforschungsozialerBeziehungenundpolitischerMechanismen.Umdiein
jüngsterZeitinderArchäologieundverwandtenDisziplinenzubeobachtendeeinseitige
FokussierungaufFesteundanderebesonderekommensaleAnlässezurelativieren,sollte
derBlickaufAlltagskommensalitätgerichtetwerden,inderenRahmensichentscheidende
ProzessesozialerReproduktionabspielen.IchwerdezweibesondereFormenvonkommen-
salenPraktikenhervorheben,GastfreundschatunddieZuteilungvonbzw.Versorgungmit
Lebensmitteln(“provisioning”),dieinvielenFacettenindenBeiträgendiesesBandesdisku-
tiertwerden.SchließlicherörtereichdeninderArchäologieweitgehendvernachlässigten
ForschungsbereichHungerunddessenImplikationenfürdieNutzungvonKommensalität
alsMachtinstrument.
Keywords:Archäologie; Kommensalität; Co-Präsenz; Gastfreundschat; Versorgung; täg-
licheMahlzeiten;Hunger.
SusanPollock(ed.)|BetweenFeastsandDailyMeals|BerlinStudiesoftheAncientWorld30
(ISBN978-3-9816751-0-8;URNurn:nbn:de:kobv:188-fudocsdocument0000000222142-2)|
www.edition-topoi.de
7
susanpollock
1 Introduction
Foodandfoodconsumptionastopicsofcontemporarypopulardiscourseconfrontusat
everyturn.Foodstandsatthecenterofmanycurrentdebates:istheretoomuchortoo
little,fastfoodorslowfood?Whichfoodissafetoeat:onlyorganicoralsogenetically
engineeredcrops?Howdoesfoodbecomecontaminatedwithdioxinandothercarcino-
gens, and who decides what are the “acceptable” levels of such poisons? Food prices
on world markets fluctuate with breathtaking speed, due at least in some measure to
speculationon“futures,”whileriotsbreakoutinmanyplaceswhengovernmentscut
subsidiesonstaples.Inaworldwhere(some)peopleareashungryforcheapenergyand
consumergoodsasforfood,primeagriculturallandisrapidlyturnedovertothepro-
ductionofbiofuelsinapanickedattempttocounterrisingoilpricesandtheevermore
undeniablerisksassociatedwithatomicenergy.Atthesametime“fresh”fishareflown
half way around the world to appear on the tables of those affluent enough to afford
them.Nearlyonebillionpeopleoutofanestimatedworldpopulationofsevenbillion
arehungry,accordingtostatisticsfor2010compiledbytheUNFoodandAgriculture
Organization; more than 20% of the populations of the United Kingdom, Australia,
NewZealand,Greece,SlovakiaandMexicoareconsideredobese,andthefigureforthe
United States stands at more than 30% (OECD data for 2003: http://www.nationmas-
ter.com/graph/hea_obe-health-obesity).Againstthisbackgrounditisonlyappropriate
thatacademicresearch,eveninseeminglyout-of-the-wayfieldssuchasarchaeology,has
alsoturnedtothestudyoffood.
Incertainrespectsarchaeology’sinterestinfoodisnotnew.Long-standingpreoccu-
pationswithsubsistencepracticeshavebeenparticularlycloselyassociatedwithresearch
ontheNeolithicoriginsoffoodproduction–agricultureandanimalhusbandry.Instud-
iesfocusedonperiodsfollowingthis‘revolutionary’development,foodhastendedto
recedetoashadowypresenceinthebackground,discussedprimarilyintermsofcatch-
mentareas,populationsizes,orthetechnologicalandsocialconditionsthatpermitted
greaterorlesserdegreesof‘freedom’fromagriculturalactivitiesinfavorofmorespe-
cialized forms of crat production. Some researchers have emphasized the nutritional
elementsoffoodchoiceandhealthoutcomes,placingtheanalyticalburdenonthein-
dividualorthepopulation.1Others,includingtheauthorsofthepaperspublishedhere,
devotetheirattentiontotheintersubjective:thesocialratherthanthebiologicalbody,
foodpreparationandconsumptionasintegralaspectsofthebuildingandmaintenance
ofcommunity,andsymbolicelementsoffood.2
ThepaperscollectedinthisspecialthemeissueofeTopoiaretheproductsofatwo-
day,internationalconferenceheldinBerlinon31May–1June2010andsponsoredby
1 E.g.,Larsen2006;Ungar2007. 2001;AtalayandHastorf2006;Twiss2007.
2 E.g.,Elias1977;Mintz1996;DietlerandHayden
8