Feasts: Archaeological and Ethnographic Pespectives on Food, Politics, and Power

by Michael Dietler (Editor), Brian Hayden (Editor)

From the ancient Near East to modern-day North America, communal consumption of food and drink punctuates the rhythms of human societies. Feasts serve many social purposes, establishing alliances for war and marriage, mobilizing labor, creating political power and economic advantages, and redistributing wealth. In this collection of fifteen essays, archaeologists and ethnographers explore the material record of food and its consumption as social practice. They examine the locations of roasting pits, hearths, and refuse deposits, or the presence of special decorative ceramics, and infer ways in which feasting traditions reveal social structures of lineage, clan, moiety, and polity.

Genres: Anthropology

444 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1901

Reviews

[Toon Versavel]

got this treasure on loan from my lord and saviour Prof. Maud Devolder. Truly insightful book, however to be honest i skipped a few chapters. I have to give it back tomorrow :((( Incredible how a seemingly obvious practice like feasting can in fact be such a diverse, political and social tool.