The Rituals of Dinner Quotes

“The Latin word companion means literally “a person with whom we share bread”; so that every company, from actors’ guild to Multinational Steel, shares in the significance evoked in breaking bread.”
― Margaret Visser, The Rituals of Dinner: The Origins, Evolution, Eccentricities, and Meaning of Table Manners

“Behind every rule of table etiquette lurks the determination of each person present to be a diner, not a dish. It is one of the chief roles of etiquette to keep the lid on the violence which the meal being eaten presupposes.”
― Margaret Visser, The Rituals of Dinner: The Origins, Evolution, Eccentricities and Meaning of Table Manners

“Yet table manners have a great deal to recommend them as a subject for analysis. To begin with, since they are each culture's own way to encourage and manage the sharing of food, they are essential for the foundation and survival of every human society without exception. Once we recognize this fact, we may agree that explaining eating rituals is a serious and desirable enterprise.”
― Margaret Visser, The Rituals of Dinner: The Origins, Evolution, Eccentricities and Meaning of Table Manners

“We might recall, however, that one of the characteristics of a safely operating taboo is that it remains invisible, beneath discussion, taken for granted.”
― Margaret Visser, The Rituals of Dinner: The Origins, Evolution, Eccentricities and Meaning of Table Manners