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F1314 Eating and drinking from a (trans-) cultural point of view, Frank Heidemann

Heidemann Frank

Human beings need food and liquid to survive. Both are essential and at the same time scarce, at least at times. In every society there are restrictions regarding eating and drinking, some of which are temporal, seasonal, or with reference to age, gender, status or context. From a cultural point of view, food is always connected with ideas and values. A meal can be read as a syntagma and each course refers to a semantic field. Who was the cook, who served the meal and who sat at the table are all factors that matter. Eating and drinking indicate social differences and create contexts. There is a difference between whether I meet a person for a lunch at noon or for a dinner after 8 p.m., if the appointment is for a meal or for a drink, whether we drink Champagne or a Bourbon. The seminar will look into the cultural construction of food and drinks from an anthropological perspective and includes case studies from around the world. In addition we shall look at our own society from a point of view which is transculturally informed.
The seminar includes the following themes: theory of symbols and of cultural boundaries. Food as a symbolic marker of cultural identity.Food in rituals, eating with gods.Food restrictions in world religions.Food and sexuality.Food and gender.Food movements.Food and diaspora, food as collective memory.Commensality as a social blueprint.Constructive drinking.World politics with food.Food and drinking as models of and models for society.
Seminar organization: every week each student will read one text from a reader to prepare for the next session. Each student has to fulfill three tasks once in the semester: (1) write the minutes of a single session, (2) read an additional text for a specific theme and make a 10-minute presentation in the classroom, (3) write a 12–15-page paper on a chosen topic. In the second half of the seminar the students will team up in small groups (2–4 people), gather material on symbolically loaded food items or socially dense eating or drinking contexts and prepare a Power Point presentation for one of the final sessions.

Eating and drinking from a (trans-)cultural point of view

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