food and drink syllabusdocshare04.docshare.tips/files/17934/179342068.pdf · Eating is not, and never has been, a merely biological activity.-Paul Fieldhouse, Food and Nutrition:

CLASS MEETINGS INSTRUCTOR

MWF 11-11.50am Sarah CraftRhode Island Hall 108 Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology & http://proteus.brown.edu/fooddrink2011 the Ancient World Rhode Island Hall 210 [email protected]

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Eating is not, and never has been, a merely biological activity.-Paul Fieldhouse, Food and Nutrition: Customs and Culture (1986)

We may all be what we eat, but we are also with whom we eat, where, when, why (or not), and how we eat. In this class, we will consider the implications for patterns of food produc-tion, preparation, consumption, availability, and taboos, examining issues like gender, health, wealth, geographic variability, and politics within the historic and geographic con-text of the ancient Mediterranean throughout the entirety of pre-modern period. Literary, art historical, anthropological and archaeological approaches and evidence will be explored in our pursuit of connections between food, drink, and daily life in the ancient Mediterra-nean world. Covering topics ranging from ancient Greek drinking games to food as medi-cine to the influence of Arab cuisine on the medieval Mediterranean, from sacrificing to the gods of the Roman pantheon to the process of wine-making to modern-day American feast-ing practices, we will learn about the role of food and drink in ancient Mediterranean soci-ety, considering critically what repercussions that has for how we think about how even to-day, we ‘are what we eat.’

FOOD AND DRINK IN THE ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN

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http://proteus.brown.edu/fooddrink2011

http://proteus.brown.edu/fooddrink2011

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

• identify patterns of food production and consumption in the Mediterranean;

• contrast patterns of food production and consumption across time and space in the Mediterranean;

• synthesize different approaches and evidence to understand the implications of food and drink in the ancient Mediterranean;

• interpret those synthesized data sets for a clear, well-articulated understanding of the im-portance of food in both the ancient and modern world as more than a biological neces-sity, but as an historically, culturally, and geographically contingent construction.

REQUIRED TEXTS

Beer, Michael. 2010. Taste or Taboo: Dietary Choices in Antiquity. Devon, England: Prospect Books.

Flandrin, Jean-Louis and Massimo Montanari, eds. 1999. Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present. New York: Columbia University Press.

Garnsey, Peter. 1999. Food and Society in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (available as an e-book through Josiah)

Wilkins, John M. and Shaun Hill. 2006. Food in the Ancient World. Malden, MA: Blackwell. (available as an e-book through Josiah)

food and drink in the ancient world

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CLASS FORMAT AND RESOURCES

Class meetings will revolve around lectures on the themes presented day-by-day in the syllabus. However, you are encouraged to ask questions and give comments if you have something relevant to say regarding the information! The reading re-sponses will also provide a venue for you to voice your comments and questions; I will address these responses during the lecture. Powerpoints, images, and other supplementary material and resources such as the class bibliography will be posted to the wiki for your reference.

ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING

Assignment % Due DateReading responses 20% 9am on the day of classParticipation 5% throughoutCulinary polygon 5% 19 September 9am Midterm exam 15% 15 OctoberFirst draft (4+ pages) 10% 5 November midnightSummary form of first draft 5% 5 November midnightSecond draft (7-10 pages) 10% 19 November midnightSummary form of second draft 5% 19 November midnightFinal paper (7-10 pages) 10% 7 December midnight Final exam 15% TBA _____________________________________________

Total 100%


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Reading Responses (20%)

Unless specified in the course schedule, reading responses should follow the format of addressing three questions:

• What was the main point of this reading? • Did anything surprise you? Why?• Did anything confuse you? Why?These are intended to encourage you to really engage with the readings and under-stand them; and if they make you realize that you don’t/didn’t understand them, then to grapple with why. These are completion grades, but whether or not they are reflective will be taken into account (for example, “Nothing surprised or confused me about this reading” doesn’t cut it). They are due by 9am on the day of class, as entries posted to the wiki, so that I can go through them and address issues that come up during class. You are encouraged to review your peers’ responses to con-sider whether they are struggling with the same issues as you are.

Culinary polygon (5%)

‘good to think with’: create your own culinary polygon Lèvi-Strauss’s culinary triangle is a short, dense, and influential text. In or-der to really engage with the text and its ideas, create your own culinary polygon based on your own diets, choices, and implications.) These can fol-low the paradigm of Lèvi-Strauss’s text or you can follow a more creative direction if you feel so inspired. Due September 19 at 9am, either posted as pdfs/docs to the wiki or turned in as hardcopies to my mailbox.

Midterm exam (15%)This exam is intended to gauge your level of engagement and understanding of the material covered in class and readings through Fall Break (Oct 8). Identification of terms, short answers, and two short essays.

First draft (10%) This first draft of your paper is intended to get you really thinking about your paper thesis, sources, and evidence. Due by midnight on Monday, No-vember 5.


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First draft summary report (5%)This form is comprised of your responses to a series of questions regarding your draft and is intended to make sure you are considering all the relevant elements of your paper right from the beginning. In the following diagram, address the eight issues identified in the wheel. Due by midnight on Mon-day, November 5.

Second draft (10%)The second draft should be a full one of your paper, taking into account the feed-back from your first draft and summary report. Due by midnight on Monday, No-vember 19.

Second draft summary report (5%)

The summary report for the second draft consists of your responses to a series of questions addressing your inferences and interpretations.

• What conclusions am I coming to?• Is my inference logical?• Are there other conclusions I should consider?• Does this interpretation make sense?• Does our solution necessarily follow from our data?• How did I reach that conclusion?• What am I basing my reasoning on?• Is there an alternative plausible conclusion?• Given all the facts what is the best possible conclusion? Due by midnight on Monday, November 19. [reference material from The Thinker’s Guide to Analytic Thinking (2007)]

Final Paper (10%)

The final paper should be a clear, well-conceived and well-articulated research pa-per founded on the two drafts. It will be evaluated according to the following ru-bric, which relies on the assumption that after working through the interim as-signments described above, there is a clear thesis statement that will already be


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worked out by the time the student gets to the final draft stage. Due by midnight on Friday, December 7.

Final exam (15%)This exam is intended to gauge your level of engagement and understanding of the material covered in class and readings over the entirety of the semes-ter, though with a focus on the material covered since the midterm exam. The exam will consist of identification of terms, short answers, and two short essays.


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COURSE SCHEDULE(ANNOTATION IN PARENTHESES)

WEEK 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5FOOD AS FORUM

(Introduction to the course. What can we learn about the ancient world from the study of its inhabitants patterns and techniques of production, diet, eating habits, and regional variability? Go through the syllabus, assignments, and take questions.)

Class activity: entry survey

(Gathering information from students; short questionnaire to identify what they hope to gain from this course.)

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7WHAT AND WHEN IS THE ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN?

(This class will be an introduction to how I envision the ancient Medi-terranean, both chronologically and geographically, in terms of a foundation for the class. This will give students an opportunity to put forward some of their own ideas about what should be included, and not. Lecture and discussion will revolve around powerpoint slides of maps, timelines, and relevant monuments and people.)

ReadingsChoose either (though both are recommended): Snodgrass, “Greek Archaeology” (13-29) OR

Millett, “Roman Archaeology,” in Part 1, “What is Classical Archaeology?” in Classi-cal Archaeology, ed. Susan E. Alcock and Robin Osborne. Blackwell STudies in Global Archaeology. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007.

Class activity: what’s missing from the mediterranean?

(Based on the readings that they did, students will identify what a classical-archaeology-centered approach leaves out of the Mediterranean, as if Greece and Rome were isolated from the rest of the sea and its peoples; what impact that has on their own identities (for example, Othering through food accusations) and how


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we study them (for example, Egyptian grain production and the annona, or grain dole, in ancient Rome).)

WEEK 2: INTRODUCTION (PART II)

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10

WHO STUDIES EATING HABITS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS IN THE ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN, AND HOW?

(This class will cover different approaches to food in the ancient world: text, art history, anthropology, and archaeology. As all three contribute to an in-formed knowledge of the ancient world, students will be asked to reflect on what each approach can offer and how they can complement each other.)

Readings

Bober, Phyllis Pray. 1999. “The Hellenic Experience,” in Art, Culture and Cuisine: Ancient and Medieval Gastronomy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 77- 122. Lèvi-Strauss, Claude. 2008. “The Culinary Triangle,” in Food and Culture: A Reader, ed. C. Counihan and P. Van Esterik. New York: Routledge, 28-35. Twiss, Katheryn C. 2007. “We Are What We Eat,” in The Archaeology of Food and Identity, ed. Katheryn C. Twiss. Carbondale, Ill.: Center for Archaeological Investigations at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 1-15. Wilkins, John M. and Shaun Hill. 2006. “Food in Literature,” in Food in the Ancient World. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 247-276.

activity: by 9am on the day of class, submit a short response outlining what you think the main research questions and approaches of each discipline (Bober/art his-tory; Twiss/archaeology; Lèvi-Strauss/anthropology; Wilkins and Hill/literature) are. How do you see these approaches complementing each other or not?

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12

OLD FOOD AND US: THE DELIGHTS AND DANGERS OF DRAWING PARALLELS

(With the chronological and geographical foundations of the ancient Mediterranean in place, this class session is designed to get students to think explicitly and critically about inferring similarities across regional and chronological boundaries, with particular attention to our own time and places.)


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Readings

Barthes, Roland. 2008. “Towards a psychosociology of contemporary food consumption,” in Food and Culture: A Reader, ed. C. Counihan and P. Van Esterik. New York: Routledge, 20-27.

Beer, Michael. 2010. “Introduction,” in Taste or Taboo: Dietary Choices in Antiquity. Devon, England: Prospect Books, 7-16.

Fischler, Claude. 1999. “The ‘McDonaldization’ of culture,” in Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present, ed. Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari. New York: Columbia University Press, 530-547.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14

THE FOOD FRAMEWORK

(This class will emphasize food as part of a larger system, hearkening back to the Lèvi-Strauss article read two sessions earlier and prompting them to continue developing their culinary polygon, which is due in less than a week.)

Readings

Appadurai, Arjun. 2008. “Building a National Cuisine: Cookbooks in Contemporary India,” in Food and Culture: A Reader, ed. C. Counihan and P. Van Esterik. New York: Routledge.

Montanari, Massimo. 1999. “Food systems and models of civilization,” in Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present, ed. Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari. New York: Columbia University Press, 69-78.

Wilkes, John M. and Shaun Hill. 2006. “The social context of eating,” in Food in the Ancient World. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 41-78.


BACK TO THE BEGINNINGS

(Up to this point in the class, we’ve defined some chronological boundaries but skipped around them emphasize thematic points. As we ease into talking about the mechanics of food production and the ramifications for diet and society, this week and its classes will preface ‘classical’ antiquity with some discussion of the development of food production in prehistory.)


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Readings

Flandrin, Jean-Louis. 2008. “The Humanization of Eating Behaviors,” in Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present, ed. Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari. New York: Columbia University Press, 13-20.

Giammellaro, Antonella Spanò. 2008. “The Phoenicians and the Carthaginians: the Early Mediterranean Diet,” in Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present, ed. Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari. New York: Columbia University Press, 55-65.

Perlès, Catherine. 2008. “Eating Strategies in Prehistoric Times,” in Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present, ed. Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari. New York: Columbia University Press, 21-31.

Twiss, Katheryn C. 2007. “Home is Where the Hearth Is: Food and Identity in the Neolithic Levant,” in The Archaeology of Food and Identity, ed. K.C. Twiss. Carbondale, Ill.: Center for Archaeological Investigations at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 50-68.


THE MEDITERRANEAN TRIAD: DIET AND REGIONAL VARIABILITY

(While necessarily overlapping with the class before, this class will directly address the notion of the Mediterranean triad and its universal applicability; just as we focused on drawing chronological parallels in the Sept 12 class, this will focus on geographical variability, as well as getting into issues of availability and access for the majority of the population, both rural and urban).

Readings

Beer, Michael. 2010. “Diet in the Ancient World,” in Taste or Taboo: Dietary Choices in Antiquity. Devon, England: Prospect Books, 17-27.

Garnsey, Peter. 1999. “Diet,” in Food and Society in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 13-21.

Wilkins, John M. and Shaun Hill. 2006. “Staples: Cereals and Pulses” and “Meat and Fish,” in Food in the Ancient World. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 112-141.


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DIET AND VARIABILITY (PART II)

(In this class, we will continue to examine the differences in diet across geographical regions, including how they changed over time, especially with the spread of empires.)

Readings

Amouretti, Claire. 2008. “Urban and rural diets in Greece,” in Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present, ed. Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari. New York: Columbia University Press, 79-89.

Bresciani, Edda. 2008. “Food Culture in Ancient Egypt,” in Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present, ed. Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari. New York: Columbia University Press, 38-45.

Corbier, Mireille. 2008. “The Broad Bean and the Moray: Social Hierarchies and Food in Rome,” in Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present, ed. Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari. New York: Columbia University Press,128-140.

Sassatelli, Giuseppe. 2008. “The Diet of the Etruscans,” in Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present, ed. Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari. New York: Columbia University Press, 106-112.


MECHANICS OF PRODUCTION

(With an understanding in hand of what was being eaten, we will take a step back and examine how they went about producing and acquiring those foods.)

Readings

Garnsey, Peter. 1999. “Food and the Economy,” in Food and Society in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 22-33.

Wilkes, John M. and Shaun Hill. 2006. “An overview of food in antiquity,” in Food in the Ancient World. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1-30.


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FOOD TECHNOLOGY

(After thinking about food’s place in the economy, we will move on to think about the structures, mechanics, and material that went into producing food [as opposed to drink, which will be tackled in more detail in the two following meetings] before it entered into the economy.)

Readings

Curtis, Robert I. 2001. “Classical and Hellenistic Periods” and “Summary and Conclusions to Part III” in Ancient Food Technology. Technology and Change in History Volume 5. Leiden & Boston: Brill, 275-322, 420-434.


DRINK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN

(Building upon the previous weeks’ discussion of technology and production, this class will look explicitly at the special place of beer in the ancient world, especially in the places where it was most widely relied upon and where we have learned the most about its production and symbolic value within ancient society. We will look especially at the role of experimental archaeology in deducing how beer was made.)

Readings

HTTP://WWW2.MACLEANS.CA/2011/11/03/DRINK-LIKE-AN-EGYPTIAN/

Curtis, Robert I. 2001. “Egypt I,” in Ancient Food Technology. Technology and Change in History Volume 5. Leiden & Boston: Brill, 93-141.

Jennings, Justin, Kathleen L. Antrobus, Sam J. Atencio, Erin Glavich, Rebecca Johnson, German Loffler, and Christine Luu. 2005. “’Drinking beer in a blissful mood’: Alcohol production, operational chains, and feasting in the ancient world,” in Current Anthropology 46.2: 275-303.


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http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/11/03/drink-like-an-egyptian/

http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/11/03/drink-like-an-egyptian/

MONDAY, OCTOBER 1

BEER’S SOPHISTICATED COUSIN: WINE

(Building upon the previous weeks’ discussion of technology and production, this class will look explicitly at the special place of wine in the ancient world, especially in the places where it was most widely relied upon and where we have learned the most about its production and symbolic value within ancient society. We will look especially at the role of experimental archaeology and comparison with modern wine-producing technologies as ways to work back towards ancient practices.)

Readings

Beer, Michael. 2010. “Restrictions upon alcohol,” in Taste or Taboo: Dietary Choices in Antiquity. Devon, England: Prospect Books, 84-100.

Curtis, Robert I. 2001. “Wine” in Ancient Food Technology. Technology and Change in History Volume 5. Leiden & Boston: Brill, 372-379.

Wilkes, John M. and Shaun Hill. 2006. “Wine and Drinking,” in Food in the Ancient World. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 164-184.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3

FROM PRODUCTION TO CONSERVATION

(This class will emphasize that concerns about food in the ancient world were not just about producing and acquiring it, but how to store it once it was actually ac-quired - without the option of deep freezers or refrigerators! Issues of storage and conservation will be looked at both at the individual household level as well as larger estates and state administration.)

Readings

Grunbärt, Michael. “Store in a cool and dry place: perishable goods and their preservation in Byzantium,” in Eat, Drink, and Be Merry (Luke 12:19): Food and Wine in Byzantium (In Honour of Professor A.A.M. Bryer), ed. Leslie Brubaker and Kallirroe Linardou. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 39-50.


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Stathakopoulos, D. “Between the field and the plate: how agricultural products were processed into food,” in Eat, Drink, and Be Merry (Luke 12:19): Food and Wine in Byzantium (In Honour of Professor A.A.M. Bryer), ed. Leslie Brubaker and Kallirroe Linardou. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 27-38.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5

FAMINE AND FOOD SUPPLY

(A large part of the fear surrounding food storage and conservation in the ancient world was not just about seasonal preparation, but looking ahead to years of famine or food shortages of one kind or another. In addition to looking at strategies peo-ple used for dealing with food shortages, we will explore issues of accessibility as well as simple availability, focusing on the case study of Edessa and the detailed in-formation we have about that crisis, and the in-depth studies that have been under-taken about it.)

Readings

Galen. “On the fruit from wild plants,” from On the Properties of Foodstuffs, 97-98.

Garnsey, Peter. 1999. “Food Crisis,” in Food and Society in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 34-42.

Garnsey, Peter. 1988. “Supply and Distribution: Urban Communities,” in Famine and Food Supply in the Greco-Roman World: responses to risk and crisis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 69-86.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 8

NO CLASS - FALL BREAK


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PUTTING FOOD ON THE TABLE (AND TAKING IT OFF AGAIN): DINING HABITS

(In this class, we will examine the dining habits associated with pre-Roman Greek culture, in a general sense, including physical set-up, status, and illustrative case studies.)

Readings

Lissarague, Francois. 1987. “Drinking Games,” in The Aesthetics of the Greek Banquet. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 68-86.

Scmitt-Pantel, Pauline. 2008. “Greek Meals: A Civic Ritual,” in Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present, ed. Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari. New York: Columbia University Press, 90-95.

Vetta, Massimo. 2008. “The Culture of the Symposium,” in Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present, ed. Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari. New York: Columbia University Press, 96-105.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12

PUTTING FOOD ON THE TABLE (PART II)

(In this class, we will examine the dining habits associated with Roman culture into the late antique period, in a general sense, including physical set-up, status, and il-lustrative case studies.)

Readings

Bradley, Keith. 2001. “The Roman Family at Dinner,” in Meals in a Social Context, ed. Inge Nielsen and Hanne Nielsen. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 36-55.

Dunbabin, Katherine. 2003. “The Waiting Servant in Later Roman Art,” in American Journal of Philology 124.3 (Special Issue: Roman Dining): 443-456.

Dupont, Florence. 2008. “The Grammar of Roman Dining,” in Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present, ed. Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari. New York: Columbia University Press, 113-127.


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MONDAY, OCTOBER 15

MID-TERM EXAM (COVERING MATERIAL UP TO FALL BREAK)


EATING AWAY FROM THE TABLE: STREET FOOD

(We will examine dining habits outside the household level and setting, comparing differences and their implications to traditional Greek and Roman dining.)

Readings

Casson, Lionel. 1974. “Inns and Restaurants,” in Travel in the Ancient World. George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 197-218.

Davidson, James. 1998. “Taverns,” in Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens. New York: St Martin’s Press, 53-61.

Laurence, Ray. 1996. “Deviant Behavior,” in Roman Pompeii: Space and Society. New York & London: Routledge, 70-87.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19

BEANS, BEANS, THE MAGICAL - OR DEADLY - FRUIT

(We will explore food aversions and fascinations in the ancient world, and explicitly compare them to what biology and anthropology has taught us about food con-sumption and tastes today. These will include religious as well as wider cultural food taboos. )

Readings

Beer, Michael. 2010. “Beans,” in Taste or Taboo: Dietary Choices in Antiquity. Devon, England: Prospect Books, 44-53.

Garnsey, Peter. 1998. “The Bean: Substance and Symbol,” in Cities, Peasants and Food in Classical Antiquity: Essays in Social and Economic History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 214-225.


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Class activity: mid-term feedback survey

MONDAY, OCTOBER 22

FEEDING THE GODS, FEEDINGS OURSELVES

(We will explore about the role of food in ancient religion, from dietary prescrip-tions of the ancient Hebrews to the role of food in Greek and Roman sacrificial rituals.)

Readings

Soler, Jean. 2008. “Biblical Reasons: The Dietary Rules of the Ancient Hebrews,” in Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present, ed. Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari. New York: Columbia University Press, 46-54.

Wilkes, John M. and Shaun Hill. 2006. “Food and Ancient Religion,” in Food in the Ancient World. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 81-111.


FOOD IDENTITY :US AND THEM

(Whether we realize it or not, what people choose to eat [or not] and how they de-cide to prepare it goes into how we define ourselves and others. In this class, we will look at the different ways that ancient authors explicitly referred to food in the context of defining what was ‘Greek’ or ‘Roman’ or ‘other,’ and how those tensions played out in contemporary archaeological deposits.)

Readings

Beer, Michael. 2010. “Vegetarianism,” in Taste or Taboo: Dietary Choices in Antiquity. Devon, England: Prospect Books, 28-43.

Garnsey, Peter. 1999. “Otherness,” in Food and Society in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 62-81.


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Longo, Oddone. 2008. “The Food of Others,” in Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present, ed. Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari. New York: Columbia University Press, 153-164.

Due to the wiki by 5pm: mid-term exam performance survey

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26

FOOD AND FAMILY

(Sitting down to a nuclear family meal has not always been a part of traditional eat-ing habits. In this class, we will explore variations in who was given what kind of food, when, and how, with what implications for ancient society at large.)

Readings

Garnsey, Peter. 1999. “Food and the Family,” in Food and Society in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 100-112.

Garnsey, Peter. 1988. “Child rearing in ancient Italy,” in Cities, Peasants and Food in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 253-271.

Nielsen, Hanne Sigismund. 1998. “Roman Children at Mealtimes,” Meals in Social Context, ed. Inge Nielsen and Hanne Nielsen. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 56-66.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 29

FOOD AND... SEX?

(Gender and status played a large part in any individual’s role in dining. In this class, we will explore textual and art historical sources regarding the role of women in different dining contexts.)


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Readings

Roller, Matthew. 2003. “Horizontal Women: Posture and Sex in the Roman Convivium,” American Journal of Philology 143.2 (Special Issue: Roman Dining): 377-422.


FOOD FOR THE DEAD

(In this class, we will examine how dining with the dead reflected life for the living, and how funerary iconography and ritual colors our understanding of food, drink and ritual in the ancient world.)

Readings

Lindsay, Hugh. 1998. “Eating with the Dead: The Roman Funerary Banquet,” in Meals in a Social Context, ed. Inge Nielsen and Hanne Nielsen. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 67-80.

Tuck, Anthony S. 1994. “The Etruscan Seated Banquet: Villanovan Ritual and Etruscan Iconography,” American Journal of Archaeology 98.4: 617-628.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2

FOOD AND THE STATE

(While the ancient world didn’t have an FDA as such, the state did play a part in what kinds of food people had access to and how they ate it once they did. In this class, we will examine how different states controlled food and to what end, as well as how rulers and their administrations used food to convince their subjects that they were fit and right to rule.)

Readings

Beer, Michael. 2010. “State control of food: Spartan diet and Roman sumptuary laws,” in Taste or Taboo: Dietary Choices in Antiquity. Devon, England: Prospect Books, 101-115.


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Malmberg, S. 2007. “Dazzling dining: banquets as an expression of imperial legitimacy,” in Eat, Drink and Be Merry (Luke 12:19): Food and Wine in Byzantium (In Honour of Professor A.A.M. Bryer), ed. Leslie Brubaker and Kallirroe Linardou. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 75-92.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5

FROM POLITICS TO RELIGION (AGAIN): EARLY CHRISTIANITY

(In this class, we will explore how the practice of and regulations of a developing Christianity both relied upon and changed pre-Christian Mediterranean dining habits, with what implications for ancient society at large. Particular attention will be paid to changing vocabulary surrounding food and religion, and portrayal in art.)

Readings

Bynum, Caroline Walker. 1987. “Food as control of self” and “Epilogue” in Holy Feast and Holy Fast: the Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women. Berkeley: University of California Press, 189-218; 297-302.

Vroom, Joanita. 2007. “The changing dining habits at Christ’s table,” in Eat, Drink and Be Merry (Luke 12:19): Food and Wine in Byzantium (In Honour of Professor A.A.M. Bryer), ed. Leslie Brubaker and Kallirroe Linardou. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 191-222.

First draft and summary form due by midnight.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7

FOOD IN BYZANTIUM

(As the Roman empire split and became two, with the eastern half continuing as what we now know as the Byzantine empire, food and drink practices continued to retain visibly ‘Roman’ characteristics as well as develop into new practices and hab-its. In this class, we will explore the context of those similarities and changes, and


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discuss whether or not food practices influence how we talk about a ‘Byzantine’ versus ‘Roman’ empire.)

Readings

Kolbaba, Tia. 2000. “The Lists, Their Authors, and Their Audience” and “Unclean Food in the Lists,” in The Byzantine Lists: The Errors of the Latins. Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 23-31, 145-162.

Talbot, Alice-Mary. 2007. “Mealtime in monasteries: the culture of the Byzantine refectory,” in Eat, Drink and Be Merry (Luke 12:19): Food and Wine in Byzantium (In Honour of Professor A.A.M. Bryer), ed. Leslie Brubaker and Kallirroe Linardou. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 109-126.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9

FOOD FROM THE EAST: ARAB CUISINE IN THE MEDIEVAL MEDITERRANEAN

(While the earlier classes on ‘others’ and on food acquisition during travel show that the Mediterranean was a place of mobility and connectivity, this class will high-light how, through food, we can explore the connectivity of the ancient Mediterra-nean world.)

Readings

Korobeinikov, D. 2007. “A sultan in Constantinople: the feasts of Ghiyath al-Din Kay Khusraw I,” in Eat, Drink and Be Merry (Luke 12:19): Food and Wine in Byzantium (In Honour of Professor A.A.M. Bryer), ed. Leslie Brubaker and Kallirroe Linardou. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 93-108.

Rosenberger, Bernard. 2008. “Arab Cuisine and Its Contribution to European Culture,” in Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present, ed. Jean- Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari. New York: Columbia University Press, 207-223.


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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12

FOOD AND MEDICINE

(Treatment for illnesses did not always come in a pill bottle, and more often than not, not even from doctors. In this class, we will explore how medical practice in the ancient world relied on food, how they defined medicine with regard to food, and how it compares to modern medicine.)

Readings

Garnsey, Peter. 1999. “Malnutrition,” in Food and Society in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 43-61.

Riddle, John M. 1997. “The Herbs Known to the Ancients,” in Eve’s Herbs: A History of Contraception and Abortion in the West. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 35-53.

Wilkes, John M. and Shaun Hill. 2006. “Medical Approaches to Food,” in Food in the Ancient World. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 211-244.


FOOD FOR THE MASSES

(Because of the sources, much of what we know about food comes from elite litera-ture and art. However, archaeology is expanding that picture widely and in innova-tive directions, and in this class we will explore how we can reach a better picture of what ‘normal’ people ate on a daily basis.)

Readings

Garnsey, Peter. 1999. “Haves and Havenots,” in Food and Society in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 113-127.

Montanari, Massimo. 2008. “Peasants, Warriors, Priests: Images of Society and Styles of Diet,” in Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present, ed. Jean- Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari. New York: Columbia University Press, 178-188.


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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16

FEASTS AND FEASTING (PART I)

(Just as earlier classes focused on dining at the household level and outside the household setting, this class will focus on dining at a grand scale and special occa-sions: the feast.)

Readings

Donahue, John F. 2003. “Toward a typology of Roman public feasting,” in American Journal of Philology 124.3 (Special Issue: Roman Dining): 423-441.

Douglas, C. Wilson and William L. Rathje. 2001. “Garbage and the modern American feast,” in Feasts: Archaeological and Ethnographic Perspectives on Food, Politics and Power, ed. Michael Dietler and Brian Hayden. Washington, DC & London: Smithsonian Institute Press, 404-421.

Garnsey, Peter. 1999. “You are with whom you eat,” in Food and Society in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 128-138.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19

FEASTS AND FEASTING (PART II)

Class activity: making food like the ancients

(Students will prepare food to bring in and share according to the recipes that have come down to us from antiquity. They will share the difficulties they had in preparation and finding ingredients, and how they found the taste. If they do not have the means or facilities to try out a recipe, they will choose a recipe and write a 1-2 page discussion of what kinds of difficulties they are likely to encounter.)

Second draft and summary form due by midnight.


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NO CLASS - THANKSGIVING BREAK

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23

NO CLASS - THANKSGIVING BREAK

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26

NO CLASS - MEETINGS ABOUT FINAL PAPERS


FEASTS AND FEASTING (PART III)

(Having returned from Thanksgiving break, we will return to the issue of feasts and feasting and how it may or may not have differed in the ancient Mediterranean.)

Readings

Dietler, Michael and Brian Hayden. 2001. “Digesting the feast - good to eat, good to drink, good to think: an introduction,” in Feasts: Archaeological and Ethnographic Perspectives on Food, Politics and Power, ed. Michael Dietler and Brian Hayden. Washington, DC & London: Smithsonian Institute Press, 1- 20.

Joannes, Francis. 2008. “The social function of banquets in the Earliest

Civilizations,” in Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present, ed. Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari. New York: Columbia University Press, 32-37.

Lev-Tov, Justin and Kevin M. McGeough. 2006. “Examining Feasting in Late Bronze Age Syro-Palestine Through Ancient Texts and Bones,” in The Archaeology of Food and Identity, ed. Katheryn C. Twiss. Carbondale, Ill.: Center for Archaeological Investigations at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 85-111.


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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30

GLUTTONY AND MORALITY

(Just as fear of not eating enough was a looming specter in the ancient world, the notion of eating too much also carried its negative implications. In this class, we will examine how overeating in the ancient world was written about and depicted in art.)

Readings

Beer, Michael. 2010. “Gluttony versus abstinence: the tyrant and the saint,” in Taste or Taboo: Dietary Choices in Antiquity. Devon, England: Prospect Books, 116- 121.

Petronius, “The Dinner of Trimalchio,” in Satyricon.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 3

FOOD AND MORALITY PART II

(We will continue the discussion from the previous week, building upon how dis-approval of excess played out in politics and morality.)

Readings

Gowers, Emily. 1993. “An Approach to Eating” in The Loaded Table: Representations of Food in Roman Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1-49.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5

FOOD ON THE ROAD

(Since we live in a world that is consistently described as increasingly globalized, this final lecture-as-such focuses on how much people traveled in the ancient world, how they dealt with food and taboos [or not] while they did, and whom they might have met along the way - and what they ate, with what implications for cross-cultural exchange through foodways.)


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Readings

Constable, Olivia Remie. 2003. “’Accepting all comers’: a cross-cultural institution in late antiquity,” in Housing the Stranger in the Mediterranean World: Lodging, Travel and Trade in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 11-39.

Déry, Carol.A. 1997. “Food and the Roman army: travel, transport and transmission,” in Food on the Move, ed. H. Walker. Totnes: Prospect Books, 84-96.

Matthews, John. 2006. “Introduction” and “Food and Diet,” in The Journey of Theophanes: Travel, Business, and Daily Life in the Roman East. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1-11, 138-180.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7

FOOD POEMS

Readings

Selections from Washington, Peter (ed.). 2003. Eat, Drink, and Be Merry: Poems About Food and Drink. New York: Knopf.

FINAL PAPER DUE BY MIDNIGHT.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 10 - WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12

READING PERIOD

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14

FINAL EXAM


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AND NOW, FOR REVELRY!


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Documents

food and drink syllabusdocshare04.docshare.tips/files/17934/179342068.pdf · Eating is not, and never has been, a merely biological activity.-Paul Fieldhouse, Food and Nutrition: