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"The other senses may be enjoyed in all their beauty when one is alone,
but taste is largely social. Humans rarely choose to dine in solitude,
and food has a powerful social component. The Bantu feel that exchanging
food makes a contract between two people who then have a 'clanship of porridge.'
We usually eat with our families, so it's easy to see how 'breaking bread'
together would symbolically link an outsider to a family group.
Throughout
the world, the stratagems of business take place over meals; weddings end with
a feast; friends reunite at celebratory dinners; children herald their birthdays
with ice cream and cake; religious ceremonies offer food in fear, homage, and
sacrifice; wayfarers are welcomed with a meal. As Brillat-Savarin says,
'every...sociability...can be found assembled around the same table: love, friendship,
business, speculation, power, importunity, patronage, ambition, intrigue...'
If an event is meant to matter emotionally, symbolically, or mystically, food
will be close at hand to sanctify and bind it."
--from The Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman |
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