Religions and Food

Year
1
Academic year
2019-2020
Code
02025126
Subject Area
History of Culture
Language of Instruction
Portuguese
Mode of Delivery
Face-to-face
Duration
SEMESTRIAL
ECTS Credits
10.0
Type
Elective
Level
2nd Cycle Studies - Mestrado

Recommended Prerequisites

Not applicable.

Teaching Methods

- Lectures using chronological charts and maps

- Reading and study of texts alluding to religious manifestations (selections from Hesiod, Homer, Euripides, Apuleius, Porphyry); the Bible (Judaism and Christiniaty); the Quran (Islam)

- Regular use of the students' empirical knowledge, as individuals who are part of a culture rooted in the classical world and in Judeo-Christianity, to identify experiences, practices, customs and traditions of their cultural universe

- Oral presentations by students on previously selected topics.

Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to

- Indicate, locate and describe the main current religious expressions;

- Understand, in broad terms, the history of religions (origins, geographical distribution, expansion);

- Describe the religious context of the ancient Mediterranean world;

- Understand the physiological and organic aspects of food which were appropriated by religious discourse;

- Describe the religious rituals codified in accordance with food practices: sacrifices; forbidden foods; fasting and feasting; offerings;

- Explain the sacralization of certain foods in the Mediterranean world: bread, wine, olive oil and salt.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

The concept of religion. World religions. Brief presentation. Origins, history and characteristics of the main religious expressions:

The act of eating: physiology, sensation, perception

Eating and seeing – paths to the experience of the sacred

Religion and rituals – the use of food in religious observance: comparison and contrast

Disciplining time and the body: fasting and abstinence in the different religions

Disciplining nature: forbidden foods in the different religions

Foods in the religions of the Mediterranean world

Ancient Egypt. The Greco-Roman world. Judaism. Christian culture. Islam.

Religion and eating discipline – fasting and abstinence. Feasts

The cuisine of sacrifice. The fruits of the earth. Animals. Cannibalism

Foods as pathways to the supernatural: enthusiasms; foretelling; clairvoyance; transmigration

Metaphorical dimension of foods as an expression of the sacred

The identity dimension of foods as an expression of the collective. Starvation and abundance.

Head Lecturer(s)

Paula Cristina Barata Dias

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Mini Tests: 40.0%
Synthesis work: 60.0%

Bibliography

-Food and Drink in the biblical worlds, Semeia 86, Canada 1999

-Eliade, Mircea ed., The encyclopedia of religion. New York, MacMillan Publishing Company

-Dictionnaire D'Archéologie Chrétienne et de Liturgie (DACL), F. Cabrol et H. Leclercq, 1924, cols 436-460.

-Dictionnaire de la Bible (DBibl), F. Vigouroux ed. Paris, Letousey et Ané 1912.

-Douglas, M., “Deciphering a meal”, Daedalus 10, 1972, pp. 61-81.

-Feely-Harnik, Gillian, The Lord’s Table, The Meaning of food in Early Judaism and Christianity.

-Segarra Crespo, D. (coord.), Connotaciones Sacrales de la alimentación en el mundo clásico, Revista de Ciencias de las religiones.2004.

-Nock, Arthur Darby,.Essays on religion and the ancient world, Cambridge, 1972.

-Douglas, Mary, Pureza e Perigo, ed.70, 1991.

P. B. Dias, “A linguagem dos alimentos bíblicos. Sentidos para a fome e para a abundância”, Humanitas 60 (2008) 157-175.