Food and Feasting

Food and Feasting

We all need to eat but meals are often ‘occasions’, with ‘special’ dishes, rare and expensive foods and formal surroundings.

‘Feasting’ usually involves food provided in surplus and consumed wastefully.  The giver both proves his wealth and status, and creates a debt owed by his guests.  Having demonstrated his superiority those guests either have to reciprocate in kind or accept public humiliation.

This course will look at food and feasting from the days of Homo Neanderthalensis to the Late Medieval / Early Tudor period and will consider the relationships between food and social culture.