Food and Society in Classical Antiquity

by Peter Garnsey

• ISBN13: 9780521645881
• ISBN10: 0521645883
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-05-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This is the first study of food in classical antiquity that treats it as both a biological and a cultural phenomenon. The variables of food quantity, quality and availability, and the impact of disease, are evaluated and a judgement reached which inclines to pessimism. Food is also a symbol, evoking other basic human needs and desires, especially sex, and performing social and cultural roles which can be either integrative or divisive. The book explores food taboos in Greek, Roman, and Jewish society, and food-allocation within the family, as well as more familiar cultural and economic polarities which are highlighted by food and eating. The author draws on a wide range of evidence new and old, from written sources to human skeletal remains, and uses both comparative historical evidence from early modern and contemporary developing societies and the anthropological literature, to create a case-study of food in antiquity.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	viii
Acknowledgments	ix
Abbreviations	x
Preface	xi
Introduction: Food, substance and symbol	1	(11)
Diet	12	(10)
Food and the economy	22	(12)
Food crisis	34	(9)
Malnutrition	43	(19)
Otherness	62	(20)
Forbidden foods	82	(18)
Food and the family	100	(13)
Haves and havenots	113	(15)
You are with whom you eat	128	(11)
Conclusion: Choice and necessity	139	(5)
Bibliographical essay	144	(5)
Bibliography	149	(20)
Index	169