Premodern Food Studies: Practices and Ideologies (original) (raw)

Food, Texts, and Cultures in Latin America and Spain

Vanderbilt University Press, 2020

The fourteen essays in Food, Texts, and Cultures in Latin America and Spain showcase the eye-opening potential of a food lens withing colonial studies, ethnic and racial studies, gender and sexuality studies, and studies of power dynamics, nationalisms and nation building, theories of embodiment, and identity. In short, Food, Texts and Cultures in Latin America and Spain grapples with an emerging field in need of a foundational text, and does so from multiple angles.The studies span from the Middle Ages to twenty-first century, and the contributing scholars occupy diverse fields within Latin American and Hispanic studies. As such, their essays showcase eclectic critical and theoretical approaches to the subject of Latin American and Iberian Food. Food, Texts, and Cultures in Latin America and Spain also introduces the first English-language publication of woks from such award-winning scholars as Adolfo Castañón of the Mexican Academy of Language; Sergio Ramírez, winner of the 2017 Miguel de Cervantes Prize in Literature; And Carmen Simón Palmer, winner of the 2015 Julián Marías Prize for Research.

Cooking in the Iberian Culture (Sixth–Second Century bc): Private or Public?

In this article we analyse the structures and features related to food processing or preparation and their social and economic implications among the protohistoric communities of the Iberian culture during the Iron Age (sixth–second century bc). Different types of facilities are considered, including ovens, hearths, fireplaces and grinding areas, according to their specific location within the settlements (indoor or outdoor areas). We also look at the evidence from the artefacts involved in these processes and the contextualisation of their functional need within the urban structure/planning. The presence of collective facilities located outside the houses implies, on the one hand, an organised collaborative practice and management network and, on the other, the transfer of certain specific household activities to the public sphere. The organisation of management and use of those facilities would have affected various aspects of Iberian societies, such as the dynamics and routine of everyday life, not only through arranging and scheduling the availability of the facility, but also by operating as a mechanism of social interaction among both equals and persons of different statuses.

Insights on the Evolution of Iberian Cuisine inferred from 13th-century Andalusi cookbooks

2024

This paper examines the influence of two 13th-century cookbooks from the Iberian Peninsula and the survival of some of their recipes in the modern cuisine of Spain and Portugal. The treaties used are the anonymous cookbooks 'The Book of Cooking in Maghreb and Andalus in the Era of Almohads' and 'Remainders on the Table as Regards Delightful Foods and Dishes' of Ibn Razin Al-Tujibi. When applicable, a special point of comparison was made with the 14th-century 'Book of Sent Sovi.'

“Mens et mensa: Thinking of Food in Medieval Cultures (1000-1600 CE)” Introduction

2013

In the last few decades new theoretical perspectives have emphasized the significance of material culture for an understanding of historical and sociocultural developments. As a consequence of this renewed interest in more pragmatic aspects of daily life through the ages scholars have turned to the study of food as a window to the cultural dynamics that are embedded within. The acquisition, preparation and consumption of food is a basic human need that provides a lens through which scholars can explore relationships among economic, religious, literary, legal, political, cultural and social activity. Scholarly study of food, as well as its surrounding ideas and practices, illuminate the boundaries and nexus of material and mental exchanges which are so fundamental to human experience that they often escape a culture’s nominal categories to occasion the crossing of social and political borders. Scholarly interest in food and eating in the Middle Ages increased after the publication of...