Download PDF | (Byzantina Australiensia, 15) Wendy Mayer, Silke Trzcionka (eds.) - Feast, Fast or Famine_ Food and Drink in Byzantium-Brill (2017).
229 Pages
INTRODUCTION
This volume presents selected papers from the biennial conference of the Australian Association for Byzantine Studies held in Adelaide, 2003, augmented by contributions from a number of international scholars. The 2003 conference theme was ‘Feast, Fast or Famine. Food and drink in Byzantium’, a topic which provided a forum for a variety of papers and discussions ranging from military logistics to the vegetarian diet. Given the increasing interest of scholars in the study of Graeco-Roman and Byzantine social history, and the wealth of material which still remains to be treated with an eye to social information, in addition to more traditional religious, political or military foci, the wide variety of approaches represented in the studies below will come as no surprise.
There has been an increasing interest in the study of food and drink, and its supply and consumption in recent decades. This is perhaps best demonstrated by the attention it receives in individual monographs or as an integral aspect of other investigations, such as studies on late antique ascetic practices. However, the fact that in 2003 alone food and drink in Byzantium was the focus of two international conferences is testimony to an increasing acknowledgement of its value as a focused area of investigation. '
On the topic of food and drink in the Greek, Roman and early Byzantine worlds there is a variety of scholarship. A useful example is Peter Garnsey’s studies of famine and food. His works include investigations into food crises, nutrition and malnutrition, and do so within the context of Graeco-Roman society, taking into account such critical elements as government, economy, urban and rural considerations, as well as wealth, status and gender. Garnsey stresses a fact that is increasingly being acknowledged, that the study of food and drink can be used as an entry into understanding Greek and Roman society.” Another example is the collection of papers (Dining in a Classical Context) that investigate the symposium over a vast period of Greek and Roman history, highlighting through the study the diverse relations between the act of dining and the life of antiquity.’ Likewise the noteworthy study edited by Wilkins et al., Food in Antiquity,’ which, with over thirty contributions to the corpus, provides a significant investigation not only into food and drink in the Graeco-Roman world (c. 800 BCE to 400 CE), but focuses on ideas about food and its cultural significance in the widest sense, while also examining production and processing.” Covering a wide array of topics from cereal, staples, meat and fish, to food and medicine, the volume aims at providing a ‘snapshot’ of eating in antiquity, acknowledging that “food and eating is a complex matter with complex associations”.°
Also addressing the complexities of food and drink, particularly eating and drinking, within a changing and formative social context is Grimm’s work on feasting and fasting in early Christianity.’ This study traces early Christian attitudes to food and drink, eating and fasting in the writings of the figures that shaped Christian discourse. Grimm argues that by placing antique texts into their intellectual, social and historical context it 1s possible to develop our understanding of the antique mentality.” Thus, in seeing that body symbols reflect perceptions and relationships within societies,'” she argues that eating practices and accusations of unacceptable eating practices acted as a form of group distinction and segregation. This 1s an idea reiterated in several of the papers presented below.
For the period of the Byzantine empire there is some interest in the area of food and drink with the publication of specialist studies in the area, as well as the inclusion of the topic within broader studies of Byzantium such as that of Talbot Rice, Everyday Life in Byzantium.'' However, there are still only a few Byzantine scholars who have devoted more than passing attention to the topic, the most prominent being Koukoules in the 1950s,'” and more recently Johannes Koder.'”
Koukoules’ work on Byzantine life contains two chapters on ‘Food and Drink’ and ‘Dining customs’,'* which discuss the type of food and drink consumed in
Byzantium, such as bread, cheese, meat, fish, olives, cabbage, sauces, sweets and
spices. Koukoules’ focus is on what was eaten in Byzantium, when and how it was
eaten, and its preparation (although in one section he does also consider the manner
of its consumption).
Andrew Dalby has also proved a prolific writer on the history of. food and addresses food in Byzantium in several of his works, particularly in Siren Feasts and his recent work Flavours of Byzantium.'° In the former his focus is on food in the domestic context and he looks at the things people ate in Byzantium, considering Byzantine food in its socio-economic context (e.g. the diet of the poor being limited and usually vegetarian).'° In Flavours of Byzantium, Dalby presents a study of a ‘Byzantine culinary melting-pot’,'’ considering a social and historical context for eating and drinking and ideas of food, including various Byzantine recipes, and offering “an unexpected and useful access to the Byzantine mindset”.'*
While several of the works above address food and drink in the sense of what was consumed, and how and when, such as Koukoules and to some degree Dalby,'” there is also a move towards understanding the role that food and drink, and its consumption, played within society. This volume follows this trend to a considerable degree, with many of the contributions highlighting the role and perception of food and drink, and its consumption, within Byzantine society. An example is the first paper by Simon Malmberg titled: “Visualising Hierarchy at Imperial Banquets”, in which he discusses the importance of precedence at Roman and Middle-Byzantine imperial banquets. Malmberg reiterates the importance of status to Romans and presents a well developed argument for demonstrating the installation and presentation of this (no longer hereditary — and changing) hierarchy (and its respective power) in the development of precedence, and the physical expression of hierarchy at imperial banquets. Thus, spatial, temporal, qualitative, quantitative and behavioural distinctions are shown to have expressed precedence, and acted as symbols and enforcers of social hierarchy. Malmberg proposes that the imperial banquet provided proof of the emperor’s political legitimacy, and that the ritual of the banquet enabled him to establish differences in rank and to distribute favours and displeasure, providing an indicator of the position of an individual within the balance of power at court.
The work of Anthoullis Demosthenous in “The scholar and the partridge. Attitudes related to nutritional goods in the twelfth century from the letters of the scholar John Tzetzes”, highlights the role of foodstuffs in the politico-socioeconomic processes of the twelfth century. Demosthenous, using the letters of Tzetzes, argues that the exchanging of gifts, which included items of food (often exotic), belonged within the context of cultivated — ‘useful and reciprocal’ — friendships and patronage amongst the lettered elite of the twelfth century. That is, in addition to the exchange of letters, the exchange of gifts (such as sweetmeats, partridge, etc.) acted as a symbolic pledge of friendship (friendships at this time representing alliances of power, political influence and wealth), thus serving not simply as polite gestures, but also affirming the friendship as one able to effect favours and serve personal interests. Within this communicatory context, food adopted a symbolic dimension in personal alliances, particularly amongst the lettered elite, in the promotion of personal ambitions.
Andrew Stone in his paper, “Eustathios and the Wedding Banquet for Alexios Porphyrogennetos”’, focuses, as the title suggests, on aspects of the wedding celebrations of Alexios and Agnes as presented in the oration of Eustathios. He sifts through Eustathios’ rhetoric and discusses the orator’s presentation of food and drink and its consumption through the two days of wedding banquets. Stone considers, for instance, the orator’s description of the transformation of the hippodrome into a banqueting area, the thoroughfares filled with edible creatures, the arrangement and decoration of the tables, and even the disposition of chairs. Furthermore, Stone comments on Eustathios’ treatment of the subject, highlighting the orator’s often sarcastic overtones, and his effective use of imagery in his description of the banquets.
As one reads through the three papers which follow, it becomes apparent that throughout various periods of Byzantine history food and drink, and _ its consumption, could be used to differentiate an individual or a social group from the ‘other’. In Lynda Garland’s paper “The Rhetoric of Gluttony and Hunger in twelfth-century Byzantium”, for instance, this is highlighted through the use of humour by the elite in the twelfth century. Garland discusses the use of foodrelated humour as both a form of amusement and an appropriate vehicle for abuse in the twelfth century. She acknowledges that social class and status determined eating habits and that this led to accusations of food abuse as obvious points of attack against political figures, especially when the food or drinks involved were thought inappropriately vulgar and uncouth. As a result uncouth tastes and food
preferences were frequently mocked, in order to emphasise individuals’ lowly origins. Thus in the volatile twelfth century bureaucrats, the symbols of the Byzantine administrative machine, are depicted with undisguised contempt, and food abuse played a significant role and enabled a pointed criticism of ministers, delineating their status as ‘outsiders’. Furthermore, Garland points out that humour and slapstick were an integral part of court entertainment, and that it is noteworthy that the obviously fictional elements in the Ptochoprodomic poems were written to entertain by dwelling on the vicissitudes of the narrator and poorer classes, particularly the narrator’s hunger. Thus humour provided a mechanism for labelling the populace (and their food preferences) as the ‘other’, further distinguishing the court from the city’s inhabitants — the ‘outsiders’.
Also on the theme of using food and drink and its consumption as a means for differentiating the ‘other’, Danijel Dzino’s paper, “Sabaiarius: Beer, Wine and Ammianus Marcellinus”, argues that the use of the term ‘sabaiarius’ by Ammianus Marcellinus served to identify and ridicule what was seen as the ‘other’ and barbarian. The term ‘sabaiarius’ meaning “beer man’ or ‘beer drinker’ was used by Ammianus against both Valens and Valentinian. Dzino examines the complexity of the word by investigating the ‘beer geography’ and the diverging drinking cultures of continental Europe and the Mediterranean. He notes that although the consumption of beer was relatively widespread, the traditional Greek and Roman attitude towards beer, beer drinking, and intoxication was negative and it was considered ‘barbarian’. Thus beer-related behaviour provided an example of barbarian ‘otherness’, enabling a negative contrast to the qualities of GraecoRoman civilisation. Dzino argues that Ammianus’ deliberate use of the label ‘sabaiarius’ highlights cultural prejudices (geographic, ethnic, and class-related) within the Mediterranean and Roman world. Ammianus’ use of ‘sabaiarius’ in the scenario involving Valens, for instance, serves not only to offend the emperor, but also to malign his Pannonian origins. Thus Dzino proposes that in the word ‘sabaiarius’ can be read the oppositions of the social and political divisions of the late antique world.
Paul Tuffin’s and Meaghan McEvoy’s paper, “Steak a la Hun: Food, drink, and dietary habits in Ammuianus Marcellinus”, also identifies how Ammianus Marcellinus identified the ‘other’ through association with food and drink and its consumption. In their paper they investigate references made in the Res Gestae to the topic of food and drink, particularly considering its treatment within the narrative. Amongst other references, the authors note that there are plenty of remarks in Ammianus’ history about the provisioning of armies, and his linkage of the availability of food (excessive, deprived, or moderate) with military behaviour. In addition, Tuffin and McEvoy address Ammianus’ concern with food and drink as a means for judging the moral value of individuals and societies, thereby establishing an assessment of uncivilised and barbarian or conversely civilised and Roman. At the head of Ammianus’ criteria of judgement is dietary moderation in both the quality and quantity of consumption, making gluttony and excessive winedrinking prime targets for criticism. Thus his respective descriptions are a notable form of social commentary, and are even seen, Tuffin and McEvoy argue, as a threat to the Roman way of life. Ammianus’ description of different regions and inhabitants, such as the Saracens, Scordisci, Thracians, and Huns, further associates eating and drinking behaviour with the ‘other’. Thus it is suggested that Ammianus’ descriptions of eating and drinking provide an important point for evaluation, and the defining of both ‘otherness’ and the uncivilised.
Moving away from food as identification, the papers of John Haldon and John Fitzpatrick change the focus of the discussions to the distribution and provision of food. John Haldon, “Feeding the Army: Food and Transport in Byzantium, ca. 6001100”, examines how soldiers were actually supplied with what they ate on campaign, considering such aspects as weights and measures, times per distance for travel, and the mean rates of consumption of the provisions. Haldon determines the diet of soldiers in campaign conditions, the basic ration allocated to each per day, as well as the fodder and grazing needs of the livestock accompanying armies. He utilises the figures of the expedition of the Byzantine army against Northern Syria in 911-912, as well as comparable information on land-use and levels of agrarian productivity, in order to understand the logistical operation, that is, to gain some idea of where, and in what quantities, Byzantines produced grains, and what might have been available to support transient populations such as armies. Haldon also investigates how the required material was carried, taking into account, for instance, the types of animals required, the weights to be born by them, and even legal considerations. From this evaluation Haldon establishes how far a given force could travel under different conditions before needing re-supply, and demonstrates that supplying armies with food was a complex operation, and a fundamental aspect of successful warfare.
John Fitzpatrick in “(Not sailing) to Byzantium: metropolis, hinterland and frontier in the transformation of the Roman empire” attempts to delineate the problematic that occupies an influential, though not exclusive, place in late antiquity’s literature, loosely described as ‘organicist, institutionalist and geocultural’, by offering a restatement of the traditional story about cultural and institutional continuity between the old and ‘new Rome’ of Byzantium. Fitzpatrick sketches an alternative problematic, which he loosely describes as ‘structuralist, materialist and geopolitical’. He argues that the key to an effective dialogue between ‘geopolitical’ and ‘material life’ approaches is a_ systematic acknowledgement of the central role of ‘food economies’ throughout late and classical antiquity. Fizpatrick argues that continuous and changing geopolitical relations between metropolis, hinterland and frontier offer a more illuminating guide to the development of the Roman state than the conventional cultural-institutional narrative. He suggests that a shift in focus from cultural trends in the Mediterranean to the geopolitics of the northern frontiers reveals a fairly clear trajectory leading towards a distinctive ‘eastern empire’ and ultimately to ‘Byzantium proper’. He questions the veracity of the dominant geocultural problematic, citing its general indifference both to logistics and geopolitics, and to the positive significance of Rome’s original logistical and geopolitical achievements. Thus Fitzpatrick argues that a different type of continuity thesis, making Byzantium the inheritor of a ‘northern’ (and predominantly military) lateRoman state is considerably more plausible, the transformations best understood by a focus on the shifting relationships between metropolis, hinterland and frontier in the trajectory of a ‘northern’ late-Roman state.
The final papers of the volume again change track, by addressing issues related to food and drink and its consumption within a religious and social context, as well as philosophical and supernatural belief systems.
Matthew Martin in “Communal Meals in the Late Antique Synagogue’, addresses the question of communal dining in the late antique synagogue. In particular he investigates the disparity between the rabbinic prohibition on dining in the synagogue and the evidence (literary, epigraphical and archaeological) that indicates that communal meals were consumed in synagogues in Palestine and elsewhere up to the sixth century CE. He consequently argues that this phenomenon has significant implications for the consideration of nascent rabbinic authority in the Palestinian synagogues of this period. Considering literary and archaeological evidence, Martin demonstrates that people did partake in communal meals in synagogues, and that they may have possessed a cultic dimension of some sort, which he suggests is entirely compatible with a conception of the synagogue as an inherently sacred realm. In addressing the problem of how this tradition of communal synagogue meals may be reconciled with the statement of the Tosefta prohibiting eating and drinking in the synagogue, he proposes that the presumption that rabbis had an overwhelming interest and dominance in this institution and its traditions come into question. Thus he infers that the phenomenon of communal synagogue meals provides an important piece of evidence in support of the contention that rabbis remained a largely peripheral influence in Jewish society, particularly in Palestine, prior to the sixth and seventh centuries.
Remaining in the sphere of late antique Jewish practice, Susan Weingarten’s paper: “Children’s Foods in the Talmudic Literature”, discusses the foods that were seen as specifically associated with children, from birth to puberty, in the Jewish Talmudic sources. Weingarten points out that the Talmudic rabbis were interested in every aspect of daily life in order to bring it under religious control, thereby providing an avenue for learning about the everyday food of ordinary people. Amongst the many references to food in the Talmudic sources, however, only a small proportion deal with food specifically associated with children. Weingarten
discusses dietary recommendations for breast-feeding mothers, suggesting that the list may be related to magical beliefs. She notes that there are similar sorts of prescriptions for the diet of pregnant women that are apparently related to sympathetic magic. Various recommendations for food for children are also discussed, such as babies needing oil and warm water, and egg and kutah, or the allowance that children could suck milk straight from the teats of an animal when health required it. She notes that other foods suitable for babies and children include honey, ‘hasty bread’ (harara), genobqa’ot (a dry dough product that could be crumbled), milk, fowl and especially nuts. Nuts were particularly associated with children’s food, serving as treats and toys, even being used as memory ‘joggers’ for legal testimony.
In Silke Trzcionka’s paper, “Calypso’s Cauldron: The ritual ingredients of earlyByzantine love spells”, three particular forms of supernatural love ritual involving food and drink are discussed. These three methods include the use of enchanted apples (unAov), male love-lotions, and spiked wine, all aimed at instilling desire in their (predominantly female) targets. In discussing enchanted apples it is suggested that the enchanted apple, and the questions of a female’s limited or unlimited control in accepting the fruit, as well as the relatively public nature of the act, provide an interesting area for consideration on the topic of sexuality and gender in the Graeco-Roman world. The second love-ritual discussed in the paper is the male love-lotion. It is noted that many of the prescriptions provide men with directions to make a woman enjoy sexual intercourse, raising questions over the nature of relationships and gender, both within and outside of marriage. Notably these potions seem to be an inversion of the popular portrayal of aphrodisiacs in the Graeco-Roman world depicting women as the instigators. It is suggested that they may have been intended for concubines, possibly as a form of ‘counter-magic’. The final love-ritual discussed is enchanted wine, discussing spell prescriptions for men wishing to affect women through the beverage. Once again there is evidence for males seeking to instil desire in women. Given that this method required some degree of intimacy, it is suggested that the spiked-wine may have been used to increase the attention of a wife, while also raising issues relating to trust. Thus the paper notes that early-Byzantine love ‘magic’ as it relates to food and drink was predominantly orchestrated by men, who sought to instil or indicate desire in women who, it appears, were often empowered to accept their intentions. It is thus argued that these forms of love ‘magic’ raise questions regarding male and female roles, relationships, sexuality, gender and issues of control in the Graeco-Roman world.
Ken Parry’s paper, “Vegetarianism in Late Antiquity and Byzantium: The transmission of a regimen’, presents the prominent ‘meat-avoidance’ groups of the Graeco-Roman world, beginning with a discussion of Neoplatonic thinkers, Neopythagoreans and Manichaeans. Parry notes that two select groups are distinguished in both the Neopythagorean and Manichaean traditions by the kind of food they consume: the strictly vegetarian diet, for example, is reserved for the ‘learned’ and the ‘elect’. His survey continues with a discussion of vegetarianism amongst various Roman figures, early Christian and Gnostic groups, as well as Buddhists and Jains. Examining the position within mainstream Christianity from the fourth century through Byzantium, Parry also points out that at the Council of Gangra (341 CE) vegetarianism was outlawed, as the avoidance of meat could become a focal point for concern over ascetic elitism and a cause of division among Christians. Thus Parry’s discussion highlights meat-avoidance or vegetarianism as a form of differentiation between and within groups.
The final paper, by Athanasius Louvaris, titled “Fast and Abstinence in Byzantium”, deals specifically with the prescribed diet designed for the benefit of Greek Orthodox Christians. Less scholarly in its approach, this paper is nonetheless included as an addendum to the other papers in this volume, because in its broad scope it offers yet another interesting perspective. Louvaris points out that 216 days of abstinence from meat and dairy products were prescribed in a year, arguing that the Church had included fasting and abstinence into the life of faithful Christians “in a rational and systematic way”. Louvaris distinguishes between abstinence from certain categories of food and fasting per se, stating that the latter was specifically designated as a disciplinary measure in several canons of the conciliar Church. He discusses the system of the categorisation of foods, in accordance with the rules of abstinence and the partaking of food, which were gradually adopted. This categorisation included: meat; dairy; fish; seafood; and vegetables, legumes, and fruits. There were several significant periods for dietary prescriptions, namely pre-Christmas Lent, the Apostolic Fast, the Feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, and the Great Lent. Louvaris argues that in addition to having substantially influenced Byzantine cuisine, the Lenten regime and other observances of fasting and abstinence had a lasting effect on the cuisines of regions within the Byzantine empire (e.g. dips and salads, and confectionery and pastries).
The variety of approaches towards the subject of food and drink in Byzantium offered by the papers presented in this volume provide the reader with a valuable glimpse into the importance of food, drink, and the consumption of both within the political, religious, and social contexts of the proto-Byzantine and Byzantine world.
Silke Trzcionka August 2004
Link
Press Here
0 التعليقات :
إرسال تعليق