Food Rituals Research Articles

Jongka, the traditional Korean family: Exploring jongka food in the context of Korean food categories

BackgroundJongka food is the implementation of banka food in jongka, where in banka food stems from royal cuisine that has been passed on to yangban (nobleman) family. Jongka food is historically passed down, and connects different time periods between generations in the same spatial context of jongka, is a traditional Korean family system, where the eldest sons have kept their family lineage alive through generations dating over 400 years since the mid-Chosun era. Jongka bulcheonwi stems from Korea; however, its Confucian ceremonial culture now only remains in Korea. MethodsThis study examines the concept and formation process of jongka, and introduces everyday family food, as well as old cookbooks that contain their recipes. The bulcheonwi ceremony table-setting and ancestral ritual food, as seen in actual jongka sites, are also described. ResultsThis study has examined 6 types of food in six different jongka houses, passed down through jongbu, were analyzed. Thus, the importance of discovering more jongka food, and recording such findings, is emphasized. Moreover, the bulcheonwi ancestral ritual food table setting through three-dimensional maps and a layout plan from two jongka ispresented. Pyeon (䭏) and jeok (炙), which are parts of ancestral ritual food, and carry different meanings for different families, were introduced, presenting examples from four jongka. Moreover, existing literature was assessed to identify the sources of jeok building principles and theoretical backgrounds. ConclusionJongson and jongbu have protected the jongtaek (noble house), and inherited their family’s foods by living by bongjesa (奉祭祀) and jeopbinkaek (接賓客). It is important to continuously discover and record of jongka and ancestral ritual foods used in bulcheonwi. This study aims to allow society to perceive jongka as a unique Korean cultural heritage that all of society protects and shares, instead of regarding them as families with old histories. (For further clarification on the terms mentioned in this article, please see “Supplementary file”.)

The Use of Family Rituals in Eating Behaviors in Hispanic Mothers.

Food rituals often abruptly change when Hispanic families migrate to the United States. This report describes changes in rituals of food procurement, preparation, and presentation (food-PPP) in Hispanic women following migration to the United States. Focus groups and face-to-face interviews were conducted with 13 low-income, overweight/obese Hispanic women 27 to 40 years of age. Content analysis was used to analyze cultural and contextual sources for food-PPP. Changes in rituals and traditions in food-PPP occurred, including materials and ingredients for traditional meals. Food rituals may play a role in healthful eating and could, therefore, serve as leverage points for interventions designed to promote healthy eating behaviors.

TÜRK MİTOLOJİSİNDE VE İNANIŞLARINDA YİYECEKLERİN YERİ

The most important elements that determine the identity and characteristics of a nation are the people, beliefs they have taken from history, culture and geography. When the Central Asian Turkish culture is examined, various beliefs and practices appear around Shamanism and Göktürk belief. In these beliefs, it is noteworthy that myths, spirits and extraordinary creatures as well as food items are related to mythological beings. This study aimed to reveal the rituals and legends realized with food items in Central Asian Turkish societies. Studies on Central Asian Turkish societies are generally considered as a whole. In this study, more information about the food rituals done for spirits and beliefs is given. The evaluation of mythological beings together with food has been considered important in contributing to this issue in the literature. Literature search method was used in qualitative research methods. The sources obtained in the literature are examined and the information obtained is compiled. In the light of the information obtained, it has been seen that the Central Asian Turkish societies organized different rituals in daily life, in death ceremonies, in sacrifices, in baby births and in order to ask abundance from god. In these rituals, it has been reached that food is not only used as a food substance but also used as a protective substance against mythological beings.

Ритуальные угощения в русских свадебных обрядах Удмуртии

The article is devoted to the analysis of ritual treats in Russian wedding ceremonies in southern and central regions of modern Udmurtia. Based on the study of field materials collected by the author in folklore expeditions in the territory of Udmurtia and published sources of researchers of Russian folklore of Udmurtia, the etiquette of treats in a traditional wedding ceremony is considered. It is indicated that the features of ritual treats are reflected in the names of some wedding episodes. A review of the codes of the ritual involved in the wedding feasts is made. The types of the use of ritual drinks in the wedding ceremony are considered. The descriptions of the meals at the wedding table in the bride’s house are given. The tradition of drinking the “wedding” wine is considered. The study reveals that praying, groomsman’s sayings, singing of velichaniya and wedding songs, some kinetic acts - bypassing a table, tipping over glasses, throwing coins in the water, dancing with kurnik - served as a consecration of the food. The fragments of the wedding ritual, in which the numerical symbolism is clearly shown, are characterized. Special attention is paid to the symbolism of the wedding table. There are semantic connections between the wedding table and the bride. The question is raised about the role of woven items - scarves, tablecloths, handkerchiefs, sheets - in the design of wedding feasts. Typological similarities of ritual food in the Russian, Udmurt and Besermyan traditional cultures are revealed.

THE FOOD IN THE SOCIALIZATION PROCESS: INTIMATE AND EXTIMATE

The article is devoted to the meaning of the food for socialization, socio-cultural identification of the human. Sociality of Human is not a simple natural phenomenon, the process of socialization is mediated by various ritual practices. As a universal indicator of the social being, the article deals with food, since it combines the vital necessity for a human as a natural organism and socio-cultural significance of common meals, beyond which no socially important event passes. It is argued that food/table traditions define of social structures, cultural diversity and social-cultural identity. It is noted that the meal is always common. In society food is excluded alone, unlike other natural processes, which appear as exclusively intimate. The process of inclusion (as well as exclusion) into a specific community/genus is marked through the ritual, through the formation and strict observance of table manners and the diet. The process of civilization is generally associated with the normalization of everyday life, which leads to the standardization of food and eating of the feast to overcome the aversion to Another, in order to make it possible of coexistence. Nutrition proves the unevenness and some limited of social relations, defining of the space of intimacy/privacy, access to which is in some measure limited (by age, gender, status, class, money). On the other hand, the expansion, extimation of this space occur during of the collective initiation rituals or in the ethos of hospitality. Thus, the transformation of the food rituals reveals the dialectic of acceptance and disgust, aufheben of which is carried out against the backdrop of cultural averaging, which characterizes the modern society. In the article, the influence of the food rituals on socialization is specified in the definition of the function of potlatch and initiation, the meaning of which is revealed only through a food, which is the material basis of a certain community.

Food Rituals and Their Social Significance in the Mid‐Second Millennium BC in the Southern Levant: A View From Megiddo

AbstractCeremonies involving intentional burial of animals with humans are acknowledged to bear religious, social and political connotations, and we explored both the ritual activity and the social trajectory of these activities. To date, these ceremonies have rarely been examined within the context of nearby daily activities. We studied faunal remains associated with intramural burials in comparison with contemporaneous daily life in the midsecond millennium bc at Tel Megiddo, as well as comparison with concomitant extramural burials and locations of public feasts. Our study highlights the human interaction with animals that are not often treated as bearing social meaning or having interrelationships with human, the livestock animals. We demonstrate that livestock animals in the second millennium bc had a significant social role as well as economic value. The choice of animals consumed and sacrificed in these rituals is strongly related to the animal's symbolic potency and is based on the desired social message that the population aims to convey. Finally, the form of luxury food that is found in the Megiddo funerary rituals supports the hypothesis regarding the intramural burials' role in creating and enhancing social family bonds. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

굿 의례음식: 무속 설명체계의 하나

굿 의례음식: 무속 설명체계의 하나

Re-membering community: ritual exchange in Williamsburg’s questua

The questua is one of the several processions in the neighbourhoods of Greenspoint/Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and falls into the category of performance known as a façade performance. This procession is embedded within the festa, a series of cultural events that draws former residents of the neighbourhood, annual visitors and newcomers to the parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. It includes the coronation Mass on the opening of the nine-day novena to the patron saint of the parish, and culminates in a procession with a statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on her feast day of July 16. The questua, or bread distribution, takes place on the Saturday before the giglio (a tall, hand-crafted, tower-like structure) procession and includes long-time parish members and newcomers. The questua contrasts with the visual allure of the dancing of the giglio, and other religious processions during the festa. Community members use ritual food exchange to connect with the parish’s history of serving Italian immigrants and also to re-member the community by creating new associations. This paper offers a description and an interpretation of the festival using a combination field work and theoretical perspective.

Tradition as the New Alternative: Organic Food Consumption and Food Related Lifestyle in China

For European and North American consumers, organic food is typically conceived of as a healthy, ethical and environmental alternative to intensively farmed food. This is unsurprising as it is generally promoted through narratives of sustainable consumption, ethical farming and bodily well being. Such narratives have had some traction where food marketing strategies are designed to reflect ethical and environmental concerns and values found within these societies. China is a huge potential market for organic and other alternative foods, particularly when considering increased per capita disposable income, a growing middle class, new and emerging cultural values of consumption, coupled with the continuing importance of formal food rituals, many of which have a long heritage and great significance in Chinese society. This paper will examine attitudes and perceptions towards organic food within China. Using a tailored Food-Related Lifestyle instrument to observe deeper consumer values, the research found that unlike the established markets for organic food (Europe, North America; Australasia) where ethical, environmental, alternative lifestyle and health concern narratives are typically relied upon to promote organic food consumption, traditional values and standards (Freshness; Traditional Sense of Family; Value Relations; Security; and, Self-fulfilment) presented the most compelling promotional narratives. In this regard, organic food consumption in China represents alternative food consumption, not as an alternative to traditional food production, but as an alternative to recent food production and processing trends perceived of in negative terms, a perception with important implications for policy makers and marketing managers engaged in the food sector in China.

Early newborn ritual foods correlate with delayed breastfeeding initiation in rural Bangladesh.

BackgroundEarly and exclusive breastfeeding may improve neonatal survival in low resource settings, but suboptimal breastfeeding still exists in areas with high infant mortality. Prelacteal feeding, the practice of giving a non-breastmilk food as a neonate’s first food, has been associated with suboptimal breastfeeding practices. We examined the association of feeding a non-breastmilk food in the first three days of life (early neonatal food, or ENF) with time from birth to initiation of breastfeeding among 25,286 Bangladeshi mother-neonate pairs, in a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial in northwestern rural Bangladesh conducted from 2001–2007.MethodsTrained interviewers assessed the demographic characteristics during pregnancy. At three months postpartum, the interviewers visited participants again and retrospectively assessed demographic and breastfeeding characteristics surrounding the birth. We assessed the relationship between ENF and time to initiation of breastfeeding in hours in both unadjusted and adjusted linear regression analyses. We also calculated reverse cumulative distribution curves for time to initiation of breastfeeding and analyses were stratified by an infant’s ability to breastfeed normally at birth.ResultsThe mean ± SD time from birth to initiation of breastfeeding was 30.6 ± 27.9 hours. Only 2,535 (10.0%) of women reported initiating breastfeeding in the first hour after birth and 10,207 (40.4%) reported initiating breastfeeding in the first 12 hours after birth. In adjusted linear regression analyses, feeding ENF was associated with a significant increase in time, in hours, to breastfeeding initiation both among children not able to breastfeed at birth (37.4; 95% CI 33.3, 41.5) and among children able to breastfeed at birth (13.3; 95% CI 12.7, 14.0).ConclusionsFeeding ENF was strongly associated with delayed initiation of breastfeeding, even after adjusting for other related factors and stratifying on the neonate’s ability to suckle normally after birth. More research is needed to understand the impact of these findings on optimal breastfeeding in this setting. It is possible that ENF feeding and the ability to breastfeed immediately after birth are interrelated in their respective associations to suboptimal breastfeeding initiation. This study in a large population representative of other populations in rural South Asia, demonstrates significantly longer times to breastfeeding initiation than previously appreciated, with a possible important role of ENF feeding.Trial registrationThe randomized controlled trial on which this analysis is based, “Impact of Maternal Vitamin A or Beta-Carotene Supplementation on Maternal and Infant Mortality in Bangladesh”, was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov as trial number ID GHS-A-00-03-00019-00 and identifier NCT00198822. The identifier was first received September 12, 2005 (retrospectively registered). The first participant was enrolled in August 2001.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13006-016-0090-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

American Writers in Europe: 1850 to the Present

American Writers in Europe: 1850 to the Present

Analysis of Trends and Contents of Ancestral Ritual Foods of Korean Jong-ga

Analysis of Trends and Contents of Ancestral Ritual Foods of Korean Jong-ga

Fostering social relationships through food rituals in a New Zealand school

Purpose– Food practices, including associated routines, rituals, and habits, are an unexplored area in school health promotion. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap through exploring how food rituals act as vehicles for young people to establish, maintain, and strengthen social relationships.Design/methodology/approach– Through an ethnographic inquiry, including observations and interviews with teachers and 16-18 years old students in New Zealand, everyday practices were explored in-depth across one school year.Findings– The findings include three food rituals as significant for young people in managing their social relationships, including the lunch walk, ritualised sharing, and gifting food. The findings highlight the importance of everyday food rituals for young people’s social relationships. For instance, gifting cake mediated care to friends, showed trust in the relationship, and allowed to reciprocate; the lunch walk encouraged social interaction and was a means by which young people could integrate into a new group; and ritualised sharing food involved negotiating friendship boundaries.Research limitations/implications– The study is exploratory with findings reported from one school. Further research exploring how young people use food rituals in their everyday lives for managing social relationships is needed.Originality/value– A focus on social relationships in settings such as schools could broaden the scope of nutrition promotion to promote health in physical, mental, and social dimensions. Implications for school health promotion are discussed.

Study on Jeok of Jong-ga Ancestral Ritual Food

This research intended to conduct literary research on `Jeok` of 25 jong-ga through Jong-ga Ancestral Ritual Formalities and Food, published by the Cultural Heritage National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage during 2003~2008, and compared and analyzed an arranging method and recipe transmission process by directly visiting four Jong-ga. Religious ceremony foods of Jong-ga could be divided according to the standard of the hakpa attribute (large), regional attribute (midium), and family attribute (small), which forms a complex connection structure between the attributes. `Jeok` arranging form is divided into `3-Jeok building method (vertical structure)`, `3-Jeok arrangement method (horizontal structure)`, `3-Jeok replacement method`, `2-Jeok arrangement method`, `Jeon-Jeok arrangement method`, and `Others-Jeok arrangement method`. Generally, `jeok` arrangement order per hakpa is in the order of `meat jeok - chicken jeok - fish jeok` in case of Gihohakpa, whereas Yeongnamhakpa is in the order of `fish jeok - meat jeok - chicken jeok`. Umoringye (羽毛鱗介), the method of laying `dojeok` of the Gyeongbuk region, could be found in the 2nd century B.C. Chinese ancient book Hoenamja and the theoretical background was Yin and yang philosophy (陰陽論). This research has significance in terms of securing advanced results compared to advanced research that has so far concentrated on some regions and hakpas.

Dining Etiquette and Aesthetics in the Early Mughal Period (1504–1605 CE)

This paper explores the various norms of dining etiquettes and food aesthetics practiced by Early Mughal period in the time of the first three Mughal kings, Babur (1504–1530), Humayun (1530 -1556) and Akbar (1556 -1605). Studying the processes of constant change in their food habits, adab, and rituals over the period of time, this paper explains the extent of influence of the Turko-Mongol predecessors on early Mughal food habits and rituals, the influence of the dining etiquettes and customs in the construction of political authority, social identities and norms of civility and the role of food aesthetics in the construction of esteem and class-distinction.

An ethnobotanical study on wild medicinal plants sold in the local markets at both sides of the Bulgarian – Turkish border

Local markets in urban areas nowadays are refuges for traditional knowledge (TK) and places for disseminating of new knowledge and practices about medicinal plants. [1, 2]. This study aims to investigate the diversity of wild medicinal plants sold in local markets at both sides of the Bulgarian-Turkish border and to understand their role for the local people in prevention, treatment and healing. Data was collected through 2011 – 2014 from local markets by free-listed observations and semi-structured interviews. A total of 39 wild medicinal plants belonging to 18 families were documented (Bg: 28, Tr: 26), which were sold mostly dry as mono-component herbal teas. The plants were used mostly as antiseptic, to treat skin diseases, for stomach problems, cough, cold, asthma and against diabetes. Among the 17 species that overlapped in the study area, the most common species were Cotinus coggygria, Rosa canina, Urtica dioica, Hypericum perforatum, Sideritis scardica (endemic) and Tilia spp. The specific use of plants for border sub-regions can be outlined as follows: as ready prepared herbal mixtures (Bg), as sale of more fresh herbs (Tr), Urtica urens (Tr) as a cultural distinctive plant, wild fruits for healthy and ritual food (hosaf) (Tr) and some rare herbal substances (Fragaria sp., calyx) (Tr). Prunus spinosa was marked as the diabetes perspective plant. It was found in the study that there was confusion and dual use of herbal substance (dried leaves) of Thalictrum aquilegifolium, and registered herbal product, caused by insufficient or lost TK and gaps in the current processes of sustainable use of medicinal plants and management of traditional herbal medicinal products.

Making room at the table: women, Passover and the Sister Haggadah (London, British Library, MS Or. 2884)

ABSTRACTThe final folio in the illuminated sequence of the fourteenth-century Sister Haggadah (London, British Library, MS Or. 2884) depicts the family Seder, presumably modelled on the festival meal celebrated by those who commissioned the manuscript. Unlike other Seder images, that in Or. 2884 presents a centrally seated woman who, while acknowledging the viewer's gaze, samples a ritual food of Passover while the men at the Seder interact with the Haggadah volumes before them. This particular deviation from traditional Haggadah illumination presents a woman who indicates that the senses are her own special domain. This paper considers the image in view of the possibility that Or. 2884, like numerous Christian devotional manuscripts of the period, was designed to accommodate a female viewer. This particular accommodation is presented in a context replete with Jewish notions of gender, visuality and observance.

Study on Pyeon (tteok) of Jong-ga Ancestral Ritual Food

This study researched a document regarding 'Pyeon (tteok)' on 25 ancestral ritual foods through Jong-ga Ancestral ritual formalities and food, published during 2003~2008 by the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage of Cultural Heritage Administration. A after about 10 years, the transmission process of the setting and recipe was compared and analyzed in 2015 by directly visiting 4 Jong-ga. This research classified regions into 7 Gyeonggi, 4 Chungcheong, 2 Honam, and 12 Yeongnam, and classified hakpa, Gyeonggi, Chungcheong, Honam region into 13 Gihohakpa, Yeongnam region into 12 Yeongnamhakpa. The important analysis standard of ancestral ritual food was the region and hakpa, which appeared to considerably influence 'Pyeon' setting style, which represents and symbolizes family and recipe. Gihohakpa Jong-ga, which is an academic tradition that pursues practical interests, seems to highly regard practicality to adapt to changes along with the period. On the contrary, Yeongnamhakpa Jong-ga, which highly regards self-sufficiency living base and moral justification, seems to be highly conservative. Increase in Jong-ga, which utilizes mill, is the result of adaptation to the period environment such as Jongbu aging and lack of labor, etc.

Rereading Baudelaire’s “Le Cygne”

Rereading Baudelaire’s “Le Cygne” Massimo Verdicchio (bio) Baudelaire’s “Le Cygne” (1861) stands out among the other poems of Les Fleurs du mal not only for the number of studies that have been devoted to it by the best critical minds writing on poetry today,1 but also for certain characteristics of the poem that render it unique. According to F. W. Leakey, “Baudelaire’s unusual achievement and innovation in “Le Cygne” is … to have made a poem simply by setting down the thoughts that freely came into his mind at the actual moment of composition.” (38) Leakey links Baudelaire’s thoughts to the letter he wrote to Victor Hugo on December 7, 1859 that accompanied a manuscript copy of the poem. The dedication not only provided the basic structure of the poem but also its basic theme: Voici des vers faits pour vous et en pensant à vous. … Ce qui est important pour moi, c’était de dire vite tout ce qu’un accident, une image, peut contenir de suggestions, et comment la vue d’un animal souffrant pousse l’esprit vers tout les êtres que nous aimons, qui sont absents et qui souffrent, vers tous ceux qui sont privés de quelque chose d’irretrouvable. (622)2 This is the theme of exile and compassion that the poet feels for Andromache, the swan, the “négresse,” himself, the orphans, the sailors as well as the people who are either captive or vanquished and who give the poem its focus as well as its “universality.” (49, Leakey’s emphasis) According to Leakey, this is the way the poet’s thoughts speak to us, of “our problems: … about Vietnam, Biafra, Ulster, Bangladesh—about any time or place where there are orphans, exiles, [End Page 879] captives, vanquished.” (49, his emphasis) Leakey’s analysis is a good example of how “Le Cygne” has been read to date, as a poem of exile and human suffering that moves from the ancient past (Andromaque, the swan) to the present (la négresse) before reaching out to the universal, “à bien d’autres encore!” When we approach the poem without these received ideas other ways of reading present themselves. For instance, the initial allusion to Andromache (“Andromache, je pense à vous”), besides being an allusion to her suffering and mourning, can also refer to the exiled Trojans who have built a replica of the city of Troy in exile, as Virgil narrates in the Aeneid. Aeneas, on his way to Latium, stops at the hilltop town of Buthrotum where Helenus, the son of Priam has settled with Andromache, now his wife. It is here that Aeneas first sees Andromache grieving her dead husband Hector over a replica of his tomb and the river Simois: I chanced to see Andromache pouring out libationsto the dead—the ritual foods, the gifts of grief—in a grove before the city, banked by a streamthe exiles made believe was Simois River. Just nowtipping wine to her husband’s ashes, she imploredHector’s shade to visit his tomb, an empty moundof grassy earth, crowned with the double altarsshe had blessed a place to shed her tears. (3: 359-66, my emphasis) In Buthrotum, the exiled Trojans have rebuilt another Troy in imitation of their destroyed city: And as I walk, I recognize a little Troy,a miniature, mimicking our great Trojan towers,and a dried-up brook they call the river Xanthus,and I put my arms around a cut down Scaean Gate. (3: 414-17, italics mine) As the poet crosses the bridge of the new Carrousel, “Comme je traversais le nouveau Carrousel” and sees only destruction around him, the thought of Andromache stimulates his imagination, “A fécondé soudain ma mémoire fertile” with the possibility of reconstructing the old Paris that has been demolished to make way for a new city. The examples of Andromache and of the exiled Trojans serve Baudelaire as a literary model to imitate. If Virgil can tell of the exiled Trojans building a new Troy to replace their lost Troy, the poet who feels equally an exile in his own city can create the fiction of a...

Study on Ritual Food Bulcheonwi's Commercialization of Andong Kwon Clans of Choongjae Kwonbeol's Head Family

Study on Ritual Food Bulcheonwi's Commercialization of Andong Kwon Clans of Choongjae Kwonbeol's Head Family