Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. Food and Society in Classical Antiquity
  • Cited by 217
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
June 2012
Print publication year:
1999
Online ISBN:
9780511612534
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511612534
Subjects:
Ancient History, Classical Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology
Series:
Key Themes in Ancient History
Information

Book description

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.

Reviews

‘… this is a survey of generous range and wide reference, drawing its emphases from the trends of modern research … not only will this be an indispensable handbook for students; all ancient historians will learn from it.’

Source: Journal of Hellenic Studies

‘… it is intellectually challenging and the range is great: in short a delight.’

Source: Petits Propos Culinaires

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

Contents

Contents

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Book summary page views

Total views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.