Description
Book SynopsisThis volume brings together the work of scholars using various methodologies to investigate the prevalence, importance, and meanings of feasting and foodways in the texts and cultural-material environments of the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East. Thus, it serves as both an introduction to and explication of this emerging field. The offerings range from the third-millennium Early Dynastic period in Mesopotamia to the rise of a new cuisine in the Islamic period and transverse geographical locations such as southern Iraq, Syria, the Aegean, and especially the southern Levant.
The strength of this collection lies in the many disciplines and methodologies that come together. Texts, pottery, faunal studies, iconography, and anthropological theory are all accorded a place at the table in locating the importance of feasting as a symbolic, social, and political practice. Various essays showcase both new archaeological methodologies—zooarchaeological bone analysis and spatial analysis—and classical methods such as iconographic studies, ceramic chronology, cultural anthropology, and composition-critical textual analysis.
Table of ContentsPreface
Abbreviations
Feasting: Backgrounds, Theoretical Perspectives, and Introductions (Janling Fu and Peter Altmann)
Conspicuous Consumption: Dining on Meat in the Ancient Mediterranean World and Near East (Jodi Magness)
Feasts on Many Occasions: Diversity in Mesopotamian Banquet Scenes during the Early Dynastic Period (Steve Renette)
The Next Level and the Final Stage: Consistency and Change in the Provision of Meals for the Dead in Their Different Stages of Existence and the Accompanying Feasting Acts of the Living, as Evidenced at Mari, Qatna, and Ugarit (Sarah Lange)
Power to Unite and Power to Divide: Sacred Feasting and Social Change at Iron II Tel Dan (Jonathan S. Greer)
Menu: Royal Repasts and Social Class in Biblical Israel (Carol Meyers)
Feast and Famine: Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives on Lack as a Backdrop for Plenty in the Hebrew Bible (Peter Altmann)
Feasting and Everyday Meals in the World of the Hebrew Bible: The Relationship Reexamined through Material Culture and Texts (Leann Pace)
The Role of the Household in the Religious Feasting of Ancient Israel and Judah (Cynthia Shafer-Elliott)
Feasting and Foodways in Psalm 23 and the Contribution of Redaction Criticism to the Interpretation of Meals (Klaus-Peter Adam)
Bibliography
Indexes
