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Books > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history
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Taste or Taboo - Dietary Choices in Antiquity (Paperback)
Loot Price: R392
Discovery Miles 3 920
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Taste or Taboo - Dietary Choices in Antiquity (Paperback)
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Loot Price R392
Discovery Miles 3 920
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
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For many centuries the meaning of food has been much more than
merely nutrition on the table. The types of food a man eats, the
ways in which he cooks it, the style in which it is served: all
these carry their own significance which is extended by
contemporary and later observers to describe the identity of the
unwitting eater. This book looks at the way in which food was
employed in Greek and Roman literature to impart identity, whether
social, individual, religious or ethnic. In many instances these
markers are laid down in the way that foods were restricted, in
other words by looking at the negatives instead of the positives of
what was consumed. Michael Beer looks at several aspects of food
restriction in antiquity, for example, the way in which they
eschewed excess and glorified the simple diet; the way in which
Jewish dietary restriction identified that nation under the Empire;
the way in which Pythagoreans denied themselves meat (and beans);
and the way in which the poor were restricted by economic reality
from enjoying the full range of foods. These topics allow him to
look at important aspects of Graeco-Roman social attitudes. For
example, republic virtue, imperial laxity, Homeric and Spartan
military valour, social control through sumptuary laws, and answers
to excessive drinking. He also looks closely at the inherent divide
of the Roman world between the twin centres of Greece and Rome and
how it is expressed in food and its consumption. The book is
written for the intelligent and educated reader but does not rely
on quotations in the original Latin or Greek. It is fully
referenced and indexed.
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