Commensality: From Everyday Food to Feast

Throughout time and in every culture, human beings have eaten together. Commensality - eating and drinking at the same table - is a fundamental social activity, which creates and cements relationships. It also sets boundaries, including or excluding people according to a set of criteria defined by the society. Particular scholarly attention has been paid to banquets and feasts, often hosted for religious, ritualistic or political purposes, but few studies have considered everyday commensality. Commensality: From Everyday Food to Feast offers an insight into this social practice in all its forms, from the most basic and mundane meals to the grandest occasions. Bringing together insights from anthropologists, archaeologists and historians, this volume offers a vast historical scope, ranging from the Late Neolithic period (6th millennium BC), through the Middle Ages, to the present day. The sixteen chapters include case studies from across the world, including the USA, Bolivia, China, Southeast Asia, Iran, Turkey, Portugal, Denmark and the UK. Connecting these diverse analyses is an understanding of commensality’s role as a social and political tool, integral to the formation of personal and national identities. From first experiences of commensality in the sharing of food between a mother and child, to the inaugural dinner of the American president, this collection of essays celebrates the variety of human life and society.

Since 2004 Lektor (Associate Professor) in Near Eastern Archaeology at the Carsten-Niebuhr-Section (TORS) in Copenhagen, Denmark (head of section 2005-2010); previously part-time lecturer at Free University in Berlin and several short-term contracts (analysis of archaeological material and field-directorship) for the German Archaeological Institute (DAI). Dr.phil (Craft specialisation and social organisation in the Southern Levant) in 1998 at Freie Universität Berlin. From 1990-1995 director at the German Protestant Institute for Archaeology and History in Amman (Jordan); 1988-1990 assistant director at the same institution.
Since 1990 director or co-director of over 10 excavations and survey seasons in Jordan (e.g. "The Desert and the Sown in Northern Jordan (DSNJ)", Umm Qais, Abu Snesleh).Numerous lectures at international conferences, organisation of exhibitions and conferences (e.g. "Food and Identity" in Copenhagen [with Cynthia Chou and Morten Warmind]; "Climate and Ancient Society" in Copenhagen, "Adaptation of Archaeological Methods in Near Eastern Archaeology" in Berlin).
Research focus: social complexity, food and identity, theoretical archaeology, rituals. Teaching: courses on Prehistory and History of Near Eastern Archaeology, Social Organisation, Food, Ritual, Commensality, Gender at undergraduate and graduate level.

Cynthia Chou, Associate Professor with Special Qualifications (Lektor msk), social anthropologist, Head of Southeast Asian Studies, KU-ToRS. She is internationally known for her pioneering study of the life and lifestyles, as well as identity and change, of the indigenous Malays in Southeast Asia. She single-handedly built the Malay maritime life collection for the Singapore National Museum and has published highly cited books in this area which are used by several universities as textbooks. At KU, she initiated and directed several innovative programs of co-operation, both in research and education, with leading international institutions for which she has won various international prizes. Courses that she has been teaching at the University of Copenhagen include "The Anthropology of Food and Eating in Southeast Asia," "Modernisation and Development: The Human Landscape of Southeast Asia," and "Introduction to Southeast Asia Culture."

Since 2001 Lektor (Associate Professor) in Sociology of Religion at the History of Religions-section (TORS) in Copenhagen, Denmark; before part-time lecturer at Aarhus University (1992-1997), Odense University (1990) and Copenhagen University (1992-1995). PhD ("From severed heads to valkyries, studies in the relationship between Celtic and Germanic religions and literatures") in 1997 at Copenhagen University, Department of Folklore. From 2003-2006 Head of Studies at the Dept. For History of Religion, Copenhagen University; 2006- present Head of Studies for ToRS.
Numerous lectures at international conferences.
Research focus: Prehistoric religions (Celtic and Germanic), Hellenism (esp. Early Christianity), religious minorities in modern Denmark, religious change.
Teaching: Courses on Sociological Method and Theory, Celtic and Germanic Religion, Islam, Hellenistic religions at graduate and undergraduate level.