Religion and Food

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Foodwhat people eat, avoid, and prepare for gods andancestorscommands intense attention among religious practitioners around the world. This course adopts a comparative approach to the question, What can studying food tell us about religion? We begin with classical Hindu discourses, moving from the most ancient sources concerning sacrifice to debates about nonviolence (and theirimplications for peoples diets). We also explore commensality: whom you break bread with and whom you exclude. We then delve into Afro-Diasporic religions and how West African deities appetites construct their identities. Cooking the gods soul food is revealedto be a gendered and racialized ritual no less meaningful than the sharing of sacred meals.