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Blog #5
A Natural History Of the Senses
Taste 


      Ive always been aware of how social a practice the act of eating and tasting food is. However, I find it extremely interesting how closely linked the relationship between peace and food is. Historically it is the same, with famous examples like thanksgiving, (I am aware that thanksgiving wasn't really as peaceful as we perceive it to be in today's society) and just other miscellaneous examples like in Roman culture and Renaissance culture. Why is this? Or rather, when did this relationship first come about? If not an inherent correlation, what started this peaceful energy we feel when we dine with someone else, or a group of others?


        Asking myself the questions above brought me to this famous scene, or painting shown above. The picture obviously shows that there is a decent amount of tension and a heavy debate going on, however, the fact that this picture is so famous and is a scene of Jesus and his apostles dinning together perhaps provides a piece of the bigger puzzle as to why we consider (whether or not it is an unconscious realization) eating with someone to be a symbol of peace between us/them. Logically, it doesn't make sense to eat with someone you dislike, or someone that dislikes you...For obvious reasons it would most likely interfere with the pleasure that one gets from eating a meal. But what makes "breaking bread" with someone such a powerful symbol of togetherness? Perhaps it goes back to our animalistic instinct, if you hunt in a pack you are most likely to share the food with the pack. Perhaps it is just instinctual and coincides with the fact that we are naturally social beings. But perhaps it goes much deeper than this and we associate eating and peace as a result of how intimate eating really is, most of us just fail to realize how much of a relationship can really exist between someone and what they eat, as well as who we eat in the presence of. But it is also possible that we link eating and peace as a result of famous art, historical peace treaties and other influential examples that unmistakably tie the two together. I would definitely be interested to explore this connection further.

VIDEO:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N42c52lCQNc
This link above talks about the science behind taste, (its a pretty dull video to be honest) but it does shed some light on how cognitive a process taste really is.

Comments

  1. Jonathan Brumberg-KrausApril 9, 2015 at 2:34 PM

    I too am fascinated by the power of a shared meal to sometimes mitigate the tensions and conflicts between people participating at them. Clearly the accounts of the Last Supper call attention to this, not only in Jesus pointing out that "one of you [at the table] will betray me," but also in the disciples (at least in Luke's account of the Last Supper) arguing over who is the best. Or the taboo against harming one's dinner guests, which is also clearly often violated in real life and literature, like in "the Red Banquet" in Game of Thrones.

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