Gods can taste too?
In class so far we have discussed the different religious connections that can be made through the senses in it's believers, but what about gods?
In Elizabeth Pérez's book Religion in the Kitchen: Cooking, Talking, and the Making of Black Atlantic Traditions she states that Caribbean gods do have senses, and that they love to experience symbols and gestures. Pérez states that their love of food dictates the ceremonial calendars of religious individuals and families and all of the labor and ritual that is involved. It is a very common thing for people among faiths from around the world to offer food to their gods, but I feel that as Westerners we rarely think about deities or God to experience the senses like we do. Pérez's book opened my eyes to a way of interpreting and understanding gods or God that I have never thought or known of. Although I am unreligious myself I realize that my assumption was that most people thought gods to be otherworldly beings that had no interest in mankind's goods or activities, I certainly never thought of them as needing food, or hungry as Pérez describes in her book. The author explains their specific likes and dislikes in dishes and the way it is prepared, the same way that we do, which to me introduces the question as to what others ways that gods might have experiences like us?
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ReplyDeleteWho wants gods that you can't relate to? ;-)
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