THINQon : Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women (The New Historicism

Kitchen Nutrition Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women (The New Historicism

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Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women (The New Historicism

Latest Post: March 12, 2010 at 7:50 PM

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I came across the following passage in Caroline Walker Bynum's fascinating book "Holy Feast and Holy Fast" and thought it might give a way into the general question of wildness:

"Medieval people saw food and body as sources of life, repositories of sensation. Thus food and body signified generativity and suffering. ...

In contrast, modern people see food and body as resources to be controlled. Thus food and body signify that which threatens human mastery. They signify the untamed, the rebellious, the excessive, the proliferating. Messages modern women absorb from the popular culture of magazine advertisements and television urge them to control their bodies with deodorants, tranquilizers, headache remedies, diets, etc. Breasts are not, to modern people, symbols of food. The onset of puberty is not an occasion for rejoicing by an adolescent girl and her parents. Menstruation is less a prelude to creativity and affectivity than a frightening sign of vulnerability. Body and food are thus symbols of the failure of our efforts to control our selves." (from the Epilogue)

Would be very interested to hear how others respond to this.

Books Discussed

Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women (The New Historicism
by Caroline Walker Bynum

Reply to:

corrie watt

March 12, 2010 at 7:50 PM

3 followers

I guess not having a TV or reading popular magazines has its good points: less inundation with the latest and greatest diets, attitudes, body images, etc.
I see my body as a fascinating (albeit degenerating neurologically) place to live. I have always (since adult sense kicked in) tried to understand it and be reasonably kind to it. I love food and the preparation of food; this is an attitude my children have left home with. Food is never a negative thing in my house, never something we need to "avoid and control". It is fun, delicious (or maybe just OK), and good to share with friends.
It is difficult to avoid being shaped by popular culture, but an awareness of the very fact that this is happening should help one reflect on the choices one makes, and why a particular choice might be a good or bad one, or a knee-jerk response to the current fads of popular culture. We really do have the ability to think critically. Whether we bother to engage our brains is another question.