《无尽的盛宴》内容简介
古代人是怎么吃喝的?古代的“饭局”是什么样的?读者在本书中能收获身临其境的答案。
过往的食物研究大多集中在近代代的欧洲,本书则把时间往前拨至古代并将目光投向东方,除古希腊外,美索不达米亚、亚述、波斯、蒙古、中国商代和日本平安时期都属于食物研究尚未深入的领域。
本书是“第一部探究古代饮宴活动的历史人类学专著”,它梳理了食物研究这个跨学科门类的发展历程,并为未来的研究提供了范本,学术价值不可小觑。
宴会在整个人类历史和世界各个地区都居于生活的核心。无数幽灵般的盛宴的遗骸充塞了世界各大博物馆——曾经堆放丰盛肉食的盘子、倾倒佳酿的陶罐、用长长的金制或天青石吸管从中啜饮的啤酒罐、能够制作上百人份食物的大锅。
《无尽的盛宴》是一部开创性著作,利用人类学、考古学和历史学方法来考察一些以壮丽宏大闻名的伟大古代社会中饮宴的动力。我们可以从中看到,宴会如何成为展示阶级、地位和权力的竞技场,贵族谈判的舞台,调动和分配资源的场合,取悦神明的手段,以及身份被创造、融合与毁灭的地方。
作者简介
[英]香里·奥康纳(1945—2022),英国伦敦大学人类学系高级研究员。专注于通过结合考古手段与历史学而研究物质文化、时尚和食物人类学。著有《英式早餐:国宴档案与食谱》,2009年荣获苏菲·科尔饮食史奖。
An introduction to the Endless Feast
How did ancient people eat and drink? What was the "dinner party" like in ancient times? Readers will find immersive answers in this book.
While most previous studies of food have focused on modern Europe, this book moves back in time and looks east. In addition to ancient Greece, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Persia, Mongolia, China's Shang Dynasty, and Japan's Heian Period are all areas of food research that have yet to be explored.
This book is "the first historical anthropological monograph to investigate ancient banquets", which reviews the development of the interdisciplinary field of food studies and provides a model for future research, which is of great academic value.
Feasts have been at the heart of life throughout human history and in every region of the world. The remains of countless ghoulish feasts fill the world's museums - plates where rich meats were once stored, clay POTS where wine was poured, beer cans sipped from long gold or lapis lazuli straws, cauldrons that could have served hundreds of people.
The Endless Feast is a groundbreaking work that uses anthropological, archaeological, and historical methods to examine the dynamics of feasting in some of the great ancient societies known for their grandeur. We can see how feasts became arenas for class, status, and power, arenas for aristocratic negotiation, occasions for mobilizing and distributing resources, means of pleasing the gods, and places where identities were created, merged, and destroyed.
About the author
Shanri O 'Connor (1945-2022) was a senior research fellow at the Department of Anthropology, University of London. It focuses on material culture, fashion and food anthropology by combining archaeological methods with history. Author of The English Breakfast: State Dinner Archives and Recipes, winner of the Sophie Cole Prize for the History of Food in 2009.