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Religion And Food (Relg 019) Syllabus, Yvonne Patricia Chireau

Scott Arboretum Curricular Grants

Religion and Food is an introduction to the academic study of religion, in which we focus on food as the primary motif for investigating the world’s religious traditions. We will read cases from Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Meso-american, Native American and African-based traditions in different periods and places, and from different points of view. The driving questions that will consume us this semester are: what is Religion? How does one study “it?” How is food conceived in the study of Religion? This includes metaphors of eating, styles of eating, material substances, not-eating/fasting, diet practices, rituals of food service, food arts, and …