SC - cultural food differences Was: list newbie/Seasonal food.

[Cheriti Watts]

Actually, I think that that within this wonderful game that we play, I know
very few people who would choose not to attend a feast just because their
persona in period would not have attended it (whether it be a Lenten feast,
a Norse feast, a Moorish feast, a Jewish feast or a Mongolian feast).  Most
of the people I know would go for the experience of the different culture of
food, appreciating the work that went into the research and the preparation,
and enjoy sharing in experience of their friends' persona research.  Last
year at an event, a friend of ours made posole (a mexican hominy stew
usually made with pork) for a group of us and presented the research of how
it was within period in the New World as a dish the Aztecs were preparing
before the Spaniards landed (and the substitutions they made to the recipe).
All in the name of educational experiences (and fun *grin*). My 10th century
Saxon persona is almost as unlikely to eat a French feast is she is to eat a
Moorish feast or a Jewish feast, yet I am married to someone with a Norman
persona with 'Lainie the Incorrigible Norman as an aunt.
As a non-Christian, the Christian aspect of my persona is an academic
challenge. One thing I have found in studying different religions (even in
the small pieces I've been able to study) is that (especially historically)
food always seems to be tied in some way to religion (or maybe it is both
food and religion are tied to the seasons and so together?). And food, well
in my eyes, it's an integral part of a culture itself. It's hard to study
one without touching the other at least in part. But to put these statements
into context, they are coming from the perspective of 1. a
non-denominational heathen and 2. a woman.  We all see things from our own
backgrounds (and mine says the world is food-centric; I am hard-pressed to
think of a social occasion that does not include food). Looking back at
this, it must be time for me to go to bed--I think I've reached babbling
stage.

Alban, I have a curiousity question for you to answer. Have the Jewish food
restriction rules changed/evolved through history, or stayed constant? Are
they mandated in the Torah?

Cassea

- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
[mailto:owner-sca-cooks at ansteorra.org]On Behalf Of Ted Eisenstein
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2001 9:13 PM
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: SC - list newbie/Seasonal food.



>Actually, I don't get the drift here. I mean, I can imagine anyone being
>offended by anything, definitely. But Lent isn't a 'Holy Day', and it
>wasn't then. It's a season. Furthermore, the different foods prepared
>aren't foods that are sacred to the season, but ways of dealing with
>certain restrictions. Eating unleavened bread and meals without pork would
>not be automatically offensive to a Christian persona-- except, perhaps,
>in Spain during the Inquisition, where Jewish eating habits could get you
>condemned if you were of Jewish extraction.
I must admit I am extrapolating a bit here. . .
The food restrictions that Christians have during Lent, happen because
it's a period that's important to those who follow Christianity, and those
restrictions came about for religious reasons. One can theorize that Jews
would very much not want to follow purely Christian laws/customs during
a period that occurs only for Christians, just as Christians would not have
wanted to follow kosher-for-Passover laws because they were purely
Jewish, for a Jewish religious period.
If one were a Jew who kept closely to Judaism, why would you want
to follow a purely Christian custom?


>How often, however, would Jews and Christians eat together in period?
>Documentary evidence, anyone? I suspect it did happen, but very seldom...
I have no idea - but we were talking about SCA feasts, and those who follow
their personae more closely than most of us, sort of. Would a person with a
Jewish persona want to eat a Lenten-type feast, because it follows the
pattern
of a purely Christian prototype?

Alban




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