SC - feasting and religion (longish)

[david friedman]

>As to appropriate behaviour when confronted with an array of food 
>which your persona can't eat, most of the mundane people here who 
>encounter the same problem tend to sit in a corner toying with a 
>glass of water and looking miserable and apologetic.  Admittedly we 
>pay for feasts, but that is to cover the food costs the SCA can't 
>bear.  When we get to the feast, as a rule, we behave as though we 
>are the guests of whoever is giving the feast, and we can't throw a 
>tantrum about not being provided for if we are a guest.

We can't throw a tantrum, but we can make casual remarks designed to 
reflect our persona's attitudes. When I am being Cariadoc I sometimes 
ask whether a dish contains any unclean meat. If asked to explain, I 
sometimes respond that Muslims are not permitted pork or manflesh. 
There was actually a widely reported incident of mass cannibalism by 
a crusader army at about Cariadoc's time (whether it happened I don't 
know, but it was reported by sources on both sides), leading to the 
view that Franks, or at least some Franks, were cannibals.

>There is also another side to religion and feasting, which I hadn't 
>anticipated:  a friend of ours from Gaza (the one we visited the 
>weekend before the Intifada struck) came to dinner and was 
>uncomfortable with looking at our hands.  The reason?  Apparently 
>Muslims don't eat with their left hand, because in the Koran it says 
>this is the way you can tell demons - they do use their left hand 
>for food.

That's one of the things I do to remind myself that I am Cariadoc 
rather than David--eat only with my right hand. Once in a while I 
find myself doing the same thing in a mundane context that involves 
eating with the hands, such as an Indian restaurant.

I don't know whether the explanation you give is correct or not; I 
haven't seen it before. I had assumed it reflected sanitary 
considerations. In a society where water is often scarce, using one 
hand for eating and another for all unclean purposes makes a good 
deal of sense.
- -- 
David/Cariadoc
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/