MAR 24

16. MAR 24

Assigned Work (Heavy Reading Day)

• Lauden, Rachel. Remainder of Chapter 1, "Mastering Grain Cooking" (42-59; 17).
• Soler, Jean. "The Semiotics of Food in the Bible" (55-66; 11)
• Watch Mother Noella segment from Pollan's "Cooked" series (video file in Shared folder)

Soler, Jean. "The Semiotics of Food in the Bible"

• How do we explain the dietary rules of Hebrews? (and by extension, JCI tradition)

• Background thesis: link between diet and view of the world. "a relationship between the idea he has formed of specific items of food and the image he has of himself and his place in the universe." (note: this was partly at issue in SW2 this term.) Some theoretical nods to Levi-Strauss (see his work, "The Raw and the Cooked").

• Soler gives a detailed account of the transitions through "three plates" of Judaism:

• 1st plate: Biblical vegetarianism p. 56. -- God gave us plants and seeds to eat. (soul not immortal till 2nd cent bc, external concept) Paradise was vegetarian.

• Creation in the image of God, yet not God. Need to maintain boundary. Note the transgression found in duality of "tree of life/tree of knowledge" Elohim expresses concern that, having violated God's prohibition regarding tree of life, man might seek to usurp God. Likewise, to eat an animal with a soul would be a usurpation of God's power to take and give life. Diff bt man and God in the food.

• 2nd plate: Post-flood, covenant with Noah: eat anything but not "flesh with its life"

• Still, meat has negative connotation, concession to imperfection in man. The flood was a response to murder, mayhem, and corruption of man.
• Blood is theorized as the prohibited part. Often part of sacrifice.

• 3rd plate: Post exile covenant with Moses: adds distinction between clean and unclean animals. Still, meat allowed as concession to man's moral imperfection.

• Note: This covenant is only with the tribes of Israel. Food as cultural and cosmic separator. (Note contemporary analogues. Intentional diets, diets that maintain ethnicity.)

• In Numbers, reports of Hebrews rebelling (wanting to eat their flocks, which would presumably be for dairy?). Miracle of the quails p. 59. Hebrews ultimately tolerate meat eating, with focus on prohibition of blood and attention to slaughter methods, sacrifice.

• Passover meal getting back to food origins. 61-62.

• Moral Order and Food Order

• Notion of moral order also applied to "mixed" marriages, prohibition of homosexuality, even to having an ox and an ass ploughing together.
• "hoofed foot" "cloven foot" "chews the cud" -- effort to excluding carnivorous animals. (carnivorous animals out, fish with legs out, winged insects are freaks, Eating deformed animals excluded. Priest can't have crushed testicles (!). Similar reasoning. (more at 63) - excluding mollusks, birds that don't fly, snakes...

• Clean or pure eating involves going back to origins and God's original intent for creation ). Hence exclusion of "blemished" or "unnatural" animals. Note that generally carnivorous animals are not part of the creation plan and Hebrew dietary guidelines try to isolate herbivores.

• But Hebrews didn't go back to original vegetarianism, rather to nomad hunter/gatherer diet. Passover meal "bitter herbs and meat" no agricultural products, no leavening for bread (back to grain pastes!), nothing fermented. food of the patriarchs. Food of the origins is taken to be sacred eating.

• Sacrifice not just about sorting God's share from ours, but atoning for taking the life of the animal. (Meat retains some negative meanings.)

• Christianity comes in as an evangelical religion, so it must break with dietary laws of the Jews. Christ declares all food clean (Mark 7:19). "Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man" (Matthew 15:11). Peter's vision of being commanded to eat clean and unclean animals. Goes with a theology of Christ, fusion of man/god. Also, an evangelizing religion cannot really focus on dietary exclusions. Consuming the blood and flesh of God become part of a sacrament. (That pretty much brings things around to a full circle!)

• This recent NPR story about the book Fish on Fridays tells the story of the Catholic medieval promotion of fishing-fasting days and the later decline in the fish market with Anglican church politics. [1]

• Discussion directions:

• To what extent does "sustainability" provide a criterion of "trophic eating" similar to Hebrew food theology?

• Does the choice between industrial and organic eating comprise choices in contemporary "culinary cosmos"?

• Does the Christian decision to "eat God" have implications for contemporary Christian's culinary cosmos?

• Slaughterhouse question:

Mother Noella Cheese Segment from "Cooked"

• Story Mother Noella and the appreciation of creation through cheese. The bacteria come from the earth, from death, and hold the promise of nourishing life! A good example of culinary cosmos thinking.
• Story of the wooden cheese vat. Background on dangers of pre-industrial milk and cheese processing. She switches to steel barrel and gets ecoli bacteria. Experiment. Lactobacillus in the wood digest lactose in milk, turns to lactic acid which kills the ecoli bacteria. Health inspectors relent.
• Loss with "blank slate" processing. Less diversity of bacteria, less diversity of flavor.
• [US limits importation of soft cheeses, like soft Percorino.]
• US approach - lowest quality milk goes into industrial cheese making.
• Handling of cheese during fermentation determines flavor profiles and texture. "Feet of God"
• Mother Noella at 17:30. Death and the promise of life. Resurrection.
• Connection between cheese ecology and other ecologies like fields to forests.
• War and peace on the cheese rind!