Abstract

FoodFoodconsumptionConsumption is one of the primary needs of the human animal, as central to our existence as, for example, sleep, sex, and the elimination of digestive waste. In most human societies, however, these last needs are met in a condition of more or less formalised and compulsory intimacy, while eating is treated as a social event, which reaches its full satisfaction in a public environment. This public dimension requires the overcoming of numerous difficulties, from the link between foodFood and the killing of animals to injustice in foodFood distribution, to the “natural” and thus potentially offensive character of foodFood ingestion. To overcome all these problems, the act of foodFoodconsumptionConsumption must be “civilized”. This happens in different ways. First, there is the preparation of foodsFood, which are rarely left in their natural state. FoodFood processing usually goes beyond the pure needs of conservation or tasteTaste, turning edible matter into “dishes”. Second, there is the choice of times, places, gatherings that transform foodFoodconsumptionConsumption into an occasion. Then there is the ordering of eating, its serialisation according to a syntagmatic axis and a paradigmatic one that often is arranged in advance by those who prepare foodFood, but actualised by those who consume it. This ordering attributes the semioticSemiotics character of a text to foodFood. But this textualisation is enhanced by the presence of paratextual elements that envelop and further “civilize” the act of eating. These are very different linguistic inserts, but also gestural and performative rules obliging both those who serve and who consume foodFood, which are specified in real grammars of eating. From these prescriptions derives also the necessity of particular devices supporting the activities of foodFoodconsumptionConsumption. All this gives foodFoodconsumptionConsumption a ceremonial aspect that makes it the object of study for anthropologists, sociologists, scholars of religions, but above all semioticsSemiotics, because the stakes of all this “superfluous” activity with respect to simple eating is the social meaningMeaning of foodFood. This chapter illustrates the theoretical categories of this semioticSemiotics ceremonial approach and analyses some relevant examples.