Chair persons

Prof. Ute Hüsken

Ute Hüsken studied Indology (Buddhist studies) in Göttingen (Germany). Her dissertation deals with the disciplinary code for Buddhist nuns of the "Southern tradition" (Theravada). For her habilitation on the prenatal life-cycle rituals of a South Indian Brahmanic group she went to Heidelberg University. Currently she is head of the project "Initiation, priestly ordination, temple festivals and ritual traditions in the south Indian temple city of Kancipuram" at the Collaborative Research Centre "Dynamics of Ritual" in Heidelberg. In October 2007 she will take up her new position as Sanskrit professor at the Institutt for kulturstudier og orientalske språk (IKOS), University of Oslo.

Prof. Eric Venbrux

Eric Venbrux is an anthropologist in de Department of Comparative Religion at Radboud University Nijmegen. His research interests include religion, art and design. He conducted anthropological fieldwork in Switzerland, Australia and his home country The Netherlands. He published extensively on mortuary ritual, the visual and verbal arts, and material culture. Previously he has been a researcher at the Meertens Institute in Amsterdam and guest lecturer in the Design Academy
Eindhoven. The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences awarded him a five-year Research Fellowship. Currently, Eric is leader of the research programme ‘Refiguring Death Rites: Post-Secular Material Religion in The Netherlands,’ funded by The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research.

> Abstract

P 18 - The Body and Food in Ritual: Social Cohesion and Division

Chairs: Prof. Ute Hüsken Ute.Huesken@urz.uni-hd.de
Prof. Eric Venbrux e.venbrux@maw.ru.nl

Download preliminary daily schedule here (pdf)
(for better readability kindly print it out)

Common activities:

Reception
On Monday, 29 September, we will officially open the conference with a reception from 19.30 to 22.30

Key Note Lecture
Tuesday, 30 September:
Key Note Speaker Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Jan Assmann
"Magie und Ritual"

Plenary Discussion
Wednesday, 1 October at 18.00 introductory presentation:
Prof. Dr. Christoph Wulf, Freie Universität Berlin
"The Future of the Science of Ritual in a transcultural Context"

Exchange meeting
Thursday, 2 October from 9:00 - 12:00:
Exchange meeting between scientists from the German Archaeological Institute
and the Collaborative Research Center SFB 619

Speakers (synonym for referee, panelist, active participant)

Day 3 – Wednesday, 1 October 2008

9:00-9:45 Donna Seamone

Agricultural Festivals and Farm Fairs:
Ritualized Celebrations of Food, Locality, and Labor

9:45-10:30      Barry Stephenson
                        Luther’s Wedding:
                        Eating (Back) Towards a Convivial Culture

11:00-11:45    Eric Venbrux
                        Ritual Dimensions of Thanatourism:
                        Recreational Dealing With Death

11:45-12:30 Jone Salomonsen

Displaying fecundity, constructing virginity:
sacrifice, food and rites of protection/definition

14:00-14:45 Anke Tonnaer

Fear and fascination for a white maggot:
savouring the 'Other' in tourist ritual

14:45-15:30 Hans Stifoss-Hansen/Lars Danbolt

The dead and the numb body: rituals in response to disaster

16:00-16:45 Sophie Bolt

Missing Bodies: death ritual without a body

16:45-17:30 Janneke Peelen

                        Social birth of perinatal dead:
                        The body as matter, the body as person

Day 4 – Thursday, 2 October 2008

9:00-9:45        Meike Heessels
                        My Parents are Alive in Me:
                        On the Use of Ashes in Tattoos, Mourning Jewelry and Artefacts

9:45-10:30 Joanna Wojtkowiak

                        The Last Meal - The ritual meaning of food
                        in the process of dying in the Netherlands

11:00-11:45    Thomas Quartier
                        Sacred meals in Christian funerals:
                        the Eucharist in relation to eating and the body

11:45-12:30 Chia-Yueh Tang

Performing Rituals and Identities through
a Plate of Hainan Chicken Rice

14:00-14:45 Johanna Buß

Food and Body in Hindu Death Rituals

14:45-15:30 Paula Schrode

The body in Islamic worship

16:00-16:45 Catrien Notermans

                        Ill Bodies and the Ritual Performance of Healing
                        in Spectacular Marian Devotion

16:45-17:30    General discussion

Abstract

Fasting and feasting, ritualised routines of bodily movement, and ritual ordeals (e.g., in initiation rites) help to discipline and shape the actors’ bodies. Both the human body and special foods are often employed in ritual for the purposes of social inclusion and exclusion.

Sometimes they are sacrificed to the Gods. The classic assumption that communal meals in ritual promote social cohesion must, however, be put under scrutiny. Not in all places and ritual contexts is food shared; sometimes rituals or local customs lead to fights over food or reluctance to distribute the nourishment. Likewise, bodies may be used to express unity or division. Decoration of foods and bodies, along with the particular ways of preparation (cf. Claude Lévi-Strauss), their taste, smell, sound and so forth send messages that go beyond them being food for thought. Special foods in ritual embody key notions of what the performance is about. The supply and plasticity of bodies feeds ritual action.

Central to this panel is the question of food and bodies’ contribution through ritual to social cohesion and social divisiveness. We examine the dealings with human bodies and foods in ritual from a global comparative perspective. How are foods and bodies devoured in ritual fashion? How are the participants’ bodies and ritual foods prepared according to religious prescriptions? What is the ritual treatment given to foods and bodies, including the ritualised consumption of human flesh and fluids? Ritual is hardly imaginable without human bodies (for the sake of performance or as its main focus, as in the case of mortuary rituals), whereas maintenance of the body requires food. Moreover, the body will be considered as a natural symbol (Mary Douglas), and attention will be paid to taboos concerning the body and foods

HOME PROGRAMME PANELS REGISTRATION EVENTS TRAVEL MEDIA
SFB 619 Sponsors & Partners Poster Send to a Colleague Contact Imprint	Chair persons Prof. Ute Hüsken Ute Hüsken studied Indology (Buddhist studies) in Göttingen (Germany). Her dissertation deals with the disciplinary code for Buddhist nuns of the "Southern tradition" (Theravada). For her habilitation on the prenatal life-cycle rituals of a South Indian Brahmanic group she went to Heidelberg University. Currently she is head of the project "Initiation, priestly ordination, temple festivals and ritual traditions in the south Indian temple city of Kancipuram" at the Collaborative Research Centre "Dynamics of Ritual" in Heidelberg. In October 2007 she will take up her new position as Sanskrit professor at the Institutt for kulturstudier og orientalske språk (IKOS), University of Oslo. Prof. Eric Venbrux Eric Venbrux is an anthropologist in de Department of Comparative Religion at Radboud University Nijmegen. His research interests include religion, art and design. He conducted anthropological fieldwork in Switzerland, Australia and his home country The Netherlands. He published extensively on mortuary ritual, the visual and verbal arts, and material culture. Previously he has been a researcher at the Meertens Institute in Amsterdam and guest lecturer in the Design Academy Eindhoven. The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences awarded him a five-year Research Fellowship. Currently, Eric is leader of the research programme ‘Refiguring Death Rites: Post-Secular Material Religion in The Netherlands,’ funded by The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. > Abstract P 18 - The Body and Food in Ritual: Social Cohesion and Division Chairs: Prof. Ute Hüsken Ute.Huesken@urz.uni-hd.de Prof. Eric Venbrux e.venbrux@maw.ru.nl Download preliminary daily schedule here (pdf) (for better readability kindly print it out) Common activities: Reception On Monday, 29 September, we will officially open the conference with a reception from 19.30 to 22.30 Key Note Lecture Tuesday, 30 September: Key Note Speaker Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Jan Assmann "Magie und Ritual" Plenary Discussion Wednesday, 1 October at 18.00 introductory presentation: Prof. Dr. Christoph Wulf, Freie Universität Berlin "The Future of the Science of Ritual in a transcultural Context" Exchange meeting Thursday, 2 October from 9:00 - 12:00: Exchange meeting between scientists from the German Archaeological Institute and the Collaborative Research Center SFB 619 Speakers (synonym for referee, panelist, active participant) Day 3 – Wednesday, 1 October 2008 9:00-9:45 Donna Seamone Agricultural Festivals and Farm Fairs: Ritualized Celebrations of Food, Locality, and Labor 9:45-10:30 Barry Stephenson Luther’s Wedding: Eating (Back) Towards a Convivial Culture 11:00-11:45 Eric Venbrux Ritual Dimensions of Thanatourism: Recreational Dealing With Death 11:45-12:30 Jone Salomonsen Displaying fecundity, constructing virginity: sacrifice, food and rites of protection/definition 14:00-14:45 Anke Tonnaer Fear and fascination for a white maggot: savouring the 'Other' in tourist ritual 14:45-15:30 Hans Stifoss-Hansen/Lars Danbolt The dead and the numb body: rituals in response to disaster 16:00-16:45 Sophie Bolt Missing Bodies: death ritual without a body 16:45-17:30 Janneke Peelen Social birth of perinatal dead: The body as matter, the body as person Day 4 – Thursday, 2 October 2008 9:00-9:45 Meike Heessels My Parents are Alive in Me: On the Use of Ashes in Tattoos, Mourning Jewelry and Artefacts 9:45-10:30 Joanna Wojtkowiak The Last Meal - The ritual meaning of food in the process of dying in the Netherlands 11:00-11:45 Thomas Quartier Sacred meals in Christian funerals: the Eucharist in relation to eating and the body 11:45-12:30 Chia-Yueh Tang Performing Rituals and Identities through a Plate of Hainan Chicken Rice 14:00-14:45 Johanna Buß Food and Body in Hindu Death Rituals 14:45-15:30 Paula Schrode The body in Islamic worship 16:00-16:45 Catrien Notermans Ill Bodies and the Ritual Performance of Healing in Spectacular Marian Devotion 16:45-17:30 General discussion Abstract Fasting and feasting, ritualised routines of bodily movement, and ritual ordeals (e.g., in initiation rites) help to discipline and shape the actors’ bodies. Both the human body and special foods are often employed in ritual for the purposes of social inclusion and exclusion. Sometimes they are sacrificed to the Gods. The classic assumption that communal meals in ritual promote social cohesion must, however, be put under scrutiny. Not in all places and ritual contexts is food shared; sometimes rituals or local customs lead to fights over food or reluctance to distribute the nourishment. Likewise, bodies may be used to express unity or division. Decoration of foods and bodies, along with the particular ways of preparation (cf. Claude Lévi-Strauss), their taste, smell, sound and so forth send messages that go beyond them being food for thought. Special foods in ritual embody key notions of what the performance is about. The supply and plasticity of bodies feeds ritual action. Central to this panel is the question of food and bodies’ contribution through ritual to social cohesion and social divisiveness. We examine the dealings with human bodies and foods in ritual from a global comparative perspective. How are foods and bodies devoured in ritual fashion? How are the participants’ bodies and ritual foods prepared according to religious prescriptions? What is the ritual treatment given to foods and bodies, including the ritualised consumption of human flesh and fluids? Ritual is hardly imaginable without human bodies (for the sake of performance or as its main focus, as in the case of mortuary rituals), whereas maintenance of the body requires food. Moreover, the body will be considered as a natural symbol (Mary Douglas), and attention will be paid to taboos concerning the body and foods