Commensality at the heart of cultures
"Commensality" refers to the act of eating together, sharing the same table. With the exception of hermits and others who have chosen solitude, human beings are gregarious and prefer to eat in company.
Festival Goers Sharing Pizza © Getty Images Signature
Places of consumption
Eating away from home, whether out of pleasure or necessity, requires a degree of organisation that manifests itself in a wide variety of material cultures. From school lunch boxes to motorway restaurant menus, from sophisticated picnic baskets to camping stoves, the ingenuity employed to make eating away from home as pleasant as possible is remarkable. Unless you're talking about eating under duress, as in collective institutions such as prisons, the army, schools, and hospitals, where uniformity and boredom, even disgust, can sometimes be the norm.
People Eating in Street Food Restaurants in Japan © Gije Cho
Celebrations
Meals mark the day, as they do life. Some mark milestones in life, such as the celebration of a birth, a meal shared at a funeral or a wedding banquet. Whether secular or religious and calendrical, celebrations everywhere provide an opportunity to prepare special dishes. The importance of the moment, whether solemn or unbridled, goes hand in hand with uncommon food, prepared for the occasion and served in a ritualised manner with specific cutlery and dishes.
