"Creating Community with Food and Drink in Merovingian Gaul" exposes the manner in which feasting and fasting, in other words, ritualized actions not performed solely for the purpose of nourishment, were central to social interaction in Gaul both prior and subsequent to Christianization of the mixed population of Franks and Gallo-Romans. In exploring these issues using a multidisciplinary methodology, Effros suggests that scholars may assess historical manifestations of the use of food and drink to create and reinforce the social hierarchy. Effros addresses the tensions between monastic and lay communities and focuses on patronage through food and drink as a source of informal power, a subject too often overlooked in favour of institutional structures more familiar to twentieth-century historians.
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Author(s): Bonnie Effros
Series: The New Middle Ages
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: XVIII+174
Series Editor's Foreword xi
Abbreviations xiii
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction 1
1. The Ritual Significance of Feasting in the Formation of Christian Communities 9
2. Food, Drink, and the Expression of Clerical Identity 25
3. Gender and Authority: Feasting and Fasting in Early Medieval Monasteries for Women 39
4. Food as a Source of Healing and Power 55
5. Funerary Feasting in Early Medieval Gaul and Neighboring Regions 69
Epilogue 93
Notes 97
Select Bibliography 145
Index 169
