Religion, food, and eating in North America / edited by Benjamin E. Zeller, Marie W. Dallam, Reid L. Neilson, and Nora L. Rubel.

The way in which religious people eat reflects not only their understanding of food and religious practice but also their conception of society and their place within it. This anthology considers theological foodways, identity foodways, negotiated foodways, and activist foodways in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. Original essays explore the role of food and eating in defining theologies and belief structures, creating personal and collective identities, establishing and challenging boundaries and borders, and helping to negotiate issues of community, religion, race, and nationality. Contributors consider food practices and beliefs among Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists, as well as members of new religious movements, Afro-Caribbean religions, interfaith families, and individuals who consider food itself a religion. They traverse a range of geographic regions, from the southern Appalachian Mountains to North America's urban centers, and span historical periods from the colonial era to the present. These essays contain a variety of methodological and theoretical perspectives, emphasizing the embeddedness of food and eating practices within specific religions and the embeddedness of religion within society and culture. The volume makes an excellent resource for scholars hoping to add greater depth to their research and for instructors seeking a thematically rich, vivid, and relevant tool for the classroom. --Provided by publisher.

Part 1: Theological foodways. Dynamics of Christian dietary abstinence / David Grumett ; "Join us! Come, eat!" : vegetarianism in the formative period of the Seventh-day Adventists and the Unity School of Christianity / Jeremy Rapport ; "And as we dine, we sing and praise God" : Father and Mother Divine's theologies of food / Leonard Norman Primiano ; Hallelujah Acres : Christian raw foods and the quest for health / Annie Blazer -- Part 2: Identity foodways. Draydel salad : the serious business of Jewish food and fun in the 1950s / Rachel Gross ; Salmon as sacrament : first salmon ceremonies in the Pacific Northwest / Suzanne Crawford O'Brien ; An unusual feast : gumbo and the complex brew of Black religion / Derek S. Hicks ; "I chose Judaism but Christmas cookies chose me" : food, identity, and familial religious practice in Christian/Jewish blended famillies / Samira K. Mehta -- Part 3: Negotiated foodways. Crystallizing subjectivities in the African diaspora : sugar, honey, and the gods of Afro-Cuban Lucumí / Elizabeth Pérez ; Good to eat : culinary priorities in the Nation of Islam and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints / Kate Holbrook ; Mindful eating : American Buddhists and worldly benefits / Jeff Wilson ; The feast at the end of the fast : the evolution of an American Jewish ritual / Nora L. Rubel -- Part 4: Activist foodways. Koinonia partners : a demonstration plot for food, fellowship, and sustainability / Todd Levasseur ; Refreshing the concept of halal meat : resistance and religiosity in Chicago's Taqwa Eco-Food Cooperative / Sarah E. Robinson ; Quasi-religious American foodways : the cases of vegetarianism and locavorism / Benjamin E. Zeller.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Print version record.

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