Commensality

This paper seeks to define hospitality through its ritual practices so as to highlight its political meaning and function. Four features of hospitality may be drawn from ethnographic and anthropological accounts: the creation of a social relationship prior to practices of gift and counter-gift, the management and control of outsiders, and the classification of belonging. Largely neglected, considered to be “pre-political” and subsumed within the paradigm of sharing, hospitality nonetheless constitutes the first relationship of a political community with others such as foreigners or other outside communities. Shared by traditional societies and contemporary democracies alike, the recurrent problem of demarcating and legitimizing the community is the essential meaning of hospitality as an object of political theory.

Mimicking research and practice that demonstrates the importance of seemingly mundane acts for resolving protracted conflicts, this article enquires into the potential contributions of food-related practices to post-conflict reconciliation. Based on fieldwork with a Japanese–South Korean reconciliation initiative (Koinonia), the argument is made that food-related practices can create the spatio-temporal conditions necessary to mitigate successfully situations that may otherwise be characterised by misunderstandings, animosity and an unwillingness to move beyond dividing lines. It is demonstrated that food-related practices have the capacity to influence reconciliation positively throughout the three stages that are perceived as vital for building lasting relationships between conflicting parties: encouragement of participation in reconciliation events (stage 1), encouragement of positive interaction during reconciliation events (stage 2) and sustainability of reconciliation events after participants re-enter daily life and the likely negative perceptions of the Other therein (stage 3).

Feasting equipment, copper‐alloy cauldrons and flesh‐hooks, are a distinctive feature of the later Atlantic Bronze Age suggesting elements of a shared ideology whose ultimate origin may lie in the eastern Mediterranean. The easterly distribution of the earliest British cauldrons previously identified is further confirmed by the recent discovery of a Type Colchester example at Salle, Norfolk, which brings to three the number of cauldrons of this type found in the region. Similarities between them suggest their origin lies in a single workshop, if not individual craftsman. The appearance of the cauldrons found at Feltwell, Norfolk, and Salle is so close as to suggest a new ‘Feltwell’ Variant. Analysis of the contents of the Feltwell cauldron hint at the function of these intriguing objects as high status cooking vessels, most likely reserved for the chiefly class and deployed in the hosting of feasts which, along with flesh‐hooks, served to build and cement political alliances.

KEYWORDS
CAULDRON, FLESH‐HOOK, FEASTING, LATER BRONZE AGE, IDEOLOGY, BRONZE AGE CHRONOLOGY, METAL DETECTING

Food plays a central role in hospitality in virtually every culture on earth. Eating together - 'commensality'' is perhaps one of the most basic human social acts, and is imbued with a special ritual quality. In this paper I show that there are several stages that participants in commensality pass through from the outside world to the communal meal. The passage from stage to stage is effected through the use of linguistic/ behavioral routines that I call "pragmemic triggers. " The form of these triggers is different for different societies, but their structure and use is the same. To demonstrate this, I compare the passage to the meal in four widely dispersed cultures: Middle East, Japanese, German and American

"TABLA DE CONTENIDOS
-Editorial (5)
ARTÍCULOS
-Hiram I, rey de Tiro
Juan Antonio Martín Ruiz (7-35)
-El giro comensal: nuevos temas y nuevos enfoques en la protohistoria peninsular
Samuel Sardà Seuma (37-65)
-Estrategias de asentamiento como indicadores de cronología relativa para la Edad del Hierro en el Noroeste ibérico
Martín Xosé Vázquez Mato (67-103)
-Las cerámicas comunes del alfar romano de Puente Melchor
(Puerto Real, Cádiz). Un ensayo de clasificación de las formas
abiertas.
Lourdes Girón Anguiozar (105-162)
-Ser y parecer: el prestigio y las obras de arte en la evolución de la
economía romana del Alto Imperio
Aarón A. Reyes Domínguez (163-206)
RECENSIONES
-Campesinos y “señores del campo”. Tierra y poder en la protohistoria
extremeña, Rodríguez Diaz, A.
por Sergio Remedios Sánchez (207-210)
-Les vases-biberons puniques du bassin occidental de la
Méditeraánée: monographie d´une forme, Maraoui Telmini, B.
por Alejandro Quevedo Sánchez (211-215)
-Normas de publicación (217-219)"

Resumo: Nos contextos da Idade do Ferro do interior do território baixo alentejano documenta-se um número considerável de elementos de importação relacionáveis com as redes de comércio mediterrâneas, presentes quer em contextos domésticos quer funerários, quer ainda religiosos. A análise destes elementos – amuletos egípcios, adornos de cornalina e pasta vítrea, recipientes de perfumes em cerâmica e vidro, cerâmicas gregas e contentores anfóricos – a partir de uma perspectiva contextual permite definir e caracterizar pautas de consumo diferenciadas que apontam para uma utilização destes elementos exógenos no quadro de práticas sociais de âmbito local.

Socio-economic organisation, subsistence strategies and environmental exploitation still remain largely open questions for the Late Chalcolithic period (ca. 4500–3500 BC) in southern Caucasus even though they are of prime importance for understanding the development of post-Neolithic societies in these semi-arid and mountainous areas. Interdisciplinary bioarchaeological research can, however, provide valuable new insights into these issues. In the Late Chalcolithic occupation layers at Ovçular Tepesi (Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, Azerbaijan), the fills of pits, composed mainly of domestic refuse, proved to contain the richest and most diverse assemblages of biological remains at the site. These remains, retrieved by the use of flotation and sieving techniques, therefore constitute ideal assemblages for understanding subsistence strategies and the exploitation of natural resources. It is shown here that the agricultural economy at Late Chalcolithic Ovçular Tepesi was based mainly on the cultivation of cereals and pulses and the herding of sheep and goat. The river and its surroundings provided wood fuel and fish. The results of the bioarchaeological study further suggest that the Late Chalcolithic village was occupied permanently as shown by the development of commensal populations of small mammals.

The aim of this work is to study the relational practices that explain the social functioning of the lower Ebro basin communities during the first Iron Age (650-550 BC). Our starting point is that, in small-scale societies, commensality rituals are one of the contexts where the ideological strategies are usually materialized in a more emphasized form, because feasting articulates important socio-economic aspects such as managing food resources, the generation and storage of surpluses, the articulation of systems of exchange and the consumption and/or display of the prestige goods.
In order to advance in this line of research, we made a detailed study of the material assemblages (ceramic vessels, metallic elements and liturgical instruments) and performed an in depth analysis of those contexts (consumption spaces, storage spaces and certain graves) which have provided evidences associated with the ritual uses of food and drink.

El volum cinquè de la col·lecció CITERIOR, coordinat per Jordi Diloli i Samuel Sardà,  recull les intervencions que van tenir lloc dins les jornades que organitzà el Seminari de Protohistòria i Arqueologia de la Universitat Rovira i Virigili (Tarragona). S'ocupa d'una temàtica que presenta un gran interès pel seu impacte actual en els estudis d’arqueologia: el paper de l’alimentació i els usos socials i econòmics que la sustenten. A més a més, s’han analitzat els elements ideològics presents als banquets, des de les relacions de poder fins a l’àmbit cerimonial amb circumstàncies tan importants com la seva relació amb la mort i els funerals. En aquest volum trobareu els articles “Arqueologia del banquet. Ritualització, semiòtica dels aliments i anàlisi contextual”, de Samuel Sardà Seuma i Jordi Diloli Fons; “Comensalitat durant el bronze final i la primera edat del ferro al paratge arqueològic de Can Roqueta: anàlisi dels dipòsits relacionats amb el consum en contextos domèstics i funeraris”, de F. Javier López Cachero i Silvia Albizuri; “Un servei de vaixella procedent de l’assentament de la primera edat del ferro de Sant Jaume (Alcanar, Montsià)”, de David Garcia i Rubert i Isabel Moreno Martínez; “Menjar, beure, cremar. Els rituals com a pràctiques relacionals durant l’Edat del Ferro”, de Mireia López-Bertran i Jaime Vives-Ferrándiz; “Banquet funerari i elements de banquet en tombes del nord-est de la Península Ibèrica entre la primera edat del ferro i l’ibèric antic”, de Raimon Graells i Fabregat; “Comerç colonial, comensalitat i canvi social a la protohistòria de Catalunya”, de Joan Sanmartí, David Asensio, M. Carme Belarte i Jaume Noguera, i “Poder, vaixella de luxe i cervesa: Polibi i els banquets dels reis ibèrics”, de Pierre Moret.

Die Welt der Antike war dicht vernetzt – wie sehr, wird rasch klar, wenn man die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung von der Frühzeit der altorientalischen Hochkulturen bis zur Spätantike betrachtet. Doch rücken dabei nicht nur Märkte und Transportwege in den Vordergrund, sondern auch die differenzierten Interessen, Bedürfnisse und technischen, aber auch finanziellen Möglichkeiten von Produzenten und Konsumenten. Wie intensiv man sich bereits in der Antike der Wirtschaft als eines eigenen Lebensbereichs bewusst war, verraten beispielsweise die ökonomischen Schriften von Platon, Xenophon und Aristoteles.

The researches conducted between 2009 and 2011 on Monte Cimino (Soriano nel Cimino – Viterbo) are
here presented in preliminary form. The excavation has investigated the fortifications of the settlement
and the remains of a cult area. Two massive walls have been excavated: one surrounding the settlement,
that is about 5 hectares in extension, the other containing the “acropolis”, which corresponds to the
summit of the mountain. The former is dated to the Final Bronze Age (protovillanoviano), the latter was
built during the Final Bronze Age, but has later phases of reuse in Etruscan period.
Inside the “acropolis”, in correspondence with the very summit of the mountain, were identified monumental
remains of a cult area, with evident traces of ritual pyres, dating to the advanced phase of Final
Bronze Age.
The settlement of Monte Cimino for its dominance on the entire Southern Etruscan area (1053 m slm),
and perhaps also for the presence of the sacred functions, may have had a role of particular political
significance in the territorial organization during Final Bronze Age.
The first occupation of the settlement could be dated to a period prior to the Final Bronze Age, due to
some ceramic fragments attributed to the Recent Bronze Age, and perhaps at the beginning of Middle
Bronze Age.