Dying to Eat: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Food, Death, and the Afterlife (Material Worlds Series)

"Food has played a major role in funerary and memorial practices since the dawn of the human race. In the ancient Roman world, for example, it was common practice to build channels from the tops of graves into the crypts themselves, and mourners would regularly pour offerings of food and drink into these conduits to nourish the dead while they waited for the afterlife. Funeral cookies wrapped with printed prayers and poems meant to comfort mourners became popular in Victorian England; while in China, Japan, and Korea, it is customary to offer food not only to the bereaved, but to the deceased, with ritual dishes prepared and served to the dead. Dying to Eat is the first interdisciplinary book to examine the role of food in death, bereavement, and the afterlife. The contributors explore the phenomenon across cultures and religions, investigating topics including tombstone rituals in Buddhism, Catholicism, and Shamanism; the role of death in the Moroccan approach to food; and the role of funeral casseroles and church cookbooks in the Southern United States. This innovative collection not only offers food for thought regarding the theories and methods behind these practices but also provides recipes that allow the reader to connect to the argument through material experience. Illuminating how cooking and corpses both transform and construct social rituals, Dying to Eat serves as a fascinating exploration of the foodways of death and bereavement"-- Provided by publisher In __Dying to Eat: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Food, Death, and the Afterlife__, Candi K. Cann examines the role of food in dying, death, bereavement, and the afterlife. The coeditors seek to illuminate on the intersection of food and death in various cultures as well as fill an overlooked scholarly niche. __Dying to Eat__ offers a multi-cultural perspective from contributors examining Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Latin American, European, Middle Eastern and American rituals and customs surrounding death and food. The contributors discuss a wide array of topics, including the role of death in the Islamic Sufi approach to food, the intersection of Buddhism, Catholicism, and Shamanism, as well as the role of casseroles and church cookbooks in the American South. The collection will provide not only food for thought on the subject of death and afterlife, but also theories, methods, recipes, and instructions on how and why food is used in dying, death, mourning, and afterlife rituals and practices in different cultural and religious contexts. Starters: the role of food in bereavement and memorialization / Candi K. Cann -- Chinese ancestral worship: food to sustain, transform, and heal the dead and the living / Emily S. Wu -- The eating ritual in Korean religiosity: young san jae for the dead and for the living / Jung Eun Sophia Park -- Sweetening death: shifting landscapes of the role of food in grief and mourning / Candi K. Cann -- Funeral food as resurrection in the American South / Joshua Graham -- The circle of life: memorializing and sustaining faith / Lacy K. Crocker and Gordon Fuller -- Moroccan funeral feasts / David Oualaalou -- Alcohol consumption, transgression, and death / Christa Shusko -- Eating and drinking with the dead in South Africa / Radikobo Ntsimane Front cover Copyright Contents The Role of Food in Bereavement and Memorialization 1 Chinese Ancestral Worship 2 The Eating Ritual in Korean Religiosity 3 Sweetening Death 4 Funeral Food as Resurrection in the American South 5 The Circle of Life 6 Moroccan Funeral Feasts 7 Alcohol Consumption, Transgression, and Death 8 Eating and Drinking with the Dead in South Africa Acknowledgments Contributor Biographies Index