Libros

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner examines how specific types of food were
prepared and eaten during feasting rituals in prehistoric Europe and the Near
East. Such rituals allowed people to build and maintain their power and
prestige and to maintain or contest the status quo. At the same time, they also
contributed to the inner cohesion and sense of community of a group. When eating
and drinking together, people share thoughts and beliefs and perceive the world
and human relationships in a certain way. The twelve contributions to this book
reflect the main theoretical and methodological issues related to the study of
food and feasting in prehistoric Europe and the Near East.

The book is introduced by Ferrán Adrià, considered to be the world's greatest
chef. Famed for his "molecular gastronomy", he invented the technique
of reducing foods to their essence and then changing how they are presented,
for example in the form of foam.

Prologue ................................................................................................................. vii
Ferran Adrià
1. Appetite Comes With Eating: An Overview of the Social Meaning of Ritual Food and Drink Consumption
Gonzalo Aranda Jiménez, Sandra Montón-Subías, Margarita Sánchez Romero and Eva Alarcón García
2. Commensality Rituals: Feeding Identities in Prehistory. Margarita Sánchez Romero
3. Feasting and Social Dynamics in the Epipaleolithic of the Fertile Crescent: An Interpretive Exercise
Brian Hayden
4. Evolving Human/Animal Interactions in the Near Eastern Neolithic: Feasting as a Case Study
Nigel Goring-Morris and Anna Belfer-Cohen
5. Feeding Stonehenge: Feasting in Late Neolithic Britain
Mike Parker Pearson, Joshua Pollard, Colin Richards, Julian omas, Kate Welham, Umberto Albarella, Ben Chan, Peter Marshall and Sarah Viner
6. Political Cuisine: Rituals of Commensality in the Neolithic and Bronze Age Aegean
Paul Halstead and Valasia Isaakidou
7. Drinking and Eating Together: the Social and Symbolic Context of Commensality Rituals in the Bell Beakers of the Interior of Iberia (2500–2000 cal BC)
Rafael Garrido-Pena, Manuel A. Rojo-Guerra, Iñigo García-Martínez de Lagrán and Cristina Tejedor-Rodríguez
8. Feasting Death: Funerary Rituals in the Bronze Age Societies of South-Eastern Iberia
Gonzalo Aranda Jiménez and Sandra Montón Subias
9. Feasting Metals and the Ideology of Power in the Late Bronze Age of Atlantic Iberia
Xosé-Lois Armada
10. Representing Communities in Heterogeneous Worlds: Staple Foods and Ritual Practices in the Phoenician Diaspora Ana Delgado and Meritxell Ferrer
11. Consumption Relations in the Northern Iberian Household                                                            Ramon Buxó and Jordi Principal
12. Archaeological Identification of Feasts and Banquets: eoretical Notes and the Case of Mas Castellar
Lluís Garcia and Enriqueta Pons
Contents