A survey of evidence for feasting in Mycenaean Society

Hesperia, Spring, 2004 by James C. Wright

Archaeologists attempt to define a culture by "reading" the material remains of groups who have adopted a stylistic vocabulary representing their common social customs. (10) This material expression comes into being largely as a social process that evolves as it is practiced. Feasting is a fundamental social practice that marks most celebrations of life stages and natural cycles when people gather and in varying ways display, reaffirm, and change their identities as individuals and as members of groups. It is an integral part of ritual and religious practice, occurring nearly universally as a component of other activities; the universality of its practice underscores its importance in the formation of identity. (11) Wiessner has provided insight into the process of identity formation in several ethnographic studies that examine the social meanings and uses of style. (12) Particularly useful is her distinction between two forms of display that lead to the formation of identity: "assertive" and "emblemic." Assertive display represents the active process of identity formation and is concerned with the activities of leaders, or individuals competing for leadership, who use objects as a part of their competitive display. Emblemic display results when a common set of symbolic expressions is achieved and becomes an expression of group identity. (13)

Identities are formed, expressed, affirmed, and changed through many social activities, especially those that bring groups together for celebration, which are usually accompanied by feasting. (14) As Wiessner points out:

   Feasting involves food sharing and food distribution. Food sharing
   appears to have its roots in the parent-child relationship and thus
   can be a way of expressing affection and extending familial behavior
   to distant or non-kin in order to bond larger groups. By contrast,
   food distribution, which often requires returns at a later date,
   creates temporary imbalance between food donors and recipients and
   permits the construction of inequality. (15)

Identity, difference, and obligation are primary social manifestations of cuisine, and, as many scholars have observed, the construction of rules of etiquette further refines these distinctions. (16)

Davis and Bennet have recently recommended that to answer the question of who the Mycenaeans are, we examine "the mechanisms that lay behind the creation of the Mycenaeans." (17) Their conclusion is that "the formation of a Mycenaean material culture appears to have been the result of a process, whereby specific regional traditions achieved supra-regional prominence and were elevated gradually to a status as the dominant styles accepted by the elite who governed Mycenaean kingdoms." (18) Missing from this observation, however, is a specific anatomy of this process at work. Feasting is a very significant activity in the formation of Mycenaean culture because, as noted above, it is nearly always linked to other social activities, whether hunting or harvesting, worship or initiation. Feasting as a preeminent social celebration consistently provides an arena for the display of styles. In part this is because it is effective in encompassing all members of a social group and even those outside it, while still reserving special places for subgroups (especially elites) to differentiate themselves. In other words, feasting allows for the reinforcement of egalitarian horizontal relationships while simultaneously facilitating the construction of hieratic or hierarchical and vertical ones. (19)