Savoring the sacred: Understanding religion through food

Phi Kappa Phi Forum, Summer 2002 by Norman, Corrie E

"I began to follow the scent, like a child drawn to a candy store." That's how April Nelson described

the beginning of her research. Along with having an amazing voice that she is training as a music major, April has a keen sense of smell, which helped her find her intended destination in a Charlotte strip mall one blustery January afternoon. She was on the trail of food stores catering to Muslims. The scent she described was the sweet-sharp aroma of spices. Once inside A.J. Indo-Pak Grocery, April approached Jagtar Singh. Although she had prepared a number of questions ahead of time, her nose got the best of her. "What's that smell?" came out of her mouth first. She got a smile and an education in return.

April could have learned about Islam without a trip to Charlotte, a little over an hour's drive from Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. In fact, she had already listened to me drone on about it in class. But April and her classmates learned the most about Islam and other religious traditions through experiences such as her encounter with Jagtar and his spices. She got a vivid sense of the richness of Islam that a lecture could not impart.

During the past year, approximately seventy-five Converse students have learned to see, smell, touch, and taste how humans in a variety of religious contexts find meaning through food. Some, like April, have done so as researchers with the Harvard Pluralism Project. Converse students have been documenting new immigrant religious traditions in the Charlotte area as part of this nationwide project. We chose to focus particularly on foodways. Other students participated in an interdisciplinary course entitled, "Gender, Food, and Meaning" as part of Converse's Honors Program. Along with consuming hefty portions of theory, sacred texts, and literary homages to food, they have eaten in Hindu Temples and Jewish homes, and have learned how to cook exotic dishes and perform the Zen Tea ceremony. Still others have been guests at class feasts, or have contributed to a research project on food and college women. And some have gone along just for the ride and a break from the Dining Hall.

I have been host, chief cook, and potwasher for this progressive meal. M.F.K. Fisher once remarked that she wrote about food because she was "hungry. " Most of us are, for one reason or another. My students, who come largely from evangelical

Protestant backgrounds, know this. What I hope to do as a religious studies professor is to heighten their awareness of it, to train their palates in a sense. I want to help them understand how the rumblings of stomachs and hearts might be related. I want to help them get a taste for the depths of flavor that religions across time and cultures express. I want them to become aware of the bountiful variety of religious expression that exists in the United States today. And, I hope that through getting a taste for the food that feeds the hunger of others, they may come to appreciate how it can be hearty sustenance just as their own traditional fare is for them.

April began with the smell of spice. The color of green tea, the sound of falafel frying, and the feel of dough drew in other students. Through food, all the students took in (literally!) things about religion that are difficult to get across in the abstractions of the classroom. What follows is a taste of what they savored.

RELIGION IS MORE THAN BELIEF

April, who comes from a Bible-centered tradition, was very impressed when Jagtar showed her the sources of Islamic beliefs about food in the Koran. She soon learned that Islam, like her form of Christianity, is a tradition suspicious of empty forms and rites, but that it also means submission to Allah through practice as well as belief. Many of the spices she smelled are used to season the halal (permitted) meats carried by Jagtar's store. Muslims, like Jews, follow strict butchering practices that reinforce the links among cleanliness, holiness, and healthiness. "You can see the difference," Jagtar told April. "There is no blood in our meat. Blood is sacred; we do not consume it." The next time April visited her neighborhood market, she took a look in the meat department and observed, "I never noticed how much blood our meat has in it before." She had learned one of the key aspects of many religions: holiness is "wholeness" of life. How and what one eats can be just as important as how one thinks.

RELIGION IS EXPERIENCED IN THE BODY

In an act of solidarity with the Muslim community that she was researching, Heather Barclay decided to keep the Ramadan fast, which means not eating from sunrise to sunset during this holy month. Heather, a superb student with extraordinary energy, found this practice ultimately too challenging: "I was exhausted from rising so early to take my only meal of the day. I was dying for something to eat by lunchtime. Not being able to drink was really tough. I couldn't understand how Muslims go about their regular activities." Heather decided to investigate further. She interviewed Seema Azad, a twenty-year resident of Charlotte from Pakistan, who explained how Muslim children gradually learn to fast. "They are not forced," she said, "But they come to want to do it because we all do. It becomes second nature, and our bodies learn to handle it." As she and Heather talked one afternoon in the middle of Ramadan, a delicious stew simmered away on Seema's stove. This would be her family's fast-breaking meal after prayers at sundown. "The aroma was overwhelming, and I just had to ask how she could stand to cook and fast at the same time," Heather recalled. "The only thing that bothers me," Seema told her, "is that I can't taste the food as I cook. But that also reminds me of the significance of Ramadan. It's the time I can't fuss over the stew all afternoon. I just have to let it go and concentrate on God. The smell reminds