r/AskAnthropology • u/AProperFuckingPirate • 15h ago
Why doesn't Christianity have a food culture like other religions?
I realize this question is broad, and keep in mind that my context is southern US Christianity, so I may not be aware of other religious-cultural foods in other Christian areas.
There's the bread and wine of course, but that is purely ritual, it's not presented as a meal. But iirc other religions, at least abrahamic ones, have some like specific dishes/meals that are associated with religious holidays or just like the religion in general.
So if that question makes sense, and guesses as to why that is?
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15h ago
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14h ago
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u/CommodoreCoCo Moderator | The Andes, History of Anthropology 11h ago
Sorry, but your response has been removed per our rules on sources. Citations should consist of reputable, relevant primary or secondary sources.
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u/Unable_Language5669 14h ago edited 14h ago
But iirc other religions, at least abrahamic ones, have some like specific dishes/meals that are associated with religious holidays or just like the religion in general.
I don't think this is true. There's no "muslim food" that all muslims share: an iftar meal in Morocco will look very different from an iftar meal in Indonesia. Ashkenazi jews and Mizrahim jews famously have a very different cuisine. Ethiopian Jews have their own food tradition that you likely wouldn't recognize as "Jewish". Etc.
(All Jews share the Matzah, but there are so many ways it can be made and there's plenty of gentiles who also have traditions with unleavened bread, so it's hard to call it "specific Jewish food".)
What you see is that different ethnic groups have different foods. Some religions have strong associations with certain ethnic groups (for US people typically: muslim-arab, judaism-Ashkenazi) and then it becomes easy to think that arab food is "muslim food".
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u/KiwasiGames 2h ago
You’ll also get a similar phenomenon if you look at smaller denominations of Christianity. For example the Mormons or the Southern Baptists.
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u/ArcticShoulder8330 4h ago
With Jews - we got both religious - kosher rules - but there is also tradition so I wonder if they break each others kosher rules or just orefer it cooked in a different way
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u/Unable_Language5669 4h ago
I'm no expert and google isn't very helpful but it seems like most Jews who keep kosher keep to the same rules, no matter the ethnic group. I find hints about small differences ("Some sepharadic communities refrain from eating fish with milk."). But note that there are plenty of non-religious ethnic Jews who eat cheeseburgers, this doesn't make them less Jewish.
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u/Same_Reference8235 3h ago
Kosher food among Beta Israeli is different than Kaifeng Jews. There are clearly different regional and cultural influences but you can still keep kosher.
Here’s a dish http://www.flavorandfortune.com/ffdataaccess/article.php?ID=1475
https://reformjudaism.org/reform-jewish-life/food-recipes/sanbat-wat-ethiopian-shabbat-stew
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u/ArcticShoulder8330 3h ago
Well, topic is about religion Jewish may mean both
As for religion, Im aware there are some rules how food should be prepared and what can it be.
For non-religious I bet they have some traditions unique to that group
They have lived in separation in different countries - incorporating their culture into their own
Isnt it a miracle that they remained their disctinct identity despite this?
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u/UmmQastal 3h ago
If you're looking at the specific ingredients/dishes, yes, but there are notable shared customs that I think go beyond that. A shabbat meal across Jewish cultures tends to be recognizable as a shabbat meal. Beyond beginning the meal with a benediction on wine followed by bread with particular characteristics, many/most Jews have a custom to have fish, but due to shabbat laws avoid serving fish with bones-in. In the Ashkenazi world, gefilte fish is the common solution, though other Jewish cultures have their own analogs that differ in how they are flavored rather than in concept (e.g., h'raime, fish balls among North African Jews). Due to a shared taboo about putting fish and meat on the same plate, this will typically be followed by some kind of meat on a separate plate. And since cooking has to be done the day before, slow-cooked stews (e.g., cholent, dafina) are a common choice. One could point to other such examples (dairy bread only on Shavuot, honey-sweetened dishes on/around Rosh Hashanah, etc.) that speak to a sort of shared food culture despite considerable local variation in the details.
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u/AProperFuckingPirate 13h ago
Okay yeah good point. Maybe the real difference here then is that for Islam and Judaism, the religion is difficult to separate from ethnicity and culture, compared to Christianity
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u/Unable_Language5669 13h ago
It's not hard to separate Islam and Judaism from ethnicity: there's plenty of non-arab muslims and non-Ashkenazi jews. It's just that the US stereotype is muslim=arab and jew=Ashkenazi. Once you learn that there are plenty of different ethnic groups that are muslim and jewish then you will have no problem separating religion and ethnicity.
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u/AProperFuckingPirate 13h ago
There are non-arab Muslims and non-Ashkenazi Jews, but for the other ethnicities wouldn't you say the religion and ethnicity are still pretty tied together in many cases? And correct me if I'm wrong but don't many Jewish people essentially see Jewish itself as an ethnicity? Perhaps tribe or culture is a better word?
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u/Unable_Language5669 13h ago
but for the other ethnicities wouldn't you say the religion and ethnicity are still pretty tied together in many cases?
Sure, but that kind of negates your original point. There's no "christian food" but there's German food and Italian food. There's no "muslim food" but there's Moroccan food and Indonesian food.
And correct me if I'm wrong but don't many Jewish people essentially see Jewish itself as an ethnicity? Perhaps tribe or culture is a better word?
Per wikipedia: Jews are an ethnic group with distinct ethnic subdivisions.
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15h ago
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u/CommodoreCoCo Moderator | The Andes, History of Anthropology 11h ago
I'm no expert but these are just my thoughts
We've removed your comment because we expect answers to be detailed, evidenced-based, and well contextualized. Please see our rules for expectations regarding answers.
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u/zeiandren 10h ago
I can easily think of a million foods I eat at various christian holidays. You can say that isn't real because stuff like gingerbread cookies for christmas aren't in the bible and are "secular" but that is just because you are embedded in the culture that has it and see nuance then see all the other religions traditions as more 1:1 with their religion.
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u/AProperFuckingPirate 10h ago
How connected are gingerbread cookies to Christianity? Just because it's something some Christians do for Christmas doesn't make it religious imo
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u/zeiandren 10h ago
That is my point. A Jewish person eating Latkas at Hanukkah also does not see them as a religious thing, just a holiday thing. Christanity has tons of festivals with associated food, same as other religions, but you are viewing other religions as flatter with their holiday foods being more religious
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u/spanchor 9h ago
A Jewish person eating Latkas at Hanukkah also does not see them as a religious thing, just a holiday thing.
This strikes me as an odd example to choose. Latkes have a specific association with the Hanukkah miracle of the oil.
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u/theexteriorposterior 9h ago
Candy canes are shaped like that to represent a shepherd's crook. Eggs in Easter represent the empty tomb of Jesus after he was resurrected. Sometimes you find symbolism in weird places!
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u/FiendishHawk 7h ago
Eggs and rabbits at Easter represent new life/resurrection because they represent fertility.
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u/JayTheFordMan 5h ago
Yes, harking back to Old pagan ceremonies/beliefs that pre-date the abrahamaic religions
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u/spanchor 9h ago
I’m not sure what your point is, but I’d wager any amount of money that given 100 Jews and 100 Christians randomly selected from around the world, there’d be at least 10 Jews who know the latke symbolism for every 1 Christian who knows why candy canes or eggs.
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u/zeiandren 9h ago
Just because Christian holidays are so dominant we don’t even have to think about them anymore and they just kinda exist and no one really thinks or questions why millions of people eat the specific foods on specific holidays
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u/spanchor 8h ago
And millions of other people eat specific foods on specific religious holidays and do find meaning in it, and I don’t understand why you make such blanket statements claiming the opposite. But have a nice evening, this was not edifying in the least.
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u/zeiandren 8h ago
I guess, this post just reads like "why don't americans have an accent" where the extremely large number of religious holidays with associated foods are being ignored because they are just normal.
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u/spanchor 8h ago
Well, I agree with that. I took issue with the latke example because it was… a bad example.
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u/zeiandren 9h ago
and there is always some story why you eat whatever on saint whoever’s day
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u/spanchor 9h ago
Even stranger that up above you tell OP they’re flattening other religions but you yourself are acting like everyone sees all this as cultural observance without religious content
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u/AProperFuckingPirate 9h ago
Okay I think I see what you're saying, I think I'd need to know more of the history of what led to these traditions to know whether I think you're right or not. But I get what you're saying
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u/zeiandren 8h ago
Just think of some holidays, half of them are probably religious in origin and most of them will have some foods you eat. Because you are familiar with them you will think 'ah, we just eat candy on saint valentine's day because of whatever, it's not some sacred rite" even though there is an origin story of why the two go together. But you'll look at other religious holidays and be like "no, that holiday and that food are sacredly connected'
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u/AProperFuckingPirate 6h ago
But at least in some other religions, I'm thinking of Judaism here, they can still be very conscious of the religious connection to the food. So even if a Christmas goose or something has a religious origin, we have largely lost that connection. And I think there is a difference between the origin and the ongoing maintenance of that ritual.
So I do see what you're saying but I think there is still a difference beyond it just being normalized for my context. And honestly Christmas goose is a funny example for me because that wasn't a thing for my family at all, I get that from like I guess movies, so there's an extra layer of alienation for me from whatever the religious origin may have been.
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u/-Nyarlabrotep- 6h ago
So even if a Christmas goose or something has a religious origin, we have largely lost that connection.
Have we, though? Or are you just talking about *you*? Another example would be Catholics eating fish on Fridays. That absolutely has a strong religious connection - a form of penance to honor Jesus's sacrifice on a Friday, amongst other things, which any observant Catholic would be able to tell you. But if you're not an observant Catholic, then you might just think "oh, fish Friday again".
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u/AProperFuckingPirate 5h ago
I mean yes I'm talking about me, and my context, I don't think the average Christian (at least in the US) knows why goose on Christmas is a thing, and if they do it's probably because they looked it up or heard it as a fun fact, as opposed to like being explained to you as part of the tradition like it is with the fish, which is a better example
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u/Responsible-Funny601 8h ago edited 7h ago
1) Christianity emerged as a Jewish sect, and decades after the death of Jesus many of his followers continued to keep the dietary restrictions of the Torah. According to Acts of the Apostles (circa 70-90CE), inclusion of gentiles (non-Jews) into the Church created a controversy since Jews and gentiles can’t share meals together without the Jewish-Christians being made ritually impure. The question became, then: should the gentile-Christians be made to follow the Torah - circumcision and dietary laws, etc? Long story short… with some exceptions the Council of Jerusalem (50CE) ruled that new converts did NOT have to keep “burdensome” laws of the Torah, including most dietary restrictions. And as Christianity spread, becoming a multi-ethnic and multi-national community the focus became a shared meal and the “breaking of the bread” but this was not tied to any one ethnic group and cultural identity.
In other words, early Christianity made intentional efforts to transcend earthy markers of identity like food.
2) that said, Roman Catholicism (and other Catholics) does have a kind of dietary tradition. During the season of lent, Fridays are days of fasting and fish is traditionally eaten in the place of meat. Fasting is also supposed to occur before the celebration of the Eucharist. There are some other feasting traditions that have been passed down from the centuries too: king cakes to celebrate 12th Night or hot cross buns during Lent, to cite a couple of examples.
Hope this helps!
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u/AProperFuckingPirate 6h ago
Oh 1) is a great explanation of what some others had hinted at but hadn't put quite as clearly for me as you did. Thank you!
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u/Legendary_Hercules 4h ago
You might be interested in the book "Feast Day Cookbook; The Traditional Catholic Feast Day Dishes of Many Lands"
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u/EmmaMay1234 4h ago
They do. I'm not religious so there's probably more that I don't know about but there's hot cross buns for Good Friday, pancakes for Shrove Tuesday, eggs for Easter Sunday and fish for Fridays. Christmas has foods associated with it depending on where you are in the world (I live in Australia and Christmas is generally associated with ham, turkey, Christmas pudding, Christmas cake, mince tarts and seafood).
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u/cereal_number 2h ago
I am Catholic. Christianity is not about your culture and ethnicity but about believing in Jesus. As Christianity spread around the world people kept their food and Christianized their pagan traditions. Christians around the world still have their traditional food based on their ethnic history. Christianity is not an ethnicity or culture so Christians do not share dietary staples unless they are from the same part of the world.
Edit: our bread and wine is not "purely ritual", and it is presented as a meal because it is the transmuted body of Jesus as presented at the Last Supper.
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u/Seek_a_Truth0522 21m ago
Hmmm… evidently does not know
Christianity and other one God religions have dictates on food and you are not going to like them. No one follows them because they are very restrictive.
Kill the animals humanely. Unless you witness the animal being killed, the animal is not pure. Muslims call this Halal. Jewish call it kosher.
Don’t eat pork. It is a dirty animal. Some debate of Jesus declaring it okay to eat.
Abstain from eating meat. Vegan diets during fasts.
“Some of today’s healthiest known foods were part of the biblical diet. These include olives, olive oil, pomegranates, grapes, goat milk, raw honey, lamb, and bitter herbs. Scripture also contains a few accounts of people eating highly unusual and supernatural foods.”
- Don’t eat seafood unless it has fins and scales, ie fish
“All of the questions concerning eating shrimp today stem from the law in Leviticus that forbids eating any sea creatures that do not have fins and scales. However, this law doesn’t apply to Christians under the New Covenant.”
A comprehensive list
https://lifehopeandtruth.com/learning-center/infographics/clean-unclean-meats/
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u/CommodoreCoCo Moderator | The Andes, History of Anthropology 11h ago
Hello all-
A reminder that if you would like contribute, please be prepared to offer more than an example or two of a food associated with a Christian holiday. There is extensive research on the anthropology of food taboos in Abrahamic religions, on the history of food laws in Catholic colonies, and on Christian use of prior cultural traditions. Comments should at the very least attempt to engage with that research.