Creating Community with Food and Drink in Merovingian Gaul

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xviii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Bonnie Effros

   Pages 1-8

3. The Ritual Significance of Feasting in the Formation of Christian Communities

   • Bonnie Effros

   Pages 9-24

4. Food, Drink, and the Expression of Clerical Identity

   • Bonnie Effros

   Pages 25-37

5. Gender and Authority: Feasting and Fasting in Early Medieval Monasteries for Women

   • Bonnie Effros

   Pages 39-54

6. Food as a Source of Healing and Power

   • Bonnie Effros

   Pages 55-67

7. Funerary Feasting in Early Medieval Gaul and Neighboring Regions

   • Bonnie Effros

   Pages 69-91

8. Epilogue

   • Bonnie Effros

   Pages 93-95

9. Back Matter

   Pages 97-174

   PDF

Creating Community with Food and Drink in Merovingian Gaul exposes the manner in which feasting and fasting, in other words, ritualized actions not performed solely for the purpose of nourishment, were central to social interaction in Gaul both prior and subsequent to Christianization of the mixed population of Franks and Gallo-Romans. In exploring these issues using a multidisciplinary methodology, Effros suggests that scholars may assess historical manifestations of the use of food and drink to create and reinforce the social hierarchy. Effros addresses the tensions between monastic and lay communities and focuses on patronage through food and drink as a source of informal power, a subject too often overlooked in favour of institutional structures more familiar to twentieth-century historians.

• anthropology
• antiquity
• community
• culture
• Europe
• gender
• history
• identity
• Institution
• interaction
• medieval history
• methodology
• Middle Ages
• social science
• weapons

BONNIE EFFROS is Assistant Professor in the Department of Historical Studies at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.

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