A dual approach, combining social anthropology and archaeology, reveals the banquet or ceremonial feast as a fully social phenomenon. In extraordinary circumstances, banquets - usually held in stratified societies with a sacrificial religion - bring together large numbers of guests, who are fed and watered on rare and expensive foods in large quantities, in order to honor someone or something, and to ostentatiously assert the power of the organizers. While this practice has been recognized in many societies around the world, living, ancient or extinct, it had not yet been the subject of a large-scale synthesis. It was therefore appropriate to take an interdisciplinary look at the ins and outs of the festive banquet in relation to the cosmogonies and social practices of the social spaces concerned. The nine essays collected here, from papers given at study days held in Strasbourg, contribute to the debate on important questions relating to the banquet, such as its temporality (cultural cycles or cosmogonic myths), its location (public or private sphere, open-air or indoors), commensality, hospitality, the type of products consumed and table manners, and finally the hypothesis that the organization of a banquet implies the existence of a hierarchical, sedentary society, with wealth (or chrematism), if not ostentation. The diversity of geo-cultural areas, chronological periods and case histories covered enable us to apprehend the banquet in all its multiple aspects, offering new food for thought and avenues for research.

A dual approach, combining social anthropology and archaeology, reveals the banquet or ceremonial feast as a fully social phenomenon. In extraordinary circumstances, banquets - usually held in stratified societies with a sacrificial religion - bring together large numbers of guests, who are fed and watered on rare and expensive foods in large quantities, in order to honor someone or something, and to ostentatiously assert the power of the organizers. While this practice has been recognized in many societies around the world, living, ancient or extinct, it had not yet been the subject of a large-scale synthesis. It was therefore appropriate to take an interdisciplinary look at the ins and outs of the festive banquet in relation to the cosmogonies and social practices of the social spaces concerned. The nine essays collected here, from papers given at study days held in Strasbourg, contribute to the debate on important questions relating to the banquet, such as its temporality (cultural cycles or cosmogonic myths), its location (public or private sphere, open-air or indoors), commensality, hospitality, the type of products consumed and table manners, and finally the hypothesis that the organization of a banquet implies the existence of a hierarchical, sedentary society, with wealth (or chrematism), if not ostentation. The diversity of geo-cultural areas, chronological periods and case histories covered enable us to apprehend the banquet in all its multiple aspects, offering new food for thought and avenues for research.