Meals in the OT/HB and its World

The SBL ‘Meals in the OT/HB and Its World’ group will host two sessions this year. The first is an open session on the theme of ‘Food and Social Relations in the HB/OT.’ This session seeks to explore questions posed in the ‘Future Directions for Meals Research’ session at SBL 2021, in particular, the links between Food and Social Relations in biblical literature and its broader literary and archaeological contexts, considering how social relations are negotiated through meals, feasts and fasts. Fruitful avenues for investigation include (but are in no way limited to) matters of hospitality, etiquette, table manners, how individual ‘voice’ and social values are expressed through food, the performative nature of meals, reception history studies of communal eating and ‘food events.’

The second session is an invited panel of papers on the topic of ‘Food Taboos/Dietary Prohibitions.’

For any question, please feel free to contact Michelle Stinson (michelleannstinson@gmail.com) or Dorothea Erbele-Küster (derbelekuster@uni-mainz.de), the unit chairs.