Editorial

Table of the Senses & Senses of the Table: Vol. II

Carmen Soares, Anny Jackeline Torres Silveira & Bruno Laurioux

26 april, 2021≈ 3 min read

Authors

Carmen Soares

Anny Jackeline Torres Silveira

Bruno Laurioux

Synopsis

In the broadest sense of the word, “table” refers to universes where products, people and ideas interact with each other. A place for sustenance, but also of delight, learning, worship, and sociability, each “table” depicts mindsets and serves as a metaphor for values enabling the transformation of those who interact and participate in it. The “table” is, therefore, a space for the senses, both physiological and intellectual. Out of the synesthetic experience brought by food, as well as by its surrounding environments, comes the Table of the Senses, inseparable of the multiple cultural, political, religious, aesthetic, social and economic meanings around it. These Senses of the Table are captured and transmitted through different ways (written, oral, pictorial, or material).

The present work is organized in two volumes, each containing three parts and a total of 37 chapters. The 21 chapters that are part of volume II are structured around three main themes. The role of religious or secular (military) codes of values in the food dynamics are discussed in Part I (Sacred tables and Profane tables). The “table” as a space and instrument of social, political, economic, and cultural power(s) is the theme addressed in Part II (Tables of power and Power of the table). The reflection on the “table” as an expression of collective cultural identity and a vehicle for affirming received or bequeathed food knowledge/flavours is done in Part III (Identity and food heritage).