It is extraordinarily rare for cultures to condone gluttony, the conventional exaggerations of the eating behaviour of the ancient Roman elite notwithstanding. Most people cannot afford to be gluttons. A clear-cut example of the other extreme, gastronomic asceticism, is provided by American Indians of the northeastern United States, among whom eating sparingly was an ideal. Preparation for this attitude began in early childhood with short fasts of a day or two, culminating in the 10-day puberty fast, which also had religious significance. Isolated during this fast in a tiny wickiup without food or water, a child had to supplicate the deities for a vision (easily induced under such conditions), which came in the form of a supernatural figure (usually in animal shape) that was to become his guardian spirit.

Rules pertaining to drink are even more varied. Tribal groups throughout the world (except in Oceania and most of North America) knew alcohol. In each case rules concerning its use were adopted. Although a high intake of alcohol always has physiological effects, people’s comportment is determined more by what their society tells them is the way to behave when consuming alcohol than by its toxic effects. In many societies drinking is an established part of the total round of social activities. For example, the American anthropologist Robert McCorkle Netting observed that the Kofyar of northern Nigeria “make, drink, talk, and think about beer.” All social relations among them are accompanied by its consumption, and fines are levied in beer payments. Ostracism takes the form of exclusion from beer drinking. Beer plays such a central role in their lives that Kofyar men seem to “believe that man’s way to god is with beer in hand.” Their beer, however, is weak in alcoholic content and is quite nutritious. Furthermore, they rarely consume European beer and never drink distilled liquor. Among Central and South American peasants, men are allowed or required to drink themselves into a state of stupefaction during religious celebrations (fiestas). Though this drinking is frequent and heavy, it does not appear to result in addiction. Representative of the other extreme are the Hopi and other American Indian tribes of the Southwest who have banned all alcoholic beverages (and almost all narcotics), asserting that these substances threaten their way of life.

Most cultures, however, prescribe moderation in drinking. In ancient Mesopotamia, beer played an important role in temple services and in the economy, but the Code of Hammurabi—the monument of law named after the king of Babylon—strictly regulated tavern keepers and servants (these places were supposed to be avoided by the social elite). Similar patterns emerged in ancient Egypt. The ancient Greeks sought to attribute their intellectual and material culture to the introduction of vine and olive growing. The use of wine was quite general in biblical times. While it is both praised and condemned, wine is frequently mentioned in both the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and the New Testament. Wine belonged to the category of indispensable provisions listed in the Book of Judges (chapter 13) and the First Book of Samuel (chapters 16, 25). Chapter 6 of the Revelation to John proclaims that only wine and oil are to be protected from the apocalyptic famine. Wine is also frequently used in biblical imagery.

Use of food in religion

The most widespread symbolic use of food is in connection with religious behaviour. In fact, eating and drinking are minimal elements in most religious behaviour and experience, including in sacrifice and communion. According to many anthropologists, there are essentially two reasons for this. First, religion is one of the systems of thought and action by which the members of a group express their cohesiveness and identity. Implicitly or explicitly, the members of every cultural group assert that its unity and distinctiveness derive from the deity or deities associated with it. Religion is a tie that binds. But no symbolic activity in human society stands alone and without material representation. Like all other symbolizations of institutional relationships, those of religion must also have substantial form. Food and drink—and their ingestion—are among the most important substances of religion.

The second reason, closely related to the foregoing, is that one element of dogma in every religion is the definition of polluting, or supernaturally dangerous, objects or personal states. Just as there is no objective or scientific connection between the nutritive qualities of different foods and the symbolic values attached to them, there is no objective relationship between an object or a personal state and its definition as polluting. Cultures vary in the objects and states that are so defined—for example, saliva, sneezing, menstruation, killing an enemy in warfare, a corpse, parturition—but cutting across these is the belief held in every religion that there are foods and drinks that are in some way polluting or defiling.

The British anthropologist Mary Douglas proposed that concepts of pollution and defilement are among the means used by preliterate or tribal societies to maintain their separateness, boundedness, and exclusivity. These concepts and rules contribute strongly to the sense of identity—the social badges—that people derive from participation in the institutions of their firmly bounded or encapsulated groups. More concretely, when a person proclaims his affiliation with and allegiance to a particular group that he regards as his self-contained universe and beyond whose margins he sees danger, threat, and alienation, he simultaneously invokes—explicitly or implicitly—the many badges of his social identity, which become articulated through a discourse of “purity” and “pollution.” These badges include the totem animal or plant (i.e., the emblem of a family or clan) that he may not eat, the foods that are regarded as defiling, the drinks that he must avoid, the sacred meals in which he participates, and the other rituals associated with his exclusive group. He thereby asserts his separateness from people in all other groups—usually referred to in pejorative terms—and his identification with the members of his own group. Food customs are not always formalized, however; they are sometimes cast in terms of preference.