Feast: Why Humans Share Food

by Martin Jones

The family dinner, the client luncheon, the holiday spread--the idea of people coming together for a meal seems the most natural thing in the world. But that is certainly not the case for most other members of the animal kingdom. In Feast , archeologist Martin Jones presents both historic and modern scientific evidence to illuminate how prehistoric humans first came to share food and to trace the ways in which the human meal has shaped our cultural evolution.
Jones shows that by studying the activities of our closest animal relative, the chimpanzee, and by unearthing ancient hearths, some more than 30,000 years old, scientists have been able to piece together a picture of how our ancient ancestors found, killed, cooked, and divided food. In sites uncovered all over the world, fragments of bone, remnants of charred food, pieces of stone or clay serving vessels, and the outlines of ancient halls tell the story of how we slowly developed the complex traditions of eating we recognize in our own societies today. Jones takes us on a tour of the most fascinating sites and artifacts that have been discovered, and shows us how archeologists have made many fascinating discoveries. In addition, he traces the rise of such recent phenomena as biscuits, "going out to eat," and the Thanksgiving-themed TV dinner.
From the earliest evidence of human consumption around half a million years ago to the era of the drive-through diner, this fascinating account unfolds the history of the human meal and its profound impact on human society.

Genres: Nonfiction, Archaeology, Food, History, Food Writing, Anthropology, Sociology

380 pages, Paperback

First published March 29, 2007

Reviews

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

It seemed a bit random to me (possibly because it read it in bits and pieces over a couple of weeks) but had interesting points to make about issues I find particularly interesting:

why we live in rectangular instead of round buildings
what's so bad about eating in front of a book (or computer) instead of around the table with your family
the health of hunter/gatherer/forager cultures compared to agricultural cultures
why it makes sense to eat weeds
what was so attractive about TV dinners

I noticed the same thing another Goodreads reviewer also mentioned--this book was published by OUP but I haven't seen such a sloppily edited book in some time--there was a typo or heterograph on almost every page, which was both surprising and annoying.

[Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feast: Why Humans Share Food by Martin Jones delves into the importance of food in human culture. He highlights the different stances and traditions humans have when consuming food. As Tom Jaine put it in her article for The Guardian, “We share our food; we eat it in public; we make eye contact with strangers while stuffing ourselves; we sit round a hearth; we have likes and dislikes and use those preferences to mark group affiliation - all habits peculiar to humans (and sometimes apes).” These are all things that are not present in animals sharing their food.
Jones uses his experience as an archeologist and the sites he has dug to analyze the evolution of humans and their eating habits. Most of Jones’ sites are placed in Europe for reasons he explains on page 19. “The choice of a broadly European focus (with few key exceptions) allows the exploration of some interconnecting themes. This harks back to Mary Douglas’ idea that meals constitute a kind of narrative. Like all narratives the allude to earlier narratives, retelling and reshaping earlier stories” (PG. 19). This since of connectedness can be found in all his sites. Jones can see that Europe has the highest amount of imported food, even in modern Europe. He sees that considering Europe’s past food habits we can see a broader spectrum of food in the rest of the world, as well.
One of the main point Jones’ is making in this book is the fact that humans are much different than other living creatures on the earth. He makes the point by just looking at the eating habits of humans. In the first chapter Jones digs into the fact that humans use meal to socialize that is not seen elsewhere in the animal kingdom. Jones gives examples of the meal in modern days, “Even those alfresco meals around the campfire share many of the hallmarks of this uniquely human institution. Just like the college feast, they sit around in a ‘Conversational circle’ facing each other, accompanying the food with leisurely talk, gossip, and laughter” (PG 33). This is seen so much in many of the world’s culture today. When with a group of friends or on a date, the first thing always brought up to do is go out to eat. Jones did an extraordinary job at not just considering the details found at his sites, but also stretching his finds to the modern age.
Another point Jones brings into his book is the concept of the large brain in a human. We are quite proud of our large brain, but there are a few things Jones wants to consider when looking at it. He mentions on page 85 “A corollary of the expensive tissue hypothesis is that, not only did cooking require a lot of brainpower, but also brainpower required a lot of cooking. So, which drove which?” (pg. 85). This is a question he goes on to answer in the rest of the chapter using evidence found in Africa, that led archeologists to believe that as humans evolved so did their way of “cooking.” Some examples he brings up in the book, include; external digestion, through pulverization, rotting and fermentation, and exposure to heat. He then goes on to conclude that the possibility for humans sharing food was to be able to fully develop or brain, so it started that the older generation began to hunt and gather for the younger generation. As he says, “By the time much earlier meal at Boxgrove, the human brain had evolved to a sufficiently large size for this nutritional challenge to be an issue, leading us to explore the possibility that the father and other kin cooperated in supplying the needs of the young offspring” (pg. 87). Jones continues this topic for a few more articles, but seems to hit the gist of it in the very begging of the chapter named “Fire, Cooking and Growing a Brain”.
Jones has created a well-constructed academic book in the pages of Feast: Why Humans Share Food. He was able to create an environment where the reader could feel as if they were transported to Jones’ sites, digging them up and learning right along with him. Although it was well written it is for academic purposes, and not one that many people would enjoy on a rainy day. I, personally, love to enjoy a dinner with friends and family, so it was astonishing to be able to read the history of why we share our food in the first place. I cannot wait to delve into some more of Martin Jones’ work.
Martin Jones’ Feast: Why Humans Share Food was first published by Oxford University Press as a hardcover in 2007. And again in 2008 in Oxford, but this times as a paperback edition. You can find it on amazon for close to eighteen dollars as a paper copy, seven dollars for a hard copy and fourteen dollars for a digital copy. The digital copy is available under the ISBN: 978-0199533527.
I hope this review was helpful and you enjoy the book.

[Rhea · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good history of food, feasting, and food culture. It has more to do with human choices than necessity, folks. If food was just about getting sustenance, the old and infirm would have a hard time eating and there would be no such thing as the circular meal around the hearth. For humans, the author argues, eating is a social and cultural act as much as it is about survival. There are a few places where I question the research (e.g. I've read conflicting information), but overall I really enjoyed it.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first half was really interesting and I liked how he set up each chapter with a brief imagined narrative of foodways in the past. Unfortunately, it seemed he missed a lot of major points, especially as he moved forward in time and he became overly focused on the importance/utilization of food in Europe. Still a good intro to the archaeology of food though.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yeay! Would be a 5 but for some editing issues. I highly recommend to anyone interested in food, socialization, or anthropology.

[Lucinda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too, academic even for me.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating.

[Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting info but seemed a little unfocused. Some well chosen illustrations.