Cooking, eating, drinking—these activities may seem mundane to some, but they play an important role in such highly symbolic practices as marriages, births, initiations, and funerary rites. When ritualized, the act of eating becomes an activity that requires special utensils, as varied as they may be refined: dishes, bowls, cups, spoons, and ladles, to mention but a few. Food, the foundation for any group’s survival and its members’ well-being, also allows man to relate to the beings of other realms. These practices and the multitude of objects associated with them will be the subject of L’Art de Manger: Rites et Traditions (The Art of Eating: Rites and Traditions), on view at the Musée Dapper from October 15, 2014–July 12, 2015.
Images courtesy of the Musée Dapper