A HISTORY OF FEASTING

Brian Hayden explains the social, political and cultural importance of these grand occasions

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What are some of the earliest examples of feasting?

There is no material evidence for any feasting during the very earliest years of human existence. I think that the first good indicators of feasting appear in the early Upper Paleolithic of Europe, some 30,000 years ago, when humans lived by hunting and gathering. Even stronger cases can be made for fairly substantial feasts being held in Epipaleolithic times among Natufian communities that still lived by hunting and gathering in the Near East, some 11,500 to 15,000 years ago. Shortly afterward, when people began farming, feasting became much more widespread and has since characterised virtually all agricultural cultures.

You’ve described pre-industrial historical feasting as a “powerful engine of cultural change.” Can you explain what you mean by that?