Food, Ritual and Society: A Study of Social Structure a
Author:
Per Löwdin
Category: Anthropology 
Popularity:
The study explores the relationships between food, ritual and social organisation among the Newars of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. The unit of analysis is the significance of food:
i) in terms of significant and
ii) functionally, in the interaction among various social categories. The study concludes that food and customs immediately connected to it, express various social relationships: e.g., hierarchy according to caste and seniority, patrilineal cohesion and solidarity, kinship?networks, and affiliation to the local cults.
Through the prescribed participation in certain feasts the individual's social position and identity within his own group and in relation to other groups of a similar order are expressed. Simultaneously as certain persons are prescribed to attend, others are proscribed from participating. It is also established that certain foods in some contexts have clear-cut meanings: signifying, for example, contraction of marriage, the gender of a new-born child, or a wish for purity.
Previously unpublished data from the Newar culture is presented, particularly with reference to the jyapu and Urya castes. This data has been collected during 14 months of field work among the Newars.
Anthropology
