Questions for class

As you prepare for class on Thursday, January 19, keep these questions in mind. We'll discuss them in class as we set up the terms of our semester long discussion on Judaism and food.

1) How do you characterize the role(s) food plays in culture, society and religion? What is universal about those roles? And what part(s) of those roles is/are unique, relative and or particular to individuals and individual societies?
2) How do sex and gender intersect with those roles and the play of food in society (and/or culture)?
3) What tools (analytic, metaphoric) do Barthes and Levi-Strauss give us to understand the practices of food and the meaning we ascribe to food?
4) In what way(s) does food (including food practices, assumptions about food, ignorance about food, and meaning ascribed to food) underlie American culture (particularly in S. California) and Judaism (particularly Reform Judaism)?