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Around the Dining Table: Power and Significance from Past to Present

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Dissertation embargoed until 26th March 2026(1.07 MB)

Date

2022

Authors

Supervisor

Williamson, David

Item type

Dissertation

Degree name

Master of Gastronomy

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Publisher

Auckland University of Technology

Abstract

Dining around the shared table is a universal practice experienced by most people and is socially, culturally and materially influential and therefore worthy of research. This dissertation establishes a wider understanding about the complex meanings surrounding commensality, beginning with the origin of dining behaviours and their socio-cultural evolution across history through to the current day. The research aims of the study are to investigate and confirm the power and significance of the dining table, and ultimately justify why this activity remains a critically important contribution towards socialisation and identity construction and also determine how dining practices critically impact on the evolution and structure of society. Three chapters of qualitative narrative history constitute the findings; the research design is a constructivist interpretative methodological approach concluding with systematic thematic analysis. The study engages with multidisciplinary theoretical perspectives used as a framework throughout to strengthen the research, analysis and discussion. Several pertinent concepts surrounding the shared dining table and their various sociocultural contributions were identified in the findings. These include identity with regard to identity construction and food incorporation, socialisation and the concept of food, risk and identity. Gender at the table was highlighted across a range of factors together with fasting and inequality. Religious commensality in early history is qualified as the foundation for manners, and these in turn are identified as a key contributor to the evolution of ‘civilised’ society and, more widely, the structure of society during the Medieval period – a foundation that continues today. Power and the shared table is reflected throughout the dissertation, most often highlighted through hierarchy and inequality. Reciprocity and gift exchange around the shared table was a surprising and important finding, and its role in the evolution and structure of society was demonstrated. The development of manners looks at how society might be if they did not exist and explains how manners are an essential foundation for the functioning of society. Overall, the principal element that governs the shared dining table is inequality; this was interesting on many levels and it is examined across a number of interconnected contexts in the study. The in-depth analysis and robust conclusions of this dissertation have produced results which verify the fundamental and integral nature of the role of commensality in society and also positions this dissertation as a valuable and distinctive contribution to the field of gastronomy.

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https://hdl.handle.net/10292/15682

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Masters Dissertations