There Must Be Food

You have one mouth and two ears. They should be used in that proportion. Standing during your meetings helps keep meetings short ( StandUpMeeting ). Eating during them can help keep you from getting into ViolentAgreement. (?)

I don't want anyone to suffer the anguish of seeing valuable colleagues eat NutraSweet. The TruckNumber is low enough as it is!

Meanwhile, at food-pushers' anonymous in Mountain View... --PhlIp

This is also one of the DatingPatterns. I can't remember where I read this, but some author stated that the first few dates a couple has focus on food and light entertainment. As the relationship develops, the entertainment is gradually replaced by affection and intimacy. But there must always be food. I believe this idea may be from Miss Manners (Judith Martin). Can anyone confirm? -- DanPuckett?

There are three possible parts to a date, of which at least two must be offered: entertainment, food, and affection. It is customary to begin a series of dates with a great deal of entertainment, a moderate amount of food, and the merest suggestion of affection. As the amount of affection increases, the entertainment can be reduced proportionately. When the affection is the entertainment, we no longer call it dating. Under no circumstances can the food be omitted. -- JudithMartin?, Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior.

This is because the consumption of food can have variable intimacy associated with it from almost none to rather a lot. This flexibility makes it appropriate for almost any dating situation.

When I was in college, a friend of mine, who was on the wagon, was dating a girl who was always on a diet. The combination of these two prohibitions (alcohol and food) made it nearly impossible for the three of us to go out and do something on a weekend.

Did you ever think that maybe the two of them wanted some time to themselves? Maybe they just told you it was impossible. :)

Possible origins ...

Most social situations improve with Food. Humans have young which mature slowly. Since the young couldn't join the hunters, they had to stay near the home with the gatherers. Even back then you had to bring home the bacon. Since the food was brought into the home ("Grog! Oogla! Daddy's Home") social customs centered on mealtimes. Many important human milestones are integrated with food to some extent (Weddings, Bar|Bat Mitzvas, Birthday Cake, Bringing food over after a funeral "This freezes beautifully").

Also, digestion releases a signal which, relayed through the pituatary gland, fixes memory. The survival value of this mechanism should be obvious. Fans of memes will note how the prohibition of eating before Mass confers fitness on the church doctrine.

(part may be moved to a page on food prohibition) There's a prohibition of eating before Mass? Is this a specific denomination? It certainly wasn't enforced in my (Catholic) family when I was growing up.

That one is easy pal. Every Sunday at noon you have to attend mass for 45 minutes, and most people have lunch after 1 pm. Clever!

I was raised Catholic and I remember the prohibition against eating before Mass. I also remember my father telling an anecdote in which an important detail hung on the fact that, in those days (early 1960s, I'd guess) the prohibition extended from midnight, Saturday (apparently this resulted in a habit of young Catholics pounding down several drinks just before the clock ticked midnight :-).

The EasternOrthodoxChristianChurch? (Russian, Greek, etc.) still requires strict abstinence from food for several hours before the Eucharist. This was once the Catholic practice, but now the Catholic fast starts at the beginning of Mass. -- JohnPlatte

Thanks for pointing that out, John. The fasting (overnight, then three hours, then one hour, in my parish) wasn't about Mass per se, it was about effectively "clearing the dietary decks" before partaking of Communion, itself symbolically a ThereMustBeFood "meal" of the transubstantiated Host. I'd bet you could even now attend mass while eating breakfast (or chewing gum) if you wanted to, though I'm sure it might get a lot of parishoners glaring and clearing their throats... and maybe some veiled comments from the pulpit, too... but it would be utterly crass to take Communion, too.

One of the reasons food is so important socially is because it is a universal physical function -- all humans, rich or poor, eat. And unlike other universal functions such as defecation or sex, it can be done communally without breaking cultural taboos regarding nudity, sexual/familial boundaries, etc., etc. As such it tends to be an extremely useful way for cultures to create mechanisms to increase social cohesion. There's no shortage of political import in many of these rituals, as well: Note how many feasts in history were financed disproportionately by the wealthiest person in the village. -- francis

an ethologist view

Just look around and you will see that many animals who are in love also eat together. This is an imitaion of the feeding of a young animal by the mother.

Well, this feeding of the loved one is not a regression into infantillity, but it is an imitation with a different purpose. Two animals in love, have to cope with a natural agression and they imitate this mother and child behaviour to create a feeling of intimacy.

Kissing is originated in feeding each other from mouth to mouth. Many animals do kiss, even if the exchange of food is missing. If you have a loved one you most likely did share food with her and you most likely did chew the same food together; Didn't your heart jump with joy when she took the chewing gum from het mouth and gave it to you to chew on?

No, it broke when she took one from someone else.

By the way sex is also an extremely useful way to strengthen a social bond

I wish you luck with your next team-building exercise...

CategoryFoodAndDrink