The Life of Hinduism: Ritual Food Preparation- Bryan Trumble

The Life of Hinduism by Stratton Hawley and Vasudha Narayanan is a compilation of real life accounts of modern day Hindu lifestyles. In the first account of the book the author gives an account of Ramachandran’s ( a modern Hindu) day. The part of his day that I found most interesting and related most to the class dealt with prashad. Prashad is the blessed food that:
“fills them [Hindus] with divine energy fo the deity to whom they have prayed, in the same way that Christians believe that by partaking of the bread and wine in Holy Communion they accept the spirit of Christ into their bodies”
The idea of divine or scared presence in food relates back very strongly to tribal cultures.
Many tribal cultures we have looked at have demonstrated the idea that food, both plant and animal, is given to them by the gods. Therefore they are extremely grateful for the food which they receive and have many rituals surrounding the eating and using of the food. The native of Papa New Guinea for instance only allow wounded soldiers, children, and lactating women to eat pork, or any kind of meat for that instance. In the video we watched in class, Seasons of the Navaho, it showed how they go through certain rituals moving from location to location so that they can get the food they need throughout the year to survive.
It was interesting to note how similar these concepts of food are when the cultures are so different. The use of food however is just as different as the cultures. In certain religious very strict eating habits are kept. Hindu’s will not eat beef, Jews will not eat un-kosher food, and Christians tend to always say grace before they eat. However, as much as these rituals resemble the practices of tribal cultures there is one main difference. Modern culture greatly waists food.
In a pastoral or tribal society there would be extremely little if any un-wasted food. That which could not be eaten such as the bones, would be used for tools or ritual rights. Other parts of the animal/ plant that could not be eaten would be used for countless other things such as ritual right, feed for animals, or soil fertilizer. I think it is sad that with all the technology thriving in ‘modern’ culture we make a less efficient use of our materials than other cultures who have less than half of the technological advancement we posses.