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A major ritual of transformation is food, and particularly
a meal. Eating is not only the ritual of hospitality and sharing (the
family gathering at home, giving a meal to a guest), but also a symbol of
transformation in itself, as the one eating transforms the actual
substance - food - into the energy of transformation - the food itself is
transformed. It is also a symbol of nature being ingested, so it is in
itself a link with nature (Levi-Strauss called cooking the mediator of the
opposition between culture and nature).
Milk and bread occupy a special place, as they are first
symbols of life itself, as the basic sustenance of society (especially one
where water was no necessarily safe to drink), and second symbols of
childhood, with the mother.
Food denied can be a symbol of the failure for
transformation to take place - Jack's mother sending him to bed without
his supper in Jack and the Beanstalk is an obvious example, as at
this point Jack has failed (apparently) in his task, and has failed at
that point to start his transformation. It might be noted that this
counter-ritual is still performed in many households, and for exactly the
same reasons (by doing something wrong, the child has failed fulfill
his/her responsibilities as a developing person, and having failed
momentarily in this ongoing transformation process is denied the ritual of
transformation, and is sent to his/her room without supper).
The places where food is stored or cooked that become
important as the repository and transformer of food, the location of the
ritual of transformation represented by the act of eating.
Ovens hold a particular importance, as an oven is first
the place where the transformation of food initially takes place, second
uses a transformation archetype (fire), and third is a symbol of the womb
(more obvious in an old-fashioned bread oven, which are round in shape)
where one of the foods of motherhood - bread - is also baked.
| Story
of Grandmother and Little Red-Riding Hood |
Food:
Bread, hot loaf, milk, cakes, flesh, blood,
wine, pot of butter, nuts
Food places and implements:
Pantry |
| Jack
and the Beanstalk |
Food:
Beans, breakfast (Jack x2, ogre x3), Jack
himself (intended), eggs, hen
note also the opposite: Jack is sent to bed without supper by his
mother
Food places and implements:
Garden (the beanstalk), ogre's kitchen,
copper (cooking pot) |
| Hansel
and Gretel |
Food:
Bread, berries, cake, sugar,
milk, pancakes, apples, nuts, Hansel (intended), Gretel (intended),
crayfish shells, dough
note also the opposites: famine, hunger, the bone Hansel substitutes
for his finger (also a Freudian image)
Food places and implements:
Ground (where the berries are), house,
bone, kettle, oven |
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