Sustenance for the Body & Soul

The food-secure and/or privileged worldwide no longer eat and drink simply to maintain life itself. They have the advantage and choice to regard "sustenance" not just as fuel for the body/machine but as a source of pleasure and entertainment for the mind/intellect. This enhanced concept of "sustenance" embraces all the senses: visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory and tactile, thus including not just food & drink but ceremonies & art forms dealing with them. This book explores the substantive ways food & drink impact human existence. The work comprises five parts: medicine; ceremonies; literature & cinema; art & artists; space/architecture & advertising/art. Food & drink start with the physical, morph into nutrition, the most basic requirements for organic life, but progress from the beginning of physical process to ceremony and expression. The result and the experience highlight physiological and sensual concepts, and indeed, preference. Food & drink staples are determined by geographic availability and cuisine & beverage are closely associated with culture & ethnicity. Contributor exploration is wide-ranging: Aztec, Mexican & Spanish medicine; African & Roman Catholic rites; cookbook discourse and socio-gender influence; literature, including cultural comparisons of cooking and cooks; preparation & representation of food & drink as artistic endeavours, including by Latin American women, and types of inspirational "fodder", especially in the context of Picasso's art in Spain & France, & Spanish wine museums & labelling. Sustenance for the Body & Soul is the seventh book in the Hispanic Worlds series, details of which are available on the press website.