Food for a Ritual Identity

At the level of a historical-religious analysis, the dietary practices that the practitioner, so-called “magician”, asks to share with the divinity suggest an interpretation of these foods as signs and/or distinctive features intended at emphasizing a ritual border – more or less crossable, depending on the context – between human and divine. On a symbolic level, the recipes bring into play a panoply of measures, ingredients and words aimed at looking for divine benevolence and communicating with the divine sphere also in a perspective of commensality. Furthermore, the examples mentioned above clearly show that the focus is not on the material elements themselves, but rather on a specific and strict sequence of behaviours and gestures performed by the practitioner.