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The Art of Food Rituals
Naturecultural food rituals as refugia are a reminder of how our human response-abilities are intimately entangled with interdependence. This relational way of knowing is embraced by the concept
of ‘sympoiethics’ where our artful bodyminds become the divining instrument for enculturing art
and ethics as a practice of life. Miche expands on her concept of ‘sympoiethics’ in a conversation
with Flora;
Human existence is lived through and within a dynamic nexus of living processes. Human oppression is
intertwined with the degradation of the Earth. Authentic human fourishing emerges through restoring
an ethos where the dignity of selfhood is interwoven with a respect for place and care for our sentient,
multispecies Earth. A sympoiethics combines sympoieisis with ethics. Ethics, rooted in ethos, defnes
dwelling places where we come to know together through place-based relationships
Exchange between Miche and Flora (April 2020)
CONCLUSION
The Buddha’s enlightenment under the Bodhi tree symbolises how our human existence fourishes through our care for each other and the Earth. Consciousness and knowing arise through
embodied encounters with naturecultures which call for us to notice and value the body’s multiple
intelligences and the subtle energies which surround us (Fabre Lewin, 2012). A sympoiethics
awakens us, with and through our bodyminds, to emancipatory practices and reciprocal responsibilities for living, loving, thinking, being and acting in ways that are equitable and responsive
to our co-dependent existence (Fabre Lewin, 2019). Naturecultural food rituals create the conditions to enliven our ecological selfhood through an authentic relationship with food – experiential
rituals as refugia which are practices for transitioning towards a participatory world view and a
politics of consciousness. It is within this nexus that food is a changemaker with its role in reorienting the matter of our thinking, reshaping our landscapes and reconfguring our responseabilities as humans within the geography of our planet. In co-creating naturecultural rituals, we
are reviving thinking-feeling practices that respect each other’s embodied knowing, attend to the
voice of nature and cultivate a sympoiethics that draws its life-affrming power from our caring
for and becoming-with the living Earth.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Gratitude to all beings who have been in generous collaboration with, contribution to and enlivening
of the evolution and manifestation of FieldTable.
REFERENCES
Abram, D. (2010) Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology. New York: Vintage Books.
Apffel-Marglin, F. (2011) Subversive Spiritualities: How Rituals Enact the World. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Ballantyne-Brodie, E. (2018) ‘Designing convivial food systems in everyday life’. Paper presented at
ServDes2018 - Service Design Proof of Concept, School of Design, Politecnuio di Milano, Available
online https://ep.liu.se/ecp/150/086/ecp18150086.pdf [Accessed 15.3.2021].
Barad, K. (2012) ‘Interview with Karen Barad: Matter feels, converses, suffers, desires, yearns and remembers’. In Dolphijn, R. and Van der Tuin, I. (eds), New Materialism: Interviews and Cartographies,
pp. 44–70. Michigan: Open Humanities Press.
Barthel, S., Crumley, C., and Svedin, U. (2013) ‘Bio-culturalrRefugia: Safeguarding diversity of practices for
food security and biodiversity.’ Global Environmental Change 23: 1142–1152.
Berry, W. (1993) Standing on Earth. Ipswich: Golgonooza Press.
Berry, T. (2006) Evening Thoughts: Refecting on Earth as Sacred Community. San Francisco: Sierra.
Charlton, N. (2008) Understanding Gregory Bateson: Mind, beauty, and the sacred Earth. New York: SUNY
series in Environmental Philosophy and Ethics.
Curtin, D. (1992) ‘Recipes for values’. In Curtin, D. and Heldke, L. Bloomington (eds), Cooking, Eating,
Thinking: Transformative Philosophies of Food. Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press.
The Art of Food Rituals
Naturecultural food rituals as refugia are a reminder of how our human response-abilities are intimately entangled with interdependence. This relational way of knowing is embraced by the concept
of ‘sympoiethics’ where our artful bodyminds become the divining instrument for enculturing art
and ethics as a practice of life. Miche expands on her concept of ‘sympoiethics’ in a conversation
with Flora;
Human existence is lived through and within a dynamic nexus of living processes. Human oppression is
intertwined with the degradation of the Earth. Authentic human fourishing emerges through restoring
an ethos where the dignity of selfhood is interwoven with a respect for place and care for our sentient,
multispecies Earth. A sympoiethics combines sympoieisis with ethics. Ethics, rooted in ethos, defnes
dwelling places where we come to know together through place-based relationships
Exchange between Miche and Flora (April 2020)
CONCLUSION
The Buddha’s enlightenment under the Bodhi tree symbolises how our human existence fourishes through our care for each other and the Earth. Consciousness and knowing arise through
embodied encounters with naturecultures which call for us to notice and value the body’s multiple
intelligences and the subtle energies which surround us (Fabre Lewin, 2012). A sympoiethics
awakens us, with and through our bodyminds, to emancipatory practices and reciprocal responsibilities for living, loving, thinking, being and acting in ways that are equitable and responsive
to our co-dependent existence (Fabre Lewin, 2019). Naturecultural food rituals create the conditions to enliven our ecological selfhood through an authentic relationship with food – experiential
rituals as refugia which are practices for transitioning towards a participatory world view and a
politics of consciousness. It is within this nexus that food is a changemaker with its role in reorienting the matter of our thinking, reshaping our landscapes and reconfguring our responseabilities as humans within the geography of our planet. In co-creating naturecultural rituals, we
are reviving thinking-feeling practices that respect each other’s embodied knowing, attend to the
voice of nature and cultivate a sympoiethics that draws its life-affrming power from our caring
for and becoming-with the living Earth.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Gratitude to all beings who have been in generous collaboration with, contribution to and enlivening
of the evolution and manifestation of FieldTable.
REFERENCES
Abram, D. (2010) Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology. New York: Vintage Books.
Apffel-Marglin, F. (2011) Subversive Spiritualities: How Rituals Enact the World. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Ballantyne-Brodie, E. (2018) ‘Designing convivial food systems in everyday life’. Paper presented at
ServDes2018 - Service Design Proof of Concept, School of Design, Politecnuio di Milano, Available
online https://ep.liu.se/ecp/150/086/ecp18150086.pdf [Accessed 15.3.2021].
Barad, K. (2012) ‘Interview with Karen Barad: Matter feels, converses, suffers, desires, yearns and remembers’. In Dolphijn, R. and Van der Tuin, I. (eds), New Materialism: Interviews and Cartographies,
pp. 44–70. Michigan: Open Humanities Press.
Barthel, S., Crumley, C., and Svedin, U. (2013) ‘Bio-culturalrRefugia: Safeguarding diversity of practices for
food security and biodiversity.’ Global Environmental Change 23: 1142–1152.
Berry, W. (1993) Standing on Earth. Ipswich: Golgonooza Press.
Berry, T. (2006) Evening Thoughts: Refecting on Earth as Sacred Community. San Francisco: Sierra.
Charlton, N. (2008) Understanding Gregory Bateson: Mind, beauty, and the sacred Earth. New York: SUNY
series in Environmental Philosophy and Ethics.
Curtin, D. (1992) ‘Recipes for values’. In Curtin, D. and Heldke, L. Bloomington (eds), Cooking, Eating,
Thinking: Transformative Philosophies of Food. Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press.