Title of Presentation
Food Is Money: The Origin of Money in the Sacrificial Meal and the Egalitarian Ideal
Moderator
Matthew Heard, Belmont University
Panel Title
Food, Culture, and History
Start Date
22-2-2019 8:20 AM
Location
Withers 113
Session Number
Session I
Description
The paper identifies the origin of money in the sacred rites of ancient cultures, specifically the sacrificial meal and the communal rituals appertaining to the distribution of its sacred power. After surveying the development of money as a form of food in various cultures, the paper then asks whether and how the sacred value of food might inform current discourse about the value of food and related moral questions about its distribution. In particular, the paper addresses a contemporary question in philosophy regarding distributive justice: what principle should we follow in distributing food—an egalitarian principle (i.e., the goal of eliminating inequality) or a sufficiency principle (i.e., the goal of eliminating insufficiency)? The paper argues that there are good reasons to support the egalitarian principle, but it will be shown that the demands of the sufficiency principle can be met in doing so. Furthermore, it will be shown that the ancient practice of treating food as a bearer of sacred value grounded the egalitarian principle in their societies and may serve as a model for contemporary egalitarianism.
Keywords
Money, Religion, Egalitarianism, Sacred
Food Is Money: The Origin of Money in the Sacrificial Meal and the Egalitarian Ideal
Withers 113
The paper identifies the origin of money in the sacred rites of ancient cultures, specifically the sacrificial meal and the communal rituals appertaining to the distribution of its sacred power. After surveying the development of money as a form of food in various cultures, the paper then asks whether and how the sacred value of food might inform current discourse about the value of food and related moral questions about its distribution. In particular, the paper addresses a contemporary question in philosophy regarding distributive justice: what principle should we follow in distributing food—an egalitarian principle (i.e., the goal of eliminating inequality) or a sufficiency principle (i.e., the goal of eliminating insufficiency)? The paper argues that there are good reasons to support the egalitarian principle, but it will be shown that the demands of the sufficiency principle can be met in doing so. Furthermore, it will be shown that the ancient practice of treating food as a bearer of sacred value grounded the egalitarian principle in their societies and may serve as a model for contemporary egalitarianism.
Your Title/College/Department/Program
William P. Kiblinger, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Winthrop University
I would be happy to join a panel if an appropriate one is already forming.