Feasting is a compelling aspect of social life, and comprehending it is crucial for better appreciating many social and cultural processes in both present and past societies. Yet, it was only about thirty years ago that scholars started to consider the matter seriously and critically, after having largely neglected it as a peripheral phenomenon. Recent systematic exploration of the subject has enabled scholars to better understand what feasts are, what their functions are, and how to detect and interpret them in the existing literature.

What are feasts? On the one hand, the term ‘feast’ describes a set of diverse practices. These practices have been grouped in various typologies differing according to the criteria used within a specific analysis. Among these criteria are, for instance, the participants (e.g. household feasts, community feasts), the cultural contexts (e.g. funerary feasts, marriage feasts, harvest feasts), and the social and economic functions of feasts (e.g. religious feasts, economic feasts). On the other hand, scholars have identified two basic characteristics that are common to all feasts. These are the communal consumption of food and drink as distinct from daily meals, and the rituality connected to it. This rituality does not necessarily have to be of a complex nature.