Benedek Csaba – H. Bathó Edit – Gulyás Katalin – Horváth László – Kaposvári Gyöngyi szerk.: Tisicum - A Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok Megyei Múzeumok Évkönyve 14. (2004)

Erotic and Fertility Symbols in the Culture of Nutrition

ZSOLT SÁRI EROTIC AND FERTILITY SYMBOLS IN THE CULTURE OF NUTRITION Both eroticism and gastronomy are integrál parts of humán existence, both are parts of the biological survival of mankind, behind which there is not only the biological activities, but alsó a manifold and complex culture. In my lecture I am trying to outline the linking points of the two areas using examples mainly from folklóré. I wish to illustrate the various erotic phenomena that are connected to food and eating habits in two thematic units I. Various foods, plants and provisions as erotic symbols (leeguminous plants, celery, artichoke, carrot, doughnut, cornflour pudding, biscuits, scrambled eggs and different drinks) II. The erotic and fertility symbols that appear at different meals (wedding feasts, Luca's Day, St Andrew's Day, Christmas, fairs and church-ales) Hungárián folklóré has been interwoven with erotic and phallic symbols and verbal allusions, and in recent decades we have witnessed a bifold process. On the one hand, individualism and freedom have run intő a kind of libertinage, there are more and more open hints at eroticism and sexuality. While earlier one had to know a sort of 'language' to recognis the erotic contents put intő the language of flowers, today it is a lot more direct. What has remained, though, is the form and visual language, communication in symbols, images or in myths. With the aid of symbols one can understand the hidden contents. These are "not merely needless creatures of the psyche; they fill a need and they have a function: they reveal the most secret ways of existence". 280