The Long Life of Tiny Bread

Bibliographic Data

ID8932419
AuthorsMartha Bayless (corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume130
Issue4
Pages352-372
Publication date2019-10-02
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueFolklore (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0015-587X • E-ISSN: 1469-8315
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0015587x.2019.1632035
OpenAlexW2990110992
LanguageEN
References cited26

As the staple food of England for more than a millennium, bread naturally played a prominent role in English life across the period. The many forms of breads acquired a variety of cultural meanings, some of them extraordinarily long-lived. One of the most perennial types of bread is the subject of this study: miniature round flatbread, the secular, home-produced equivalent of the Eucharist and a potent bearer of cultural meaning for nearly a thousand years. This article traces the long life of this bread-form from its beginnings in early medieval Europe, through centuries which saw its meaning remain remarkably constant, and into recent times. The article focuses on the role of these life-bestowing tiny breads in Britain, with a nod to closely related forms on the Continent. Surveying the long reach of tiny bread reveals the continuing potency of bread, ritual, and miniaturization. It raises the question: why did these ceremonial breads appear in a tiny form? This article concludes by exploring the force of tininess

Aesthetics · Art · Epistemology · Meaning (existential · Period (music · Sociology · Subject (documents · Variety (cybernetics · Culinary Culture and Tourism · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Philosophy · Religious Tourism and Spaces

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