Nourishing Values, Feeding Differences – (Religious) Foodways ComparedInternational Workshop, Institute for the Study of Religion, Leipzig University

Date: 2 – 4 March 2023
Venue: Institute for the Study of Religion, Schillerstraße 6, room S102, 04109 Leipzig
The workshop seeks to explore how religion is related to human nutrition in a transregional andcross-cultural historical perspective. Moving beyond comparing religious dietary rules or examining
metaphorical usages of “diets as religion,” the workshop takes a specifically Religious Studies
perspective to investigate conflicts over (food norms, in which religion becomes significant fornegotiations of foodways and vice versa. The contributors look at their specific case studies along
various systematic complexes, i.e., administrative or economic regulation of supposedly religious or
non-religious diets, ‘relative taboos’ and modes of exceptions regarding what is permissible and what
is not, and the dynamics and adaptations in food regimes.
Conveners: Jörg Albrecht, Bernadett Bigalke, Nikolas Broy (all Leipzig University), and Thomas Krutak(Leuphana University Lüneburg)
Sponsored by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
If you are interested in this workshop and would like to attend, please contact j.albrecht@unileipzig.de. The public evening lecture can be attended without prior registration. We are happy towelcome interested parties.

Public Keynote Lecture
Halal, Kosher and Veg(etari)anism as Globalized Moral Economies (Johan Fischer, RoskildeUniversity)
2 March, 2023, 6:00 – 7:30 pm | Institute for the Study of Religion, Schillerstraße 6, room S 102,04109 Leipzig
This talk explores globalized halal, kosher, and veg(etari)an markets. In Arabic, halal literally means‘permissible’ or ‘lawful’. Halal is no longer an expression of an esoteric form of production, trade andconsumption primarily linked to meat in Muslim majority societies, but part of a huge and expanding
globalized market. Over the past three decades, Malaysia has become a world leader in the global
expansion of halal markets and this presentation explores why and how this is the case. In a broader
perspective, I explore halal as part of globalized moral economies that also include kosher (a Hebrew
term meaning ‘fit’ or ‘proper’) using the U.S. as a case country and veg(etari)anism in India andbeyond. Based on multi-sited fieldwork in Malaysia, the U.S., and India, I shall pay special attention
to how manufacturing companies understand and practice halal, kosher, and veg(etari)anism andalso to how social groups such as consumers are affected by and respond to religious markets as
moral economies.

Schedule

Thursday, 2 March 2023
15:00-15:30

Welcome, Opening remarks

15:30-17:00

Panel I: Theoretical Introduction: Foodways and/in Religions
Jörg Albrecht (FOR 2344 Multiple Secularities, Leipzig University): Relations ofReligion and Foodways: Preliminary Systematic Considerations.
Jens Schlieter (University of Bern): Religious Roots of Meat Consumption: As
seen by Contemporary Vegans and Vegetarians.

17:30-18:00

Coffee Break

18:00-19:30

Keynote and Public Lecture:
Johan Fischer (Roskilde University): Halal, Kosher and Veg(etari)anism as
Globalized Moral Economies.
Joint dinner for all invited participants

19:30

Friday, 3 March 2023
9:00-10:30

10:30-10:45
10:45-12:15

Panel II: Discourses on Vegetarianism and Food Taboos in China
Vincent Goossaert (EPHE, PSL, Paris): A Typology of Religious Discourses
around Food and Drink – Thought from China.
Nikolas Broy (Leipzig University): “Vegetarian Bandits” and “Duck Egg Eaters.”
Salvationist Sects, Foodways, and Elite Prejudices in Chinese Societies since
the late Qing (1644–1911).
Coffee Break
Panel III: National Identities, Religious Norms and Food Taboos
Nico Altenhoff (Leipzig University): Kosher Dietary Rules and Jewish Identity
Politics in Israel.

12:15-13:15

Thomas Krutak (Leuphana University Lüneburg): How to avoid “beef”? – Food
Habits, distinctions, and piety of Christians in India.
Joint Lunch

13:15-15:00City tour

15:00-17:15

Panel IV: Distinguishing Christian Identities through Foodways
Ulrike Kollodzeiski (University of Potsdam): “All Things are Lawful for Me, but
all Things are not Expedient” (1 Corinthians 10,23).

Jörg Feuchter (Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften):“Have You Eaten with Heretics?” Foodways among Medieval Religious
Dissidents.

17:15-17:30
17:30-19:00

19:00

Jana Valtrová (Masaryk University): Medieval Christian perspectives on kumis
consummation among the Mongols.
Break
Panel V: Negotiating ‘Traditional’ and ‘Non-Traditional’ Religions ThroughVegetarian Foodways
Julia Hauser (University of Kassel): Shared Values or Irreconcilable
Differences? Conversations between a German Animal Rights Advocate and aHindutva Activist on the Eve of World War Two.
Stefan Rindlisbacher (University of Fribourg): Gandhi as a Life Reformer? The
Appropriation of Religious Foodways in the Life Reform Movement.
Joint dinner for all participants

Saturday, 4 March 2023
9:00-10:30

Panel VI: Women’s Religious Food Practices in Critical Tension to MedicalNorms
Katja Triplett (Leipzig University / University of Marburg): Deviation fromperinatal food taboos in nineteenth-century Japan

10:30-10:45

Bernadett Bigalke (Leipzig University): The “Bread of Heaven” is Enough for
Me: Catholic Food Discourses in Modern Western EuropeCoffee Break

10:45-11:45

Concluding Discussion