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{"id":20421,"date":"2018-01-19T20:00:32","date_gmt":"2018-01-19T14:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/?p=20421"},"modified":"2018-01-19T02:50:43","modified_gmt":"2018-01-18T20:50:43","slug":"politics-of-the-belly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2018\/01\/politics-of-the-belly\/","title":{"rendered":"Politics of the Belly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In texts that claim to describe the origin of sacrifice (Hesiod\u2019s Theogony<\/em>; the Homeric Hymns; the Odyssey<\/em>), two things stand out. First, \u201csacrifice is a site of contest.\u201d This is represented most famously in Hesiod\u2019s account of Prometheus and Zeus, where the former tricks the latter into choosing fat and bones as his sacrificial portion. Stocking notes that \u201cthe language of contest and prestige found in these narratives also persists in later sacrificial calendars\u201d (3).<\/p>\n

The other constant is gender: \u201cin each poetic text, the protagonist undergoes a gendered trajectory from the female space of birth to the symbolic order of patriarchy. Zeus moves from Rhea\u2019s womb and the cave on Crete to his own patriarchal rule. Both Persephone and Demeter undergo this same movement, from female to male space, despite Demeter\u2019s own efforts at resistance\u201d (3-4).<\/p>\n

Stocking states his thesis: \u201cOn the one hand, sacrifice may be understood as a site of contest in the symbolic economy of prestige and deference. On the other hand, sacrifice also operates implicitly as a contest between the male and female genders over birth itself\u201d (4).<\/p>\n

This, he says, \u201callows for a broader understanding of sacrifice in Greek culture as a politics of the belly<\/em>, where \u2018belly\u2019 signifies both the male stomach and the female womb\u201d (4).<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"