Food and Death: Foodways and Communities in the Danza general de la muerte

The late medieval text Danza general de la muerte, the Iberian version of the Dance of Death, in which Death personified meets, greets and reaps victims from all walks of life, is full of allusions to food and drink.1 In this anonymous late fourteenth-century or early fi eenth- century poetic dialogue, Death personified speaks with one victim a er another, and in their dialogues we find food and the rituals of its consumption playing an important role in defining the vari- ous characters and revealing why it is their moment to die. In this chapter, I examine how the unknown author of the Danza uses food (among several other elements, including clothing and language) to mark inclusion in or exclusion from particular social or community groups. Food is one element in the construction and representation of a whole spectrum of cultural attributes, including religious types (Jew, Christian), social status (rich, poor), and types of learned profession- als (the doctor, the abbot).