Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to correct the dismissive attitude towards food as marker of religious identity and to engage with minority religions through a comparative approach with a careful consideration of the relationship between food and religion. It offers an analysis of how ideological, spatial, physical and temporal boundaries were formed and maintained among Christians, Jews and Muslims by the food behaviours proscribed in their scriptural sources within the larger context of Spanish religiosity. As physical reminders of the idealised separation among Muslims, Jews and Christians, meat markets served to reinforce boundaries and emphasise differences in everyday life. The book examines the role of food preparation among Jews who had converted to Christianity. In wake of the Jewish expulsion in 1492, secrecy of religious practice became a necessity for those who sought to maintain their prior religious identities in the face of Inquisitorial opposition.