Feasting and Polis Institutions

Toward a typology of Roman public feasting.

The categories associated with modern French commensality help to illuminate various forms of Roman public dining, most notably, meals linked to events of the life cycle and religious festivals, as well as those sponsored by collegia and by the emperor himself. A comparative approach of this sort brings into sharper focus the nature of this social practice by underscoring the propensity of meal...

Fasting, feasting and the glutamatergic synapse

Obesity has reached pandemic proportions, with the United States being one of the nations most affected. Among many lines of investigation aiming to counter obesity is the examination of how energy homeostasis and feeding behavior are regulated by the brain. Feeding behavior and weight regulation are largely controlled by the hypothalamic circuitry. Key components of this circuitry are two type...

Extending POLIS with User-Defined Data Types

Introduction: Sustaining the Life of the Polis

How are publics of protection and care defined in African cities today? The effects of globalization and neo-liberal policies on urban space are well documented. From London to São Paulo, denationalization, privatization, offshoring and cuts in state expenditure are creating enclaves and exclusions, resulting in fragmented, stratified social geographies (see Caldeira 2000; Ong 2006; Harvey 2006...

The Gendered Polis in Eupolis' Cities

Ever since Antiphanes brought on the stage a character, perhaps Comedy herself, complaining that comedy was more difficult to compose than tragedy (fr. 189.17-23 K-A), it has become something of a truism to say that the poets of Old Comedy had at their disposal much richer and less generically restricted literary possibilities than their colleagues working in tragedy. Comments Postprint version...