Pedro de Orrente, Los peregrinos de Emaús, c. 1635-1640 

If there is a domestic area where etiquette reigns, surely it is the dining room. Table manners are just the basic catechism of an elaborate theology of food and eating. Habits and rituals intertwine to weave a dense fabric of identities and differences: the ceremonies of the meal unite and separate, hierarchize and arrange, singularize and diffuse, form patterns of individual and social recognition...
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