Articles

Snert. Ritual-liturgical measurement and recipes for social capital

Authors

  • Cas Wepener

Abstract

The questions of how social capital is measured as well as how it is generated have both received a lot of attention in recent years. This article is an attempt at making a modest contribution towards addressing these issues, and specifically also as a contribution from the fields of Liturgical and Ritual Studies. It is argued that commensality can be taken as both lens/barometer with regards to the presence or absence of social capital as well as being a potential generator of social capital. In order to arrive at this conclusion regarding food and the eating habits of humankind, the phenomenon of commensality and its relation to social capital is approached here from three different angles, namely Social Anthropology, New Testament Studies and Ethnography.

Author Biography

Cas Wepener

Dr. Cas Wepener (1972) studied Theology and Liturgy in Stellenbosch and Tilburg. Currently he is a minister in a Dutch Reformed congregation in Cape Town South Africa, parttime lecturer in Liturgical Studies and research associate at the Department of Practical Theology of the Faculty of Theology at the University of the Free State and is leading a research project on ‘Religious ritual and social capital formation’ at Stellenbosch University.

Published

2009-12-09

Issue

Section

Articles