Food: The paradox of the most egoistic act turned into the most social ritual

Source: Simmel's paradox: When biological egoism turns into a social bond

"Of all human affairs, the one most common to them is that of eating and drinking... yet this very act is the most egoistic, the most isolating, and the one in which a person is completely limited to himself. What I think, I can convey to others... but what one person eats, no other person can eat... Nevertheless, it is precisely in this physical and immediate phenomenon... that the meeting of people with one another is built."

Georg Simmel, "Sociology of the Meal" (1910)

Explanation: From dragging prey into a corner to the shared meal: How humans invented the social ritual

Georg Simmel, one of the founding fathers of sociology, points to a fascinating paradox: eating is the most private act there is (food enters the body, and each person has their own distinct experience), yet we have turned it into the central social event of human culture. Unlike animals that drag their prey into a corner, humans created "the meal"—a ritual in which we overcome biological egoism through sharing, manners, and symmetry (plate opposite plate).

Perspective: From *zimmun* (communal blessing) to zombies: How screens robbed us of the intimate meal

Jewish law established special blessings for a meal, as distinct from mere eating. A meal includes Birkat Hamazon (Grace After Meals) recited with a zimmun, and over wine shared together one recites HaTov VeHaMeitiv ("He who is good and does good"), celebrating the shared good of all those gathered around the table. But the meal is in danger today: unlike in the past, when the table was a tribal hearth, smartphones and social media have now made the meal mass-consumed and superficial. We have become culinary voyeurs, consuming images of abundance while remaining starved for intimacy. Food, meant to be our social glue, is turning into yet another screen separating us.

Going Deeper: The fork as a cultural weapon: How table manners tamed human instinct

Historian Norbert Elias (The History of Manners, 1939) explored the development of table manners (such as using a fork). He argued that the transition from eating with one's hands to eating with utensils was intended to create a "buffer" and restrain primal impulses and violence around the table. Manners were society's way of "taming" the human appetite.

We might divide eating into three categories: the first is satisfying hunger and the palate; the second is eating as culture (aesthetics, flavors, tradition); and the third is eating accompanied by values (blessing the food, vegetarianism, sharing, family and religious gatherings).

Culture: The Last Supper: When the shared table becomes a stage for loyalty and betrayal

Most scholars agree that the famous supper in da Vinci's painting was actually a Passover seder meal. It is the ultimate combination: on one hand, the Jewish Seder—a meal designed as "consciousness engineering" with a set script (the Haggadah) and symbolic foods (matzah and bitter herbs) meant to transmit memory; on the other hand, the human drama—the moment when the shared table becomes a test of loyalty, but also of betrayal. Da Vinci illustrates how this very act of meticulous ritual dining can serve as the most explosive stage.