FROM COOKING TO EATING IV MEETING OF ECONOMY IN THE 1st MILLENIUM BC. CAUDETE DE LAS FUENTES (Valencia) OCTOBER 22nd and 23rd, 2009

	Food is an vital (day-to-day) need. The fact of eating in solid as well as in liquid form, goes beyond the simple human nutrition due to the fact that even the simplest act of transformation of nourishing products it is determined by cultural behaviors. The idea of pleasure, the taboo or the sensitive experiences are narrowly associated with the process of consuming food and to the cultural practice that is considered to be suitable. In addition, the commensality, in other words to eat and to drink in company, defines the social group and makes possible experiences of socialization, which are so diverse as the food and drink consumption practices. These considerations have been a constant assumed in many anthropologic studies but rarely they have accompanied neither of the study of their material dimensions nor of all their historical depth. Here a wide and fruitful field is opened for the archaeological analysis of the daily and festive nourishment, from points of view that integrate the cycle of the production, the exchanges and the consumption in a historical perspective.This Meeting tries to to bring together specialists on the western Mediterranean Protohistory  to explore and debate questions related to the nourishment during the first millennium B.C. The topics could be as diverse as food and drink are themmselves, but in this Meeting we will seek to approach especially the diet, the containers and used equipments and the culinary practices from several perspectives: - Culinary practices: what, how, when, who does cook? (Section A) - The way in which the nourishment helps to define the social group and to increase the differences     in styles of consumption and social practices (Section B) - The relationships among cuisine, nourishment and gender (Section C) - The cultural differences in diets and in equipments associated with culinary practices: tablewares,     utensils, facilities (Section D) - The social role of alcoholic drinks: differences in drinks, spaces or consumption patterns (Section E) Definitively, we claim that all the participants share the common aim to discuss probably the most important aspect of the human experience, the nourishment, as a developer of the variety of behaviors in the past. The Meeting is constructed from nine invited presentations organized in different sessions followed by a debate. In addition, we try to extend the participation to the major number of interested researchers and scholars through the presentation of posters, which must fit the topicsdescribed previously above.
	Departament de Prehistòria i Arqueologia de la Universitat de València. Servei d'Investigació Prehistòrica (SIP) i Museu de Prehistòria de la Diputació de València. Ayuntamiento de Caudete de las Fuentes.