Blog Post Three “On Bread”

After reading Sophie Harris’s article regarding the cultural phenomenon of bread sniffing a number of things became illuminated regarding Russian culture.  From both our readings in the Domostroi and the supplemental reading for this week we have learned as a class the importance of bread in Russian culture. Not only was bread a major staple of Russian nutrition for its consumption, but for its symbol of status of wealth among a household.  Bread and salt was even expected to be offered to guests of the household as a sign of hospitality. The use of bread within a household depended greatly on the economic status and prosperity of the family, hence the tradition of sniffing bread. If a family was posh or well to do salted fish and bread would be consumed not sniffed after taking a shot of vodka.  The idea being that consuming food with your vodka would lengthen the period of sobriety, as not to have guests become too drunk too quickly. In less fortunate households however where the consumption of bread over an entire evening was not possible, a loaf or a slice may have been passed around and sniffed. Believing that breathing in the smell of the bread would also soak up some of the alcohol and making the guest less drunk.  As seen by these traditions bread takes on not only a nutritional use or life as a status symbol but use as a social actor. Bread is not simply important to the sustenance of the Russian people but it proves invaluable in the social and traditional culture of Russia as well.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *