The Behes theme for the 2023-24 season is ‘Universe On My Plate’.

This is the
resource on which all the motions this year (up to MB ‘24) will be based.
Go through the leading questions and pointers mentioned under each subsection,
familiarize yourself with the suggested terms, and enjoy our suggested works
around the theme. Take a deep breath, relax and explore. Happy researching!

I. HISTORY OF FOOD

● Why did human beings start farming and agriculture? Was it purely out of
necessity? Did early humans have an ingrained desire to own ‘something’?
Discuss with your team: Are all humans ultimately bound to switch from a
nomadic to a settled way of life? What would society look like today if we
had never started farming? Do you think there were any benefits of shifting
from a hunter-gatherer society to a society that practices farming?

● What were the earliest records that humans found befitting to keep account
of and why? Has food contributed in developing languages which humans
use to convey thoughts or is it the other way around? How is the evolution of
language connected to food? This begs the question, how has writing about
food carved a way through the thick bush of history?

● The industrial revolution fundamentally changed how we organize society,

and had far reaching impacts on how and what we eat. For example, the
concept of three meals a day is fairly new in human history. Have you heard
the phrase ‘Breakfast is the most important meal of the day’? Research with
your team: How much have corporate interests harmed how humanity eats?
The sugar industry spent decades successfully keeping knowledge of the
harmful effects of consumption away from the public. Here’s a complete
account.
 II. PHILOSOPHY AND FOOD

● The ancient Hindus believed that all food corresponds to three gunas or
prime qualities. Discuss with your team: Do you believe in the phrase ‘You
are what you eat’?

● Galen is widely considered to be the father of ‘western’ medicine. His theory

of the four humors was widely accepted until as far as the mid seventeenth
century. These early theories have consequences reaching far into the present
day - including phrases like ‘feed a fever, starve a cold’.

● Gluttony is one of Christianity's seven deadly sins. How do you think faith
affects how and what you consume? Discuss with your team: Has your
religious or spiritual life affected your food habits?

● Is creative writing a mere afterthought or a direct by-product of having the

means to express feelings and thoughts which comes as a consequence to
being sufficiently fed? Consider the following excerpt from Haruki
Murakami’s book called Pinball:

“If it's art or literature you’re interested in, I suggest you read the Greeks.
Pure art exists only in slave-owning societies. The Greeks had slaves to till
their fields, prepare their meals, and row their galleys while they lay about
on sun-splashed Mediterranean beaches, composing poems and grappling
with mathematical equations. That’s what art is. If you’re the sort of guy who
raids the refrigerators of silent kitchens at three o’ clock in the morning, you
can only write accordingly. That’s who I am.”

LITERATURE SELECTIONS:

● After a whole day of tilling fields in the sweltering sun, the farmer goes
home with an unmatched appetite. An English factory worker finds peace in
a pint with fish and chips. The lonely stockbroker relishes Siberian Albino
sturgeon at a fine dine restaurant. As long as we are discussing food, it is
only imperative to discuss the lack of it as well. Read Bukowski’s poem
“Hunger” and discuss with your team: Can starvation prove to be a creative
 force? Has nourishment been a major factor that influences what we write
and why we write? Do french fries make you less creative?

ART CONSIDERATIONS:

● How has art helped the present day humans to track food evolution? How
does food and the change in cultures relating to it shape society and its art as
a whole? Has food ever been art (quite literally), if yes, why do you think
artists began using real food as art material?

MOVIE SELECTIONS:

Ratatouille (2007)