SUMMARY

1. Premise: Food as a (religious) culture - 2. Commensality: the convivium as an occasion for cultural and religious cohesion - 3. Sacred commensality: foods and religions - 4. Absence of substance: forbidden food, denied food - 4.1 Absence of food as a prohibition: the sacred, the impure - 4.2 Abstinence and fasting as a presence - 5. Conclusions: commensality without food.