Portions are Growing Bigger!

Got this article off a friend's facebook, apparently the LA times recently reported research have shown that Last Supper Helpings have Grown.  

While most people are probably inclined to brush this off as yet another example of scholars having way too much time on their hands, the sociologist in me is actually genuinely excited about this!  

Over the course of the millennium, the Wansinks found that the entrees depicted on the plates laid before Jesus' followers grew by about 70%, and the bread by 23%. 

As entree portions rose, so too did the size of the plates -- by 65.6%.

The apostles depicted during the Middle Ages appear to be the ascetics they are said to have been. But by 1498, when Leonardo da Vinci completed his masterpiece, the party was more lavishly fed. Almost a century later, the Mannerist painter Jacobo Tintoretto piled the food on the apostles' plates still higher.

I mean seriously isn't amazing how society and its norms pervade every single aspect of what we understand, yes even our historical understandings of the world?  We look at history always through colored glasses tainted by all we already know, by all we assume and by all we hope.  Even supposed unchanging things like the the image of the Last Supper bears the marks of all that we are today.  No, I'm not advocating that this change somehow invalidates anything, but rather, its important to recognize change even in things that we assume don't or won't.  The old adage is true:  The only constant is change.