L9 & L10 | Food Taboos in Culture and Psychology

Food Taboos

• Appetite is the psychology of eating and drinking
• Culture defines what is and is not food
• Individual differences in food choice are influenced by culture
• Lecture aims to examine food taboos using examples

Food Taboos - General

• Nutritious and edible foods that are not considered food
• "Taboo" derives from Polynesian concept of "set-apart"
• General categories: Religious, societal, intra-cultural
• Religious taboos include Halal/Haram (Islam), and Kashrut (Jewish)
• Hinduism has "Ahinsa" - non-violence, leading to vegetarianism
• 30% of Hindus are lacto-vegetarians
• All universally avoid beef and beef products.
• Societal taboos are generally tied to geographic regions.
• Intra-cultural taboos are typically specific to women and children.

Theories of Food Taboos - 1

• Aesthetics: Taboo foods are disgusting
• Compassion: Avoidance of harm to animals
• Moral vegetarianism, resisting change
• Buddhism and Hinduism: Minimizing harm.

Theories of Food Taboos - 2

• Divine commandment: Godly instructions
• Ecology: Food choices are driven by ecological necessity.
• Health and sanitation (avoidance of parasites/disease)

Theories of Food Taboos - 3

• Ethnic identity: Food defines who you are
• Natural law: Food intake as "wrong"
• Self-restraint/denial: A concept found in many religions
• Sympathetic magic: You are what you eat.

Taboos - Eating Human Flesh

• Generally considered disgusting and diabolical
• Is there any obvious risk?
  • Nutritional: No - same as other meats.
  • Disease: Same risk as other meats.
  • Prions: A prion disease.
• Historical instances:
  • Armin Meiwes, cannibalism
  • BSE (mad cow disease) connection (fed remains)
• Neolithic cannibalism: Bone dumps, human remains etc.

Was it always taboo?

• Neolithic (C5000BC) cannibalism
• Evidence from bones and coprolites.

Balancing Selection (Neolithic Flesh Eating)

• Evidence from genetic resistance to prion diseases
• Heterozygotes are more common with cannibalism.
• Rates for heterozygous forms are high/greater with cannibalistic populations compared to predicted results, suggesting this was a selective advantage.

Regular Consumption

• Cultural reasons: Food, famine, rituals, war etc.

Aztecs I

• Ritual sacrifice 1% Meso-American population
• Captured non-Aztecs were fattened before sacrifice
• Accounts by Cortes

Aztecs II

• Victims taken to top of pyramid
• Heart extracted
• Carcass rolled down
• Body dismembered
• Cooked and eaten
• Systematic flesh eating arose from lack of protein (diet/famine)

Aztecs III

• No large game except Guinea pigs
• Mostly corn, algae, beans

Aztecs IV

• During drought/famine more victims were required to appease gods.
• Cortez and Spanish stopped such practice
• Ecological factors like meat poverty, vulnerability for famine contributed to such practices.

Famine and Meat

• Cannibalism as a response to famine.
• Cairo famine of the 12th century (historical documentation)

Pigs, Cows & Insects

• Pigs: Islam and Judaism forbid eating.
• Why? Coprophagy? Tapeworms? Diseases? Ecological factors.
• Cows: Avoid eating in India, main source of power and protein
• Insects: Approved in many cultures; around 80% of global population eat insects.

Vegetarianism in the West

• Moral vegetarianism
• Vegetarianism's environmental/social implications
• Possible for meat to become taboo due to costs.

Impacts of Meat Production

• High cost of energy, resources (water/vegetable matter, etc)
• Agriculture is greatly impacted.
• Ecological costs and social impacts of mass meat production

Conclusion

• Food taboos are present in all cultures.
• Control what we eat.
• Ecological forces cause development of taboos.
• Dietary choices affect obesity studies

Introduction (Eating)

• Importance of eating
• Management of obesity/eating disorders.
• Understanding neurobiology.
• Developing effective drugs to control eating.

Hunger

• Subjective desire to eat (psychological)
• Physiological state (nutrient depletion)
• Bodily weakness, headache etc
• Cultural considerations

Satiation and Satiety

• Loss of desire for food during an eating bout
• Objective & subjective factors
• Neural and hormonal signals.

Measuring Hunger and Satiety

• Factors involved in measuring hunger
• Experimental studies using animals.

What controls food intake?

• Hunger and satiety-driven
• Time cues (clocks)
• Short-term energy & long-term needs
• Social factors (people eating around)

Peripheral factors - Contractions I/II

• Stomach contractions
• Historical perspective
• Relationship with hunger.

Peripheral factors - Cues I/II

• Environmental cues (sounds, smells, sights, advertisements)
• Conditioning, social cues, and anticipatory behaviour.

Peripheral factors - Temperature

• Affect on appetite.
• Body temperature drops, increases hunger and vice versa.
• Cold weather increases calorie consumption (Animals).

Peripheral Factors - Season

• Seasonal impact on food intake
• Long-term studies
• Consistently increasing food consumption in autumn.

Peripheral factors – People I/II

• Presence of others affects food intake
• Family or friends versus strangers
• Social facilitation

Peripheral factors - Distraction

• Impact of TV viewing
• Social impact of consumption
• Associations with meals (time)

Peripheral factors - Mouth I/II

• Mouth and eating
• Taste and insulin
• Sensory-specific satiety

Peripheral factors - Guts

• Stomach signals
• Balloon experiments
• Nerve signalling.

Peripheral factors - Digestion

• Digestion process
• Chemicals released
• Satiety/hunger signals.

This quiz explores the concept of food taboos through psychological and cultural lenses. Topics include religious, societal, and intra-cultural taboos, along with examples from varying belief systems such as Islam and Hinduism. Discover how culture shapes our perceptions of what is considered food and the individual differences in food choices.