Food Taboos Lecture 9 PDF

Food Taboos • Appetite: The psychology of eating and drinking 1 1 Introduction • There are, as we have seen, many causes of individual differences in food choice • Perhaps the most powerful influence over what we eat is the culture in which we are raised • Our culture defines for us all what is a...

Food Taboos • Appetite: The psychology of eating and drinking 1 1 Introduction • There are, as we have seen, many causes of individual differences in food choice • Perhaps the most powerful influence over what we eat is the culture in which we are raised • Our culture defines for us all what is and what is not food • The aim of today's lecture is to examine how this might occur by examining some specific examples 2 2 Food taboos • Nutritious and edible things that a culture does not tolerate as‘food’ have been called‘food taboos’ • Taboo derives from the Polynesian concept of to “set-apart” • We will start by looking briefly at theories of food taboos and who they apply to • We will then examine four specific examples – Human flesh (currently universally pervasive) – Pigs (in Jewish and Muslim cultures) – Cows (in Hindu culture) – Insects (currently pervasive in Western cultures) • Finally, we will look at ‘becoming a vegetarian’ as this reflects two key aspects of food taboos in general – Initiation (how a taboo gets started) – Moralisation (how an attitude gets turned into a value [i.e., taboo-like]) 3 3 Taboos - general • Food taboos fall into three general categories – Religious - many contain complex systems of prohibitions • Islam (Halal vs Haram) & Jewish (Kashrut) – very similar – Pork, monkey, dog, cat (omnivores & carnivores) » Kashrut criteria for ‘kosher meat’ are a cloven hoof and chews cud – – – – – – Appropriate slaughter (to minimise suffering) Avoidance of blood products (contamination) Avoidance of carrion Limited sea food (scaly things only) No insects, except locusts The rules are complicated and conflicting, and many Islamic and Jewish scholars devote considerable energy to their interpretation • Hinduism (Ahinsa - concept of non-violence) – Around 30% of Hindu’s are lacto-vegetarians » Mainly in India, location of most of the world’s vegetarians – All universally avoid beef and all beef products 4 4 Taboos - general • Societal - Generally specific to a geographical region (and later to its diaspora) – Pets are a good example • • • • Dogs (Korea/China) Roof hares (Cats in China) Horses (in France) Guinea pigs are widely eaten in Peru (around 65 million per year see L from Cusco cathedral) • Intra-cultural - Typically to women and children – Handling of food during parts of the menstrual cycle – Avoidance of specific foods during pregnancy (danger-related beliefs) – Avoidance of specific foods during infancy (magical effects – small animals for small children) 5 5 Theories of Food Taboos - 1 • Aesthetics - Taboo foods are just disgusting – This may be a consequence not a cause (e.g. insects) – It is a redescription of the phenomenon not an explanation – We learn to be disgusted, we are not born that way • Compassion - Avoidance of harm to animals – Some specific taboos (notably meat) may have their basis in this • Moral vegetarianism – Characterised by disgust to meat and by its resistance to change (i.e., a value) • Buddhism and Hinduism – More complicated for Buddhists, where someone else can accrue the bad karma of killing (Buddha and rotten pork) – but all essentially about minimising harm • Halal and kashrut slaughter – Speed and painless death are the aims 6 6 Theories of Food Taboos - 2 • Divine commandment - Godly instructions – Depends upon literalistic interpretation (unassailable) – However, it is notable that every religious system with food rules has a lot of people arguing over how they should be interpreted • For example, kashrut allows consumption of locusts. Some view this as a synonym for insect while others regard it as being specific to just locusts • Ecology – Do not destroy your environment – Food choices which are driven by ecological necessity which then become culturally enshrined – This theory is quite promising and can offer an explanation for avoidance of pig and cow meat in particular environments and the presence of cannibalism in others • Health and sanitation (e.g., Tapeworms) – Avoidance of parasites and diseases – Many pregnancy and child-related taboos claim to be of this type 7 7 Theories of Food Taboos - 3 • Ethnic identity – Food defines who you are – Food styles tend to be resistant to change, along with taboos, and thus define you as a member of that culture – so important for a person’s sense of identity – This may explain how they are preserved but it is not so good at explaining how they got started • Natural law – It is just wrong to eat _____! – A redescription rather than an explanation • Self restraint/denial – A concept found in many religions – Taboos result from denying immediate gratification or penance – Easter (Ash Wednesday & Good Friday), Ramadan, Yom Kippur • Sympathetic magic - You are what you eat – Fictitious tribe experiment in US, Turtle eaters and Wild Boar eaters • Turtle eating tribe judged to be good swimmers and long lived • Wild boar eating tribe judged to be good runners and heavily built • Taboos shaped by symbolic resemblances – red meat and masculinity, vegetarianism and femininity 8 8 Taboos - Eating human flesh • The first question we have to ask is whether people in general do regard eating human flesh as ‘disgusting’ and ‘diabolical’ - well do they? – In most countries it is not illegal • Germany, Armin Meiwes & Bernd-Juergen Brandes; the former’s conviction initially being for manslaughter (murder only on his re-trial) – It is not specifically prohibited in the bible • The Catholic church spoke in favour of the Andes survivors – Interestingly these may reflect the basic nature of our repulsion towards eating human flesh - it is so obvious and disgusting, it does not need to be said 9 9 Is it risky eating human flesh? • Is there any obvious reason why it is a bad idea? – Nutritional • No - It offers all the same advantages of any meat – Disease • Blood borne diseases – No difference in risk profile to eating bush meats (which are not risk free SIV/HIV, 1930) – HIV and Hep A & B can all be transmitted from dead bodies • Prions – A prion is an abnormal protein that once ingested causes other prion proteins in the body (especially the brain) to fold in a similarly abnormal way – Humans can catch prion diseases from animals (BSE crisis in the UK, 1980s) – And from eating people - Kuru (funeral ritual that involved eating dead relatives, with women & children getting the brain). This prion disease virtually exterminated the PNG Fore people between 1950-1970 • There is a risk… but no more so than with other meat 10 10 Was it always taboo? • Neolithic (C5000BC) cannibalism – Many Neolithic sites have bone dumps – These contain the remnants of the inhabitants meals – These bone dumps also contain human bones • Typically the same bones as with animals – And importantly in the same proportions • Same cut and stripping marks on the bones • Same marrow extraction patterns – Evidence from human coprolites containing human myoglobin, point definitively to human flesh eating • This evidence is important primarily as some anthropologists vehemently deny that anyone ever ate human flesh 11 11 Fillet Skinning Dismember Note similar proportions for animal and human bones… 12 12 Neolithic flesh eating • Balancing selection – Evidence comes from genetic resistance to prion diseases • There is a significantly higher than expected prevalence of the heterozygous form (i.e. Aa) than of the two homozygous forms (i.e. aa, AA) of a gene coding for the prion protein • This is very unusual, as normally the aa or AA (homozygous) forms would come to predominate • The heterozygous form offers some protection against prion diseases (it delays onset until late in life) • Rates of the heterozygous form are now very high in the Fore people • The suggestion is that the higher than expected prevalence was driven by the selective advantage in heterozygotes who were able to eat human flesh without consequences for reproduction • Crucially – rates are much higher of the heterozygous form in all human populations (relative to what would be expected), suggesting that cannibalism may once have been endemic in humans 13 13 Regular consumption • Regular consumption of human flesh has occurred under five conditions – Cultural for food (Aztecs) – • At its height up to 250,000/year – – – – Famine for food (e.g., Cairo [12thC]; Leningrad siege WWII) Cultural funeral/war (e.g., Fore) Accident for food (e.g., Donner Party) Criminally insane (e.g., Albert Fish, Jeffrey Dahmer) • We will examine the first and second, as these are most pertinent to the lecture 14 14 Aztecs I • • • • • At the height of the Aztec empire, around 0.25M people/year were ritually sacrificed This is around 1% (per year) of the entire Meso-American population in the C14th There are many contemporary accounts from Cortes down (see below) The whole structure of their empire was built around providing a supply of non-Aztec flesh Most of these individuals were captured by raiding parties and then fattened in wooden cages prior to sacrifice “I must now tell how in this town we found wooden cages made of lattice-work in which men and women were imprisoned and fed until they were fat enough to be sacrificed and eaten. We broke open and destroyed these prisons and set free the Indians who were in them. But the poor creatures did not dare run away. However, they kept close to us and escaped with their lives. From now on, whenever we entered a town our captain’s first order was to break down the cages and release the prisoners, for these cages existed throughout the country. When Cortes saw the great cruelty he showed the chiefs of the town how indignant he was and scolded them so furiously that they promised not to kill and eat anymore Indians in this way. But I wondered what use all these promises were, for as soon as we turned our heads, they resumed their old cruelties.” Diaz, 1520 15 15 Aztecs II • The victims were taken to the top of the pyramids, had their heart cut out with an obsidian knife and then the carcass was rolled down the pyramid • The body was then dismembered and the legs and arms were cooked and eaten, usually as a stew with chilli and tomato • Why had this systematic flesh eating arisen? 16 16 Aztecs III • Unlike any other area of the earth Meso-america had no large game (except Llama/Alpaca) or domestic animals (except Guinea pigs – but not available in this location) • The populace lived on maize, algae and beans – This was a protein deficient diet – It was also very vulnerable to famine • It appears that institutionalised flesh eating arose as a direct consequence of this lack of protein, with the bodies of the sacrificial victims being used as a way of ensuring the loyalty of the Aztec warrior class to the King – If you joined a raiding party and captured someone they were then yours to eat – This could provide meat for you and your extended family 17 17 Aztecs IV • There was an additional benefit • During drought/famine more victims were needed to appease the angry gods (thus producing more food) • Cortes and the Spanish conquistadores soon put a stop to this and extinguished this remarkable meat-eating culture for ever • Notice here how the unique ecological position of the Aztecs (general absence of farmed meat or hunted meat, vulnerability to famine, and a diet deficient in protein) contributed to this unusual dietary pattern 18 18 Famine and meat • Although we know that people will engage in cannibalism under dire necessity, it is rare to find detailed accounts of this because it is usually seen as an aberration • Yet there are instances in history where flesh eating has become widespread • Such instances also tend to occur with a break down of social structures (i.e. law and order) and the Cairo famine of the 12th C is a good example • This famine was also recorded in some detail too 19 19 The Cairo famine • Failure of the grain harvest on the Nile delta in 1201 led to one of the worst famines of the middle ages • The famine was recorded by Abd al-Latif an Iraqi doctor who practiced medicine there • The following are quotes taken directly from his description of events which ensued in the year of the famine… 20 20 Abd al-Latif I • ‘I saw one day a women with a head wound being dragged through the market. They had seized her while she was eating a small roast child. The people in the market paid not the slightest attention… for they had become so accustomed to such sights’ • ‘The children of the poor, those who were young or had no one to care for them were scattered all through the town. Men and women alike lay in wait for these unhappy children, carried them off and ate them’ • ‘This mania for eating people became so common among the poor that the majority of them perished in this way’ 21 21 Abd al-Latif II • ‘A colleague of mine was approached by a man to accompany him to the home of an invalid. He allowed himself to be taken into the entry of a half ruined house but the look of the place alarmed him, he stopped on the stairs whilst his companion went ahead. As he did so he heard the man’s crony say “after taking so long have you at least brought some good game?”. These words struck terror in the doctors heart and he managed to flee’ • ‘This hideous calamity I have just described struck the whole of Egypt. There was not a single spot where eating people was not common’ 22 22 Leningrad siege 1941-1944 • A more contemporary example is the Nazi siege of Leningrad in WWII • There were many instances of people eating dead bodies (around 300/month were caught and arrested), but far fewer of people actively killing to obtain ‘meat’ (around 50/month caught and arrested) • Killing for ration cards was far more common 23 23 Cannibalism conclusion • Our aversion to human flesh (women and children being most tasty - reportedly “beef like”) is, it appears, culturally sanctioned • When the culture embraces its consumption (arguably for ecological reasons in the case of the Aztecs) or when hunger dominates and there are no cultural restraints, many people indulge • What about other food taboos - do these have an ecological basis too? 24 24 Pigs, Cows & Insects • Pigs - Why do Muslims and Jews avoid eating this animal? – Coprophagy? Pigs eat faeces, but then again so do cattle and chickens – Tape worms? Pigs raised in hot arid climates in fact rarely transmit these parasites – Other diseases? Sheep and cattle represent far more serious threats to health (via transmissible disease) than pigs, namely Anthrax & Brucellosis • Anthrax is often lethal, Brucellosis is chronic but can have unpleasant consequences • Could the explanation be more prosaic? 25 25 Pigs – an ecological explanation • The only food available for pigs in hot arid climates is food also eaten by people • If cultivatable land is limited, then pigs are in direct competition with us for food • Better then to rely upon goats, cattle and sheep all of which eat grass - inedible to humans • The argument is a simple one: Ecological necessity may in some, if not many instances, dictate practices which then become enculturated 26 26 Cows • Similar arguments can be used to explain avoidance of eating cows’ flesh – The notion here is of the need to protect (in India) both the main source of motive power and a very valuable protein source – If you eat your cow in times of famine, then you will have no milk, nothing to pull your plough or to move your cart – The animal can not be rendered ‘unclean’ like the pig, because contact with it is essential for farming, so instead it is deified 27 27 Insects • Insect eating is approved in many cultures – The bible sanctions the consumption of locusts, grasshoppers and beetles – Around 80% of the world’s population currently consume insects from many different species • In Northern Italy children eat sweet moths • In Sardinia they eat cheese with live maggots in it – We unknowingly eat about 0.5kg/yr • Peanut butter, flour and noodles • Insect eating is generally precluded in Westernised countries, which may simply reflect the easy availability of rich protein sources from meat and dairy products • It is interesting to speculate whether this will change if meat (as is likely) becomes progressively more expensive due to its environmental costs 28 28 Vegetarianism in the West Could a meat taboo emerge? • Vegetarianism has a long history in Asia (India being home to 70% of the world’s vegetarians) • In the west, moral vegetarianism is a British phenomenon originating in the latter part of the 19th C • It has since WWII gained considerable momentum – – – – In the US 3.2% are vegetarian or vegan (about 10 million people) In Europe this varies from 2-4% of the adult population In Australia it is similar at around 3% These figures increase markedly if you ask about reducing meat intake, choosing vegetarian dishes or contemplating a vegetarian diet (in all of these cases between 10-25% endorsement) • Why? 29 29 Moral? • Many vegetarians do not like the idea of killing animals for food • It would appear that this is primarily a moral choice, rather than one driven by ecology as we have argued for the other food taboos considered here • But maybe not… • Vegetarianism shares a considerable attitudinal overlap with ‘green politics’ • Indeed, the environmental and social impacts of mass meat production are considerable 30 30 Impacts of meat production - 1 • It takes a lot of energy, vegetable matter and water to raise an animal for slaughter – Oil input to produce beef is 10 times that for producing an equivalent amount of wheat – 50% of US water supply goes to animal production – 80% of agricultural land in the US is for animal production – 90% of the US soy crop, 80% of the corn crop and 70% of the wheat crop goes to animal production 31 31 Impacts of meat production - 2 • Animal production generates a lot of waste • 20% of US methane (a potent greenhouse gas) emissions come from animal production • The US National Academy of Sciences and the US Public Health Association say “Pollution from massive animal factories jeopardise health in rural communities. Bearing no resemblance to a traditional farm, packing 1000’s of animals into a small space, they produce as much waste as a small city” • With a world to feed can we really afford to eat meat indeed - if US grain was all diverted to feeding people an extra 800 million could be fed • Is vegetarianism simply the start of a major social change in our attitudes to meat based upon its ecological costs? • Could meat in general become a new taboo? 32 32