Food Taboos

Dans La République et le cochon, l'historien et sociologue Pierre Birnbaum s'interroge sur les causes du « retour du cochon » et des messages d'exclusion alimentaire à l'égard des régimes halal et casher. Dans le chapitre introductif, l'auteur plante le décor d'une France contemporaine où se sont multipliées ces dernières années ces « soupes aux lards et aux cochons » qui célèbrent la nourriture interdite des autres. Pour lui, cette intolérance ne se limite pas aux extrêmes mais touche la droite républicaine comme le suggèrent les propos de ses plus hauts représentants : le Premier ministre Fillon et le président Sarkozy, l'un à propos de l'abattage rituel qualifié de « traditions ancestrales ne correspondant plus à grand chose », l'autre à propos du halal qui serait « au coeur des préoccupations des Français ». À gauche, François Hollande n'a-t-il pas proclamé que, lui président de la République, « le halal ne sera jamais toléré dans les cantines scolaires » ? P. Birnbaum entend ainsi traiter d'un sujet d'actualité qui dépasse les clivages partisans. Peu intéressé par l'histoire immédiate des trente dernières années, il s'emploie ici à mettre en perspective ces positions actuelles avec les débats alimentaires qui se sont déroulés dans la sphère politique depuis la fin du XVIIIe siècle. Ainsi se présente l'ouvrage très documenté d'un des principaux spécialistes de l'histoire des juifs en France, basé sur une recherche archivistique originale et destiné à expliquer une thèse communément partagée (mais jamais démontrée) : le cochon serait un marqueur identitaire de la nation française « célébré par les représentants de la nation les plus divers comme un emblème qui unifie les manières de faire, de sentir, de se réjouir de tous les citoyens » (p. 25).

Matobo district is renowned for a lot of rituals and taboos due to its association with the Njelele “sacred” shrine, which for a long time housed u Ngwali, the Ndebele spirit medium. Although the district lies within agro-ecological four which is characterised by erratic rainfall, the presence of wellmanaged wetlands has saved the local communities from the debilitating effects of droughts. The study sought to find out the role played by the rituals and taboos on wetland management in Matobo District. The study made use of a qualitative research method. Forty participants selected through random and snowball sampling methods were interviewed on the influence of the rituals and taboos on wetlands management. The majority of the participants 80% felt that rituals and taboos that are embedded in the indigenous knowledge systems of the Ndebele society, have contributed much in sustainable management of wetlands. Few of the participants (20)% felt that scientific methods should be used i...

This article presents new evidence with which to evaluate the validity of the popular picture of religious environmentalism in India. It examines accounts of a large number of incidents described in Indian language newspapers, the colonial archive, and hunting literature published between the 1870s and 1940s, in which British and other sportsmen clashed with villagers in India while hunting. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century the colonial sports-hunting obsession was in its heyday, but opposition to hunting across India was also mounting. Rural villagers, in particular, were often willing to lock into physical combat with hunters, apparently in order to protect local wildlife. Sportsmen often assumed that it was religious fanaticism that made Hindus defend the lives of what they saw as game animals, trophies, and specimens. The article provides evidence that in addition to religion, a mixture of other motivations explains Hindu interest in the conservation of certain species. Anti-colonial consciousness, assertions of local authority and territoriality, and an environmental ethic can all be identified as being at work. The end result was the increased conservation of certain species of wildlife.

Assuming that food systems are shaped by politics and social norms, this essay
endeavours to discuss the ways consumers in many industrialised societies usually
morally judge and handle food waste, as opposed to radical consumers such as
‘Freegans’, scavengers or ‘dumpster divers’. Citing theories of governmentality,
biopower and consumer behaviour, the social powers at work in the conventional food
system as opposed to resistant consumer practices may highlight the mechanisms of
wasteful behaviour. Thus, this essay intends to demonstrate that food waste mitigation
is not only a question of food waste management, but also of social taboos that need
to be uncovered and subverted in order to challenge the ways consumers value food
and the environment. It will be argued that these deep cultural and moral changes are
crucial elements to be taken into account in efficient food and environmental policy.

"Abstract
Food habits are of primary importance in order to characterize cultural identities. Recently an increasing amount of archaeological data, submitted to new archaeozoological analyses, has made possible new developments in food and nutrition studies on ancient societies. The aim of our work is to collect and study the archaeozoological evidence related to the presence of suids in the Phoenician settlements of the West Mediterranean area and to compare it with the well known information given by written source on food rules in the Syro-Palestinian world. Another aspect of the research will focus on the differences in the consumption of suids within Phoenician colonies and settlements that hosted both Phoenicians and local populations.

La disamina delle abitudini alimentari appare di primaria importanza nella caratterizzazione delle identità culturali. L’incremento dei dati archeologici e l’intensificazione delle analisi archeozoologiche stanno recentemente aprendo nuovi sviluppi agli studi relativi all’alimentazione delle società antiche.
Finalità di questo lavoro è la verifica della nota proibizione alimentare relativa al consumo della carne di maiale, attestata in alcune fonti scritte, attraverso la raccolta e l’analisi delle evidenze archeologiche relative al consumo dei suini negli insediamenti fenici e punici di Sardegna. Il quadro così delineato sarà quindi rapportato con i dati provenienti dal consumo presso le comunità indigene dell’isola, e da altre aree zone del Mediterraneo occidentale, e con le informazioni desumibili dalle fonti epigrafiche fenicie e puniche e dai testi ugaritici."

Matobo district is renowned for a lot of rituals and
taboos due to its association with the Njelele “sacred” shrine,
which for a long time housed u Ngwali, the Ndebele spirit
medium. Although the district lies within agro-ecological four
which is characterised by erratic rainfall, the presence of wellmanaged
wetlands has saved the local communities from the
debilitating effects of droughts. The study sought to find out the
role played by the rituals and taboos on wetland management in
Matobo District. The study made use of a qualitative research
method. Forty participants selected through random and
snowball sampling methods were interviewed on the influence of
the rituals and taboos on wetlands management. The majority of
the participants 80% felt that rituals and taboos that are
embedded in the indigenous knowledge systems of the Ndebele
society, have contributed much in sustainable management of
wetlands. Few of the participants (20)% felt that scientific
methods should be used in the sustainable wetlands
management

The dog followed Homo sapiens on his journey from the tropics to the Polar zone. Interaction, cooperation, and personal relationships of humans and dogs — as with a cow or horse — were combined with dog meat consumption. Food prohibitions are always a way to structure the world, often framed as religious regulations. Dog meat was largely banned in Europe and the Near East by the Abrahamic religions and was stigmatised. The forbidden practice became, in turn, a point of colonial discourse, contrasting “civilized” nations to “savages”. In Asia-Pacific, Southeast Asia, China, and Korea, dog meat is still used. However, it is considered shameful and attributed exclusively to indigenous ethnic groups. Dog meat is endowed with medicinal properties, often seen as “male” food and an aphrodisiac. The only country that openly fought for the legitimization of dog eating was South Korea. There, it was seen as a tradition and part of national identity. However, even there, the pressure of Westernization and the influence of champions of animal rights is so strong that the battle is probably lost. Dog meat consumption moves into a grey zone. This paper looks into the aforementioned issues, using the author’s materials collected in the course of anthropological fieldwork in Southeast Asia, primarily the Philippines from 1995 to 2020 and in Cambodia in 2015, 2017. (In Russian)

達悟族，又名雅美族，為台灣官方認定之十六個原住民族之一，世居在 位於台灣島東南方的蘭嶼島上。他們所使用的語言以口語方式世代相傳。
傳統的達悟族音樂主要由不同的歌謠組成，這些歌謠的傳唱成為達悟族 傳授且保存歷史、生命故事還有社會禁忌的方式。達悟族的歌曲承載著前人 們從世代的經驗中累積的智慧;並同時支持著達悟人與自然和諧共處的生活 方式，在傳統知識與經驗的傳承與教育上，也是不可或缺的工具。
本文將探討達悟族社會中禁忌是如何被定義的、禁忌在社會中的功能為 何，並且討論傳統歌謠的功能如何與社會禁忌連結，和兩者之間的關係。
關鍵字: 音樂、禁忌、口傳歷史、達悟族、雅美族、蘭嶼、生態學、民族音樂學

In this paper, I explored one of the most commonly held beliefs related to food consumption among Southern Luzon families including mine—the abstinence from anything buwigan during the period of wake and burial of a deceased kin member. Through the more social scientific lens on traditional beliefs, I described the practice from an emic standpoint drawing away from the pejorative notion of “superstition” towards explaining the sociocultural and adaptive functions they play within the wider Filipino social structure. I have established that customary beliefs, such as the buwigan food and eating taboo in Marindukanon culture, serve an important role in the solidarity and adaptation of Filipino individuals to the experience of loss and grief.

Attempts are often made to link ethnographic information with animal remains from archaeological sites. This is
often productive where the sites excavated have historical, traditional, and/or oral links with modern populations.
Even so, the analyst must proceed with care. Such links become much more tenuous farther back in time and are
problematic to say the least. In this paper, we illustrate the uses and problems associated with ethnographic information
by way of four topics: the Central Cattle Pattern, substitute burials, divining bones and food taboos. We
compare ethnographic information with material excavated and assess the value of this information against time
and place. We demonstrate both the usefulness of ethnographic information, but also the problems associated with
applying ethnographic information to the distant and not so distant past.

Impurity as issue related to food is well known as typical of the Hindu and Jewish traditions. Since the 18th century the studies in Italian folklore have shown various ritual behaviours whose origin arises in some beliefs that are resembling – but not identical – to the Hindu and Jewish beliefs and practices. On the one hand there are the rituals connected with the essential changes in human life, on the other one there are the acts and the prohibitions for averting risks which may arise from the food preparation and sharing.

Guindeuil T., 2015, "What Do Christians (Not) Eat. Food Taboos and the Ethiopian Christian Community (13th-18th Centuries)", Annales d’Éthiopie, vol. 29, année 2014, 59-82.

Only a few sources exist that allow us to tackle directly the question of the relation between Ethiopian Christianity and dietary prohibitions. This article proposes a new reading of this
limited corpus. In so doing, it highlights various moments of a history in which dietary practices and religious identity have overlapped and interpenetrated in different ways. Today, respect for the Biblical dietary prohibitions is considered a hallmark of Ethiopian Christianity. Indeed, Ethiopian Christians have behind them a long history of identification with the chosen people. But until recently, the dietary prohibitions of the Pentateuch do not seem to have had many practical effect whatsoever. Until the 16th century, the texts reveal patterns of non-consumption of meat that were common to most populations of the region, Christian or not. In the 15th century, King Zär‘ä Ya‘ǝqob condemned the non-consumption of fish, drawing for support upon texts of the apostles. Dietary “otherness” across religious communities ― Christian, Muslim, “pagan” ― was founded upon foods which symbolized “otherness” of life style. When the Christians of Ethiopia confronted European Catholicism in the 16th century, they elaborated an apologetic discourse for their non-consumption of certain kinds of animal flesh, a practice whose ritual significance was rejected. It was only when the Catholic
missionaries were expelled in the 17th century that respect for the Biblical dietary prohibitions seems to have become an integral part of Ethiopian Christian identity, and to have definitively supplanted the older, pan-Ethiopian practices of non-consumption.

Keywords: Ethiopia, food, dietary prohibitions, religious identity, ritual practices, meat

The dietary prohibitions in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 represent one of the most detailed textual overlaps in the Pentateuch between the Priestly material and Deuteronomy, yet study of them is often stymied by the rare terminology. This is especially the case for the birds: their identities are shrouded in mystery and the reasons for their prohibition debated. Peter Altmann attempts to break this impasse by setting these flyers within the broader context of birds and flying creatures in the Ancient Near East. His investigation considers the zooarcheological data on birds in the ancient Levant, iconographic and textual material on mundane and mythic flyers from Egypt and Mesopotamia, as well as studying the symbolic functions of birds within the texts of the Hebrew Bible itself. Within this context, he undertakes thorough terminological studies of the expressions for the types of birds, concluding with possible reasons for their exclusion from the prescribed diet and the proposed composition-critical location for the texts in their contexts.

Pregnancy increases women's nutritional requirements, yet causes aversions to nutritious foods. Most societies further restrict pregnant women's diet with food taboos. Pregnancy food aversions are theorized to protect mothers and fetuses from teratogens and pathogens or increase dietary diversity in response to resource scarcity. Tests of these hypotheses have had mixed results, perhaps because many studies are in Westernized populations with reliable access to food and low exposure to pathogens. If pregnancy food aversions are adaptations, however, then they likely evolved in environments with uncertain access to food and high exposure to pathogens. Pregnancy food taboos, on the other hand, have been theorized to limit resource consumption, mark social identity, or also protect mothers and fetuses from dangerous foods. There have been few tests of evolutionary theories of culturally transmitted food taboos.

We investigated these and other theories of psychophysiological food aversions and culturally transmitted food taboos among two non-Western populations of pregnant women in Mysore, India, that vary in food insecurity and exposure to infectious disease. The first was a mixed caste rural farming population (N=72), and the second was the Jenu Kurubas, a resettled population of former hunter-gatherers (N=30). Women rated their aversions to photos of 31 foods and completed structured interviews that assessed aversions and socially learned avoidances of foods, pathogen exposure, food insecurity, sources of culturally acquired dietary advice, and basic sociodemographic information. Aversions to spicy foods were associated with early trimester and nausea and vomiting, supporting a protective role against plant teratogens. Variation in exposure to pathogens did not explain variation in meat aversions or avoidances, however, raising some doubts about the importance of pathogen avoidance. Aversions to staple foods were common, but were not associated with resource stress, providing mixed support for the role of dietary diversification. Avoided foods outnumbered aversive foods, were believed to be abortifacients or otherwise harmful to the fetus, influenced diet throughout pregnancy, and were largely distinct from aversive foods. These results suggest that aversions target foods with cues of toxicity early in pregnancy, and taboos target suspected abortifacients throughout pregnancy.

Khanty culture in its present state – in the process of language loss and acculturation – still offers a wide fi eld for the examination of notions related to everyday and sacral purity and their embodiment. Earlier research has explored certain details of these notions (e.g., regulations related to animals of mythological role, nutrition taboos and linguistic restrictions), it seems, however, that the concept of purity is more complex than that: it is a fundamental system which plays a central role, encompassing the whole of the traditional Khanty world, which ultimately defi nes the order of the world. This fact about the Khanty culture has practically not yet been articulated. The present research aims to explore the intersections of notions of purity and order in Khanty culture and to analyze the individual sub-fields.

Our sometimes‐irrational aversion to certain taboos is often rooted in rational, historical explanations. Modern societies have disposed of many historically relevant taboos, but Jakub Kwiecinski wonders whether aversion to genetically modified organisms might be one of those that remains.

The purpose of this study was to assess whether potential toxic interactions occur between the pineapple and milk following oral administration in rats by comparing clinical signs, hematological and biochemical parameters with the normal control and toxic standard groups. Pineapple and milk solutions were made by 1:1 (PMS1) and 2:1 (PMS2) ratio, administered 12 mL/kg body weight. Forty rats were equally divided into 4 groups treated for 3 days: a) normal control
(only vehicle treated); b) toxic standard (CCl4 was suspended in corn oil, 20% v/v; treated 1.25 mL/kg), c) PMS1 and d) PMS2 groups. CCl4 administration altered the normal behavior, changes gross and microscopic morphology. Toxicity related hematological and serum biochemistry changed significantly (p<0.05) than the normal group. However, all these clinical and pathological changes were completely absent in PMS treated groups. These results suggest that taking
pineapple with milk is not toxic and this food taboo is wrong.

‘Few people today think of taboo as an exotic word’, Steiner ([1952] 1999: 113-114) notes in his classic book on the topic. However it has an important history in missionary and anthropological discourse, which continues to shape how the concept is used today.

For the published version of this paper, see: https://www.academia.edu/16302941/The_Spectacular_Origins_of_the_EU_Horse_Meat_Scandal

We are currently faced with a scale of industrial food production that has reached inhuman proportions; even our mediated forms of oversight (e.g. quality control, food inspection, sensor technologies) cannot fully capture all the movements of inputs and outputs across the globe. The 2013 horse meat scandal in Europe made this very clear. Nearly 200 beef products sold in the EU were found to contain horse meat, but the scale of the supply chain made investigating the source of the ‘contamination’ extremely challenging. The proportions in which meat is produced—disassembled and ground up, distributed, and reassembled from thousands of animals—allowed the horse meat to mingle with beef unnoticed. Only DNA testing could sort one being from the other.

Using the theory of Guy Debord, this paper will focus on food packaging, arguing that it is less about informing the consumer than it is a spectacle, as well as the opacity of the supply chain and the contribution of each to the horse meat scandal. While the spectacle belongs to the realm of sight, its reach goes much further. That is why the horse meat scandal is striking: it allows us to see a rift in the spectacular veil of commodity production but also to acknowledge how its effects extend to the body. As I will outline in my exposition of the scandal’s timeline and initial outcome, one of the first considerations when news of the adulteration reached government officials was whether it was one of fraud alone or a risk to human health as well. In this instance, it was judged that it was an example of food crime, and that only the sensibilities of the public had been offended. But there is yet a darker lining to this story, when if something so seemingly substantial as horse flesh can mix imperceptibly with beef flesh, then one can only imagine what other invisibles could pass through the supply chain and into our bodies unnoticed.

L'auteur se penche sur la construction sociale des aliments et sur le tabou de l'hippophagie dans la France du XIXe siècle. Cherchant à expliquer pourquoi la consommation de la viande de cheval, si elle est de plus en plus acceptée au XIXe siècle - sous l'impulsion des hygiénistes - demeure très faible en France, il met l'accent sur la dimension économique de ce tabou, et sur les réactions corporatistes de la boucherie française

Deux légendes relatives à l’hybridité et la naissance des girafes sont fréquemment mentionnées dans les sources arabes. La première explique que la girafe est le fruit d’une hybridation, parfois en deux générations, entre le chameau, le bœuf et l’hyène. Cette légende a été très probablement influencée par la zoologie grecque antique, notamment par Timothée de Gaza. Cette hybridité supposée a longtemps divisé les juristes quant au statut alimentaire de la viande de cet animal selon l’islam. Hybride de l’hyène, la girafe est impure ; animal ruminant ressemblant au bétail, sa viande est alors pure. Une autre légende, relative aux circonstances de la naissance dangereuse des girafons que leurs mères cherchent à tuer dès la fin de la parturition, n’est cependant pas venue contredire la légende de l’hybridité. L’observation de naissances de girafes en captivité dans les ménageries du  Caire n’est pas parvenue non plus à affaiblir l’hypothèse de l’hybridité, qui a eu une longue postérité dans les livres des merveilles, encyclopédies et traités géographiques jusqu’à l’époque ottomane.

Two legends concerning the hybrid nature and the birth of giraffes are frequently cited in Arabic sources. The first legend explains that the giraffe is a hybrid of the camel, the ox and the hyena, sometimes appearing after two generations. This legend was probably influenced by Ancient Greek zoology, especially that of Timotheus of Gaza. Because of the supposedly hybrid nature of the camel, its alimentary status under Islamic dietary laws was a subject of long debate amongst religious scholars. As the hybrid off-spring of a hyena, the giraffe would be unclean; as the off-spring of a ruminant such as cattle, its flesh would be pure and fit to be eaten. Another legend, related to the dangerous birth of baby giraffes, indicates that they may be attacked and killed by their mothers just after giving birth. The legend was not seen as a contradiction to the story of their hybrid nature. Observation of the birth of giraffes in captivity in Cairo menageries did not undermine the theory that giraffes were hybrids which had a long afterlife in ‘books of marvels’, encyclopaedias and geographic treaties up until the Ottoman period.

This chapter examines archaeological data pertaining to food and ethnic identity in the southern Levant during the Iron Age. It begins with an outline of the scope of the southern Levantine diet, paying particular attention to the issue of food insecurity. The fear of not having enough food was probably of greater daily concern than affirming or rejecting identity. Next, this chapter critiques the zooarchaeological evidence for the taboos, especially of pigs, that are codified in the Biblical texts. While finding some evidence to support an avoidance of pigs, I argue that projecting the pig taboo as it is known from medieval-modern Judaism and Islam is anachronistic. It is instead necessary to approach the pig taboo as something that evolved over time, perhaps beginning in the context of political consolidation in the Kingdom of Judah. This chapter stresses that the meaning of the pig taboo in the Iron Age was fundamentally different from that of today and, indeed, the Classical and medieval periods. Finally, the promise of examining the consumption of other foods forbidden in Leviticus is considered in the attempt to more broadly define an Israelite food identity.

Before the conversion to Christianity, identity was expressed through food in a different way in the Scandinavian area than in southern Christian lands. The present study highlights specific aspects of the consequences of this conversion in Iceland and Norway (c. 1000-1400A.D.) with regards to food and identity: among these, Christian prohibitions on eating horsemeat, the need to import wine and wheat bread for the eucharistic liturgy, the issue of replacement breads and drinks for the administration of the eucharist, the ban on meat on fasting days, and the role of wheat bread in magic and medical practice.

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Avant la conversion au christianisme, l’identité s’exprimait à travers l’alimentation d’une manière différente dans la région scandinave que dans les terres chrétiennes du sud. La présente étude met en évidence des aspects spécifiques des conséquences de cette conversion en Islande et en Norvège (c. 1000-1400 après J.C.) en ce qui concerne l’alimentation et l’identité: parmi ceux-ci, les interdictions chrétiennes de manger de la viande de cheval, la nécessité d’importer du vin et du pain de blé pour la liturgie eucharistique, la question des pains et des boissons de remplacement pour l’administration de l’eucharistie, l’interdiction de la viande les jours de jeûne et le rôle du pain de blé dans la magie et la pratique médicale.

Chapter list:

-- Empirical uncertainty : some difficulties in placing obesity centerstage
-- Normative uncertainty : what do we want from policies to address childhood obesity
-- Childhood obesity and parental responsibility
-- Childhood obesity interventions, equity and social justice
-- Stigma and weight bias : implications for childhood obesity interventions
-- Childhood obesity and the "obesogenic environment"
-- Price policies as strategies for obesity prevention
-- Responding to food marketing targeted at children : regulation, social marketing and media literacy
-- Schools and childhood obesity
-- Childhood obesity : some practical implications.

The immediate postpartum period is recognized as a special time in many societies and is commonly associated with food and work restrictions. The logic of food restrictions during a period of increased energy and protein needs has been challenged, but few data are available to test the impact of these practices on the diets of lactating women. In the eastern Amazon the immediate postpartum period is referred to as resguardo, lasts for 40–41 days and includes food taboos and work restrictions. Taking a biocultural perspective, this paper combines data on the beliefs and attitudes surrounding the practice of resguardo with quantitative data on the actual dietary intakes and activity patterns of a cohort of 23 lactating women followed from birth through 15 months postpartum. This paper addresses three topics: (1) shared ideals regarding resguardo; (2) adherence to food and work restrictions; and (3) the impact of these practices on women's dietary intakes and energy expenditure. The results show that the majority of women adhered to food taboos and work restrictions. During resguardo energy expenditure in physical activity was lower, reducing women's energy needs and allowing them to devote more time to infant care. However, energy intakes were also lower. The reduction in dietary intake was impacted more by work restrictions and the loss of women in subsistence tasks during resguardo than by adherence to food taboos. In addition to altering maternal energetic strategies, resguardo served an important social function by reinforcing bonds and, for young women, marking the transition to womanhood. Childbirth and the immediate postpartum period are events of great biological and social importance in our species. During this time most societies view the mother and neonate as vulnerable. Therefore, women in many societies observe a series of postpartum practices aimed at protecting the mother–infant dyad. A review of the literature , including the Human Relations Area Files (eHRAF), revealed descriptions of postpartum practices in a wide range of human societies in

This ethnographic study examines the various meanings of the term reima describing a quality of certain foods that is believed to cause physical discomfort or ill health. In Bahia, Brazil, the foods considered to contain reima generally come from the rural hinterland, jungle, mangrove forests and sea, and this paper examines their biosocial importance in the lives of artisan fishing and shellfish harvesting communities. In these communities, the notion of reima is part of a traditional set of beliefs about the relationship between food, the body and physical wellbeing which co-exists with the experience of official health services and the consumption of industrially processed foods. Specifically, reima constitutes an ethos about foods that cause physical harm to the body and can also provoke adverse reactions at a social level. Clinical medicine considers reima to resemble human allergies, whose symptoms can be treated, but local communities believe that there is no cure for reima and that only time can restore a person’s health. The research shows that reima is understood to be the disciplinary consequence of violating a food prohibition under circumstances where the quality and quantity of some foods or combinations of foods must be controlled to ensure people’s general health.

Religion and food’s taboo; Church and food. History of the debate on the chocolate (XVI-XVIII Century): the drink stops ecclesiastical fasting? Reflections on food and religion. Sociological interpretation of the debate: Schivelbusch, Bourdieu, Elias, Oestreich (Sozialdisziplinierung). Appendix: Antonion de León Pinelo, Adam’s apple, etymology of latin Missa (the Mass)

Calificar a otros seres humanos como “caníbales” es un tropo empleado en todo el mundo, a menudo como parte de un esfuerzo por poner en duda la humanidad del otro. En este estudio me interesa el tema de la alimentación, específicamente la antropofagia, no sólo como una señal de pertenencia y exclusión, sino también como un lugar de acciones racionalizadas e in­tencionales a través de las cuales las personas demuestran su humanidad y devienen así socialmente humanos. En concreto, la condición de persona está íntimamente ligada en gran parte de África con las acciones y los sentimientos que expresan socialidad, compasión y circulación. Estas orientaciones, sin embargo, no son automáticas. Sentimientos antisociales muy familiares tales como la envidia, los celos, el despecho, la indignación, el desprecio y el egoísmo pueden ser muy gratificantes personalmente; al mismo tiempo, no obstante, son destructivos, aislantes, excesivos y, por lo tanto, grotescos. Los comportamientos como la gula, el incesto, la codicia y, de principal interés aquí, el consumo de carne humana —actos desenfrenados que priorizan in­tereses particulares y cruel acumulación de vitalidad para beneficio personal y bienestar individuado— son a menudo asociados en África con las brujas y los hechiceros. Cuando se habla de persona humana se habla de controlar o reprimir (o, por lo menos, parece que controla y reprime) estas tendencias en favor de la colaboración, la porosidad y la simpatía, generalmente; esto hace que el proyecto de ser y convertirse en humano sea un acto perpetuo, y existe una necesidad de confeccionar y mantener continuamente esa cuali­dad de persona con conductas cotidianas. Con base en un trabajo de campo etnográfico de 15 meses en el que llevé a cabo una encuesta de un año sobre alimentación, participé en las actividades de la comunidad y me entrevisté con 20 informantes clave en conversaciones cotidianas, no estructuradas y en su propia lengua, utilizando enseguida ideas emergentes para orientar las discusiones informales con un amplio sustrato de habitantes vecinos, sostengo que el hecho de evitar actos que puedan ser concebidos como antropófagos ofrece oportunidades a las personas para demostrar su compromiso en pro dela sociabilidad, y de esa forma convertirse socialmente en humanos. En síntesis, me centro en una serie de prohibiciones no sólo sobre el canibalismo (como todas las sociedades tienen), sino también sobre el consumo humano de animales que se nos parecen física, emocional y espiritualmente. Mientras que las carnes prohibidas como alimento raramente son una opción para con­sumir, tanto la expresión de los tabús como la demostración de repugnancia ante la idea de comer estos animales son importantes porque contribuyen a apoyar activamente la base moral de la vida social y construyen humanidad. Lo que estoy proponiendo, entonces, es que el rechazo del canibalismo y el pseudocanibalismo no es solamente una declaración simbólica, una preferencia gustativa o una afirmación de benevolencia para argumentar las equivocadas ideas europeas, sino que también constituye el ser mismo. El lenguaje y el razonamiento utilizados por mis informantes para describir sus prohibiciones dietéticas sugieren que los valores de sociabilidad, porosidad y circulación fueron no sólo trasplantados a tabús alimentarios, sino también íntimamente promulgados y consagrados a través de ellos. Las personas están haciendo cosas con las prohibiciones alimentarias, no siguiéndolas solamente fuera de la rutina. Mientras que los tabús sobre el canibalismo son, por lo tanto, importantes como una de las pocas costumbres universalmente acepta-das, lo que parece sugerir un fundamento biológico, está claro que también hay mucho más de construcción de la indignación por el consumo de carne humana que es culturalmente específico.

The labeling of fellow humans as “cannibals” is a trope employed by people across the globe, often in an effort to cast doubt on the humanity of others. In this study I am interested in alimentation, and specifically anthropophagy, not only as a signal of belonging and exclusion, but also as a site of rationalized, intentional actions through which individuals demonstrate their humanity and so become human. Specifically, personhood is intertwined in much of Africa with actions and sentiments that express sociality, compassion, and circulation. These orientations are not, however, automatic. Very familiar human anti-social sentiments – such as envy, jealousy, spite, indignation, contempt, and selfishness – can be very personally gratifying. At the same time, however, they are destructive, insulating, and excessive, and therefore grotesque. Behaviors such as gluttony, incest, greed, and, of primary interest here, the eating of human flesh – acts that prioritize unbridled self-interest and callous accumulation of vitality for personal benefit and individuated wellbeing – are often associated in Africa with witches and sorcerers. Human personhood is about controlling or repressing (or, at least appearing to control and repress) these tendencies in favor of collaboration, porosity, and sympathy, most of the time. This makes the project of being and becoming human a perpetual act, and there exists a necessity to continuously craft and maintain personhood through everyday behaviors. Based on 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork in which I conducted a year-long dietary survey, participated in community activities, and engaged 20 principle informants in regular, unstructured conversation in their local language, and then used emergent ideas to guide informal discussions with a wide substrate of additional townspeople, I argue that avoiding acts that can be conceived as anthropophagous offers opportunities for individuals to prove their commitment to pro-sociality, and so to socially become human. Specifically, I articulate a series of prohibitions on not only cannibalism (as all societies have), but also on eating animals that resemble human beings in physical, emotional, and spiritual form. While the forbidden meats are rarely even an option to consume, articulating the taboos and exhibiting repugnance at the thought of eating these animals are significant for their contributions toward actively performing the moral underpinning of social living and constructing humanity. What I am proposing, then, is that the avoidance of cannibalism and pseudo-cannibalism are not just symbolic statements, gustatory preferences, or an assertion of benevolence to counter European misconceptions – they also constitute the self. The language and rationale that my informants used to describe their dietary proscriptions suggests that values on sociality, porosity, and circulation were not only grafted onto food taboos, but also intimately enacted and embodied through them. People are doing things with food prohibitions, not just following them out of routine. While taboos on cannibalism are thus significant as one of few customs that are globally universal, which seems to suggest a biological basis, it is clear that there is also much to the construction of disgust at the consumption of human flesh that is culturally specific.

Cet ouvrage décrit et analyse la façon dont une société de Papouasie Nouvelle-Guinée met en scène le processus de construction de la personne masculine. Contrairement aux femmes, les hommes n'accèdent pas à l'âge adulte et au statut de père du simple fait de grandir et de se reproduire ; il est nécessaire que la teneur d’un certain nombre de relations (à leur mère, à leur soeur aînée) ait subi une transformation au préalable. Celle-ci se déroule en plusieurs étapes matérialisées par des rituels lors desquels les hommes et les femmes agissent de manière complémentaire dans des espaces distincts et qui sont précédés par de longs moments de préparation dont l’analyse révèle une pensée originale où l'action pour et sur les autres occupe une place majeure.
Remarquable par son ethnographie qui comprend des observations menées dans les espaces rituels masculin et féminin au même moment, l’analyse présentée dans cet ouvrage apporte un éclairage nouveau sur des rituels d'un type bien connu tout en faisant avancer la réflexion théorique dans un champ anthropologique de première importance.