Food Prescriptions and Proscriptions

Anthropology of Food ANTH 2301 Food Prescriptions and Proscriptions There are many laws and traditions pertaining to food and eating, just like with any other cultural organisation. Many of these can be categorised as food proscriptions, or foods that are forbidden and improper, or as food prescriptions, or foods that one should consume that are deemed culturally suitable. These food laws are social norms that establish a connection between food production and consumption and the preservation of cultural identity. You studied about the significance of Japanese short-grain rice as a representation of Japanese identity in the preceding part. A lot of Japanese people view short-grain rice as a required food, something they must consume. Nation-states and civilizations alike frequently prescribe foods, particularly for important occasions. Several instances include the Thanksgiving turkey in the United States, the corned beef and special breads on St. Patrick's Day in Ireland, the saffron bread and ginger biscuits on St. Lucia Day in Sweden, the mutton curry and rice on Eid al-Fitr in Muslim countries, and special breads and candy figurines on Día de los Muertos in Mexico. Food prescriptions are also typical for memorable events, such the cakes consumed during weddings and birthday celebrations, or the tamales and enchiladas made for a quinceañera, which honours the 15th birthday of a young Latin American lady. The majority of these events are feasts, which are extravagant dinners that are shared by a large number of people and include foods that have symbolic importance. The cuisine consumed in celebration of the Dragon Boat Festival (also known as Duanwu), which takes place in China on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, is one fascinating example. The Dragon Boat Festival has a number of origin legends. In one of them, Qu Yuan (c. 340–206 BCE), a well-liked Chinese poet and government official, is honoured with a celebration. Qu Yuan committed himself by drowning after losing the favour of the imperial family. The tale goes that when he drowned, people put sticky rice dumplings into the river to divert the attention of the fish, allowing them to collect his remains and bury him properly. Zongzi, a sticky rice dumpling with various contents, is the most significant dish served during Dragon Boat festivities. Other traditional foods include wine, boiled eggs, jiandui (a wheat ball coated with sesame seeds), sticky rice cakes, and eel. Food prohibitions, often known as food taboos, are prevalent throughout societies and play a role in creating and preserving a group's identity. These dietary restrictions and guidelines frequently stem from religious doctrine. Two instances include the widespread Hindu vegetarianism, which is based on the spiritual concept of ahimsa, or "nonviolence towards all living things," and kashrut, a Jewish custom that prohibits consuming pig or shellfish or combining meat and dairy products. Food restrictions may apply for a set amount of time. Many Christians, particularly Catholics, observe the 40 days of Lent as a season of symbolic sacrifice during which they abstain from specific foods and beverages in remembrance of the 40 days that Jesus fasted in the wilderness. Many Catholics interpret this to imply either completely avoiding meat on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday or fasting during the season. For those who practice the Latin Catholic Church, fasting is required from the age of 18 to 59. A person may consume one large meal and two smaller meals that combined do not constitute a full meal while fasting. Members of the Latin Catholic Church are required to abstain eating meat starting at the age of 14. (Catholic Bishops' United States Conference, n.d.) Muslims fast every day from sunrise to sunset in observance of Ramadan, a month-long celebration of the prophet Muhammad receiving the revelations of the Quran. Water is prohibited, as is all food, during the Islamic fast. Muslims eat a substantial meal consisting of fruits, vegetables, and dates every evening after sundown in order to replenish their fluids for the next day's fast. Certain dietary restrictions are conventional and have more to do with ingrained cultural norms than with religion. There are several food bans that include meat. Eating any form of fish is frowned upon by a number of East African communities. The reason this is known as the Cushitic fish taboo is that many, but not all, ethnic groups, including the Somali, Masaai, and Bantu peoples, have restrictions against eating fish. Horsemeat was traditionally not very popular in the US until 2005, when it was made illegal due to chemicals from the slaughtering process found in the meat. Before then, eating horsemeat was frowned upon in mainstream US society. But it's eaten all throughout Europe, where there are butchers who work only with horsemeat. Cannibalism, or the practice of eating a member of one's own species, is an intriguing example of how food laws and customs vary throughout societies. Human flesh is not often thought of as a meal item on the menu, but in certain cultures it is, and it is commonly consumed as a sign of identity and sustenance. Researchers Beth Conklin (1995) of the United States and Aparecida Vilaça (2002) of Brazil studied the Wari people of western Amazonia before Christian missionaries converted them in the 1960s. They discovered that the Wari people practiced two kinds of cannibalism: endocannibalism, which involves eating members of one's own cultural group, and exocannibalism, which involves eating people who are "foreign" or outside of one's own cultural group. Every variety of cannibalism has its own customs, beliefs, and meanings. The idea that only the Wari are actual individuals forms the foundation of the Wari belief system. Since none of the non-Wari people or animals are human, they can all be regarded as meat (Vilaça 2002, 358). The Wari' did not see themselves as engaging in cannibalism at all; rather, they considered non-Wari' people as a subset of prey who were not entirely human. This behaviour is known to anthropologists as exocannibalism. One interpretation of endocannibalism was different. The Wari people engaged in endocannibalism as a grieving process and as a means of paying respect to a deceased member of their community. After a death, the deceased's close relatives made arrangements for married relatives and non-kin to dress and prepare the body—eating almost all of it after it was roasted and dismembered. Since the bones of the departed were not interred in the earth but rather in the bodies of other Wari, eating their flesh was seen as the highest form of respect. The dead might become ghosts after being consumed by non-family Wari, and they could later reappear as prey animals to feed the living. According to Conklin, this behaviour demonstrates mutualism, or the bond that exists between humans and animals through eating and food: The enchantment of existence, according to Wari, is found in the similarities between animal and human identities, in the interactions between the worlds of humans and nonhumans, and in the realisation via cannibalism of human involvement in both extremes of the dynamic of eating and being eaten. Conklin (1995, 95) Many societies have been linked to cannibalism; for example, the Aztecs (Isaac 2002) used it in conjunction with battle or imperial conquest, while in other cases it was practiced as a way to honour the dead and form kinship with them (see Lindenbaum 1979 for an example in Papua New Guinea). While scholarly debates have surrounded the nature and frequency of cannibalism (Arens 1979), there is mounting evidence that cannibalism was a common practice in many human communities. Moreover, some faiths use symbolic cannibalism as a means of connecting with the divine. Food has a significant symbolic value and is a part of all cultures. Every society creates connotations around what constitutes food and the emotional connections people have to the meals they eat, regardless of whether such foods are allowed or forbidden. The next time you sit down to eat, think about your own plate. What symbolic implications do the various meals you select have? Which memories are evoked by various foods?