Theories for food taboos

reasons

cultural

socio - political

spiritual, well being of individual

reincarnation, sancity of life

highliting events

unwritten social rules that regulate group behavior

create group cohesion

safeguard exclusive rights to certain foods

unite people

reificartion of social hegemonies

focus on specific events

symbolic

functional

evolutionary psychology

behavior passed from generation to generation --> bananas

emotional reaction (disgust) conditions food aversion into food taboos

fava beans

magical reasons

cultural, spiritual belief system, ideas and symbolic reasons

rational health reasons

ractional environmental reasons

meal worms in port

protecting body from disease

totems

not only foods

food taboos are not intrinsic to totemism

class of material objects

belief that there is a special bond of every member of class

taboos related to eating different types of animals

ensure equal assess to food

material objects regarded by a culture with superstitious respect

framework of factors influencing food taboos

emic

explanation from within

insider

me

person from that culture

cultural beliefs

evolutionary psychology

etic

look from outside culture

etic - looking back in history to find a logic for taboo

resource participation

resource protection

protect humans from health hazards

rational explanation soughtfor taboo

food as sacred and profane

fails to provide explanation linking individual experience to shared beliefs

linked to danger and disgust

required understanding of the human mind and its relationship to the physical world (agency / structure)

3 processes to support food taboos

processes to support food taboos:

socially mediated ingestive conditioning - using someones experience to eat or not food

egocentric empathy - capacity to experience disgust and fear empathically

normative moralization - shared predisposition leads to patterned behaviors in group members