Discuss some of the key ways that anthropologists have proposed people think through animals and food. In India animals and food are particularly linked to hygiene and purity rules including different castes (Douglas, 1966). In this essay I intend to disc

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Discuss some of the key ways that anthropologists have proposed people think through animals and food.

    Studies in various societies have concluded that the way people relate to animals shows a special type of thinking (Levi-Strauss, 1962: 104), which may be connected to other series and classification systems such as house categories and human relationship rules (Tambiah, 1969 and Leach, 1964). In other cases, animals are closely connected to religion and religious symbolism such as in the Lele tribe of the  (Douglas, 1957). In India animals and food are particularly linked to hygiene and purity rules including different castes (Douglas, 1966). In this essay I intend to discuss these, but also ideas about Kyrgyz understanding of food and animals (Bunn, 2008) and the classification systems of the Karam people (Bulmer, 1967).

   In an article about Kyrgyz animal Knowledge, Bunn (2008: 7) states that ‘food is not just mundane bodily fuel, its capacity to affect bodily wellbeing in a positive or negative way is always considered along its nutritional capacity’. This reflects the notion of importance given to food which is above the simple aim of survival. Not only do Kyrgyz people think of food from what is typically considered a ‘scientific’ perspective, but also metaphorically. Kyrgyz people believe that a person’s happiness can be transferred to food, something that is particularly important if someone will be leaving for a period of time (Bunn, 2008: 9). This belief that food and happiness can become a single object explains why there is such a wide definition of the word ‘kϋt’ – food, happiness, nourishment and prosperity being a few of these.  Another metaphorical representation of thinking in Kyrgyz culture is the way sheep meat is distributed between Kyrgyz people, which is related to both their gender and status, which is in turn linked to their seating position within the tent (Bunn, 2008: 13-15).  It seems that, for Kyrgyz people, sharing meat is very much about showing how they think about themselves in relation to others.

   On a related note, Douglas refers to the idea of food being used to display relations between the castes in India, where there is a strong association between cooking and pollution (1966). Douglas illustrated this in Purity and Danger, explaining that ‘the cooking process is seen as the beginning of ingestion and therefore cooking is susceptible to pollution, in the same way as eating’. She then goes on to point out this belief that food is polluting is not always found since the same system of castes is not found all over the world. The pollution of food is linked to relative purity of others who may have contact with it, leading to a series of rules which must be observed to ensure people retain their purity. People of high caste, for example, must not eat food which has been touched by a lower caste person once it has been cooked, uncooked food, however, can be handled (Douglas, 1966: 128). In India, it appears people think about food through the caste system, particularly taking care to retain the purity of their food during the cooking process.

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    Another culture concerned with the pollution of food described by Douglas is the Lele, who believe only certain people are suitable for various cuts of meat based on gender, age and cult (1966: 167-168). She describes the relationship between people, animals and food more fully in her article ‘Animals in Lele Religious Symbolism’ (1957). She describes how the cults within Lele culture and religion are subject to different rules regarding the edibility of animals and explains that people believe different animals and parts of animals should be set aside for people depending on their cult, and certain animals ...

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