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I am OK with some cultures not eating some meats: pork for the muslims or jews, horse for some Western countries, sometimes rabbit. Where I'm from (Italy) we ea
by sph 3y ago
I am OK with some cultures not eating some meats: pork for the muslims or jews, horse for some Western countries, sometimes rabbit. Where I'm from (Italy) we eat both horse and rabbits.
But I too draw the line at eating dogs and cats, except during extreme survival situations where it's eat your pet (or fellow human) to avoid starvation. I feel eating canids and felids as taboo as eating a primate, or eating a human.
- bitxbitxbitcoin 3y agoJust as there are places where eating canids and felids is not taboo - so too are there places where eating a primate is not taboo. A larger geography by far as far as I know. By this argument and amount of places (not people), eating a primate might be less taboo than eating a canid or felid? As an American, I feel the same cultural taboos and they’ve kept me from eating some things but I’ve been reconsidering. Horse and rabbit were delicious. What about coyote or mountain lion though? Those are still but seldom eaten in America mostly by hunters. Some people draw the line at not eating predators not because of cultural taboo but because of bio accumulation issues. Fascinating ethnobiology and moral boundary discussion.
- mckn1ght 3y agoAnd then you have a ton of people that eat beef all the time, vs a ton of people that revere cows; in certain places you can be imprisoned or lynched for slaughtering one, google "cow vigilantism". It always interests me to consider just how relative taboos can be.
- leosanchez 3y ago> in certain places you can be imprisoned or lynched for slaughtering one Only one country isn't it ?
- sandspar 3y agoIf it counts, that one country makes up 17% of living humans.
- leosanchez 3y agoI know. I was just curious if there is any other country that revere cows.
- ViktorRay 3y agoDon’t forget Nepal! Nepal’s population is 82 percent Hindu. This means many people from Nepal respect cows very much. It is legal to eat beef in Nepal and many major hotels will serve it. However, it is illegal to kill a cow within the country.
- leosanchez 3y agoThanks didn't know that.
- sph 3y agoI think the issue with predators is that they taste "bad" compared to herbivores. Maybe we have evolved not to like they because of bioaccumulation, i.e. its not just a cultural norm. I cannot think of a land-dwelling meat-eating animal human routinely eat. We eat chicken, but they eat anything including rocks, and they're towards the bottom rank of good-tasting meats anyway.
- bitxbitxbitcoin 3y agoJust depends on the timeframe. There was a period when black bear meat was very popular apparently.
- nealabq 3y agoYou hear of people occasionally eating frog-legs, alligator, rattlesnake. But maybe these also taste "bad". And since frogs are insect eaters, maybe bioaccumulation isn't as much an issue.
- Intralexical 3y ago> But I too draw the line at eating dogs and cats, except during extreme survival situations where it's eat your pet (or fellow human) to avoid starvation. I feel eating canids and felids as taboo as eating a primate, or eating a human. Really, dogs, primates, and humans should be the only animals that are okay to eat. Otherwise you're saying that it's okay to kill and eat thinking, feeling creatures as long as they're sufficiently different from yourself. Plus, only humans can consent to being eaten— In theory, anyway, though I wouldn't want to see any system that claims it can actually respect that honestly.