Good afternoon, dear visitors! It’s about meat food today. Just yesterday I found the great research work of James George Frazer – “The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion”. The book was written over a hundred years ago, but it is still very useful for anthropologists, sociologists, historians, and curious people (it is extremely recommended reading, no matter what language you prefer). In his work Frazer tried to identify common elements of religious beliefs and scientific thoughts. One chapter describes examples of the beliefs of different nations that various virtues and vices can be acquired through eating meat. Here are some interesting examples:
Chiroki and their related tribes of North American Indians believe that a person who feeds on venison is more quick and savvy than a person who eats clumsy bear meat, helpless domestic chickens, lazily moving cattle or a heavily loaded pig. Saparo Indians from Ecuador, never ate fatty tapir and wild pig meat without special need, because it seems to them that fatty meat makes them as heavy, slow and unsuitable for hunting as eaten animals.
In the African Fanti tribe, young men did not eat the meat of turtles; it seemed to them that this would deprive them of strength and speed in their legs. Bushman will never let his child eat the jackal’s heart out of fear that he might become just as cowardly, but he will let him eat the leopard’s heart so that the child grows just as brave.
When a native of the Wagogo tribe (currently living on the territory of modern Tanzania) killed a lion, he ate his heart to become as brave as a lion, but eating a chicken’s heart would make him timid. Youngsters and warriors are not allowed to eat venison among Dayaks of the northwestern part of Borneo so that they do not become as timid as deer, although women and the elderly do not forbid this food.
The Ainu (the ancient people of the Japanese islands) believed that the blackbird carries the greatest wisdom in its heart and is also characterized by approximate eloquence; therefore, after killing the thrush, they pulled out a heart from its chest and hastily swallowed it before it had cooled down. Some natives of Northern Australia believe that having tasted kangaroo meat and emu, they will learn to run and jump faster. The Miri people living in Assam (India) extol tiger meat as food that gives men strength and courage. The hero of the Scandinavian legend Ingiald, the son of King Aoundund, was timid in his youth, but, having eaten a wolf’s heart, he became an excellent brave man. And the hero Hialto gained strength and courage by eating the bear’s heart and drinking his blood.
Well, now the question is for our experts: how can you explain all these exotic gastronomic attachments? Can a roast of a lion really make a man strong and brave?
Leonid Livshits: Dear administrator, dear visitors of our site! The question is very interesting, but I propose to consider it from a little different point of view. Although the meat of some animals has very valuable and even medicinal nutritional qualities for humans, in general, I doubt very much that kebab from a tiger heart or a kangaroo liver will affect courage, speed, or any other human qualities. Of course, let’s not forget about the psychological component of self-hypnosis and self-affirmation – from “I caught and ate a lion!” How cool am I! ”and to the “What a hunter and man am I, if the only animal I can catch is a turtle.” The psychology of auto-suggestion and, in particular, the placebo effect can be excellent topic for another conversation.
However, this does not mean at all that certain prohibitions, taboos or restrictions associated with the consumption of certain animal species (birds, fish or plants) have no logical, environmentally and physiologically justified reasons. For example, the deification of some species of reptiles in ancient Egypt and, as a result, the taboo on their use in food in an area scarce on food resources, kept the populations of these animals from complete extermination. In this case, not only the reptiles themselves were preserved, but also the most complex ecosystem, into which these reptiles are included as one of the parts of the food chain. In other words, in this case, such a taboo is an example of protecting nature from uncontrolled human actions. Who was the initiator of this kind of “prohibitions”, scientific priests or someone else, is a question for historians.
This relief from the Temple of Kom Ombo shows Sobek (an ancient Egyptian deity associated with the Nile crocodile or the West African crocodile and is represented either in its form or as a human with a crocodile head) with typical attributes of kingship, including a was-sceptre and royal kilt.
Author: Hedwig Storch. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
And another aspect: the specificity of the diet (including the consumption of certain animal species) of ancient and distinct peoples may be related to the living conditions of a particular people. For example, with the specifics of the climate – the rejection of the consumption of perishable meat and the obligatory removal of blood in the southern regions (in kosher and halal products) or the addition of bark of coniferous plants to the winter diet in some northern peoples (a natural but almost the only source of vitamins in given conditions). Well, later all these physiologically explainable phenomena were clothed in religious and cult shells.
Inna Freikman: Almost all peoples of the world have beliefs and traditions associated with the transfer of the qualities of any objects through touch – sympathetic magic. Frazer in his work “The Golden Bough” gave many examples of sympathetic magic using the materials of Africa, New Guinea, Australia and other regions of the world. However, he did not develop a classification of magical methods, ways of human supernatural effects on the environment. Moreover, he put forward the thesis that the theory and practice of magic (the taboo system also refers to this) is the result of the error of a primitive man, his erroneous understanding of the connection of things. In my opinion, there are many facts that doubt and oppose this approach.
One of such facts is the exceptional survivability and versatility of the sympathetic magic concept. The fact that some form of sympathetic magic is present in absolutely all people societies, preserved through many centuries (some oral traditions are more than 4000 years old!), suggests that at the level of society it is quite effective. Moreover, in the Zulu tribe, for example, there are still shamans who can heal a sick person or kill a criminal by the power of thought. This suggests that the psychological effect (“superstition” or “placebo effect”) has completely physiological manifestation. Unfortunately, at the moment there are not enough serious studies on the physiological component of sympathetic magic. I am absolutely sure that the researcher who decided to take up this topic will open up a new amazing world of human possibilities.
Administrator’s word: Very interesting. But maybe our readers have other opinions?
Featured image by Bruno Glätsch from Pixabay.