Food on the hoof

[urbpan]

I don't wish to reignite the horse-slaughter discussion/imbroglio, but a new lj friend provided some cultural context, as to why we Anglo-derived cultures don't eat horses, and some other cultures do.

Marvin Harris analyzes why some European cultures eat horses and others find it disgusting/uncouth/psychologically upsetting in one chapter of Good

Comments

[cordelia_sue]

That is interesting. I've been wondering things along those lines. I'm very interested in the evolution of food, particularly when it involves things that are eaten or not eaten due to people's attitudes toward certain foods throughout history. People are funny.

p.s. your HTML is complaining. :)

[perspicuity]

i like the comment on "pulling plow".

working animals.

"back in the day", you fed it, you worked it, and when it died (by hand or by natural methods), you probably ate it. a blurb i read a while ago said that a difficulty in tracing ferret history and breeding was that unlike other animals where they could at least fine skeletons/bones (mostly), they tended to stew their ferrets whole, and ate the bones. ferrets meaning usually the kept and none too tame mousing/rabbting animals including the fitch, weasel, euro polecat and the like and really hard to tell apart from a skeleton anyway... :)

so. yah. i'm working my farm and my big strong oxen falls over and dies? short of it having a horrible disease, food! even then, i bet some got "et"... horse? dies of old age or put down... food. dog? chicken? muskrat (unusually good at pulling plow you know :>)... food! back in the day, i'm gathering, if it moved, they ate it :)

#

[aemiis_zoo]

Ya! Ya! Little muskrat! Plow my fields! *cracks whip*

[interfecta]

I don't know how you got that shot, but your icon is hysterical.

Also, I appreciate the extra perspective on it. I've spent a fair amount of time [mostly for homework, back in the day!] considering why some food is considered kosher and some is not, but it's interesting to consider one's own cultural taboos.

[urbpan]

Thanks! I found the lobster cephalothorax and naturally decided to put it on my nose. My sunglasses are holding it on.

I'm absolutely fascinated by the cultural role of food, and especially food prohibitions. I find the emotional response to horse-eating to be very interesting.

LOL

[interfecta]

Naturally!

I find it especially interesting that thousands of city-dwelling girls of a certain age nationwide (don't know if this is an international phenomenon) are completely in love with horses, even though many of them have never seen a horse and very few are able to be around horses often enough to "get to know" one or even the species as a group. On the other hand, my best friend, who grew up on a semi-working farm, had the experience growing up of tending cows, naming them, forming an attachment, and then eventually having them for dinner. Contrary to what the media might presume, she was NOT scarred for life. (In fact, she's probably more normal than me.)

according to rumor...

[wynnsfolly]

in contrast with a bovine that gets tougher and leaner as it ages, I have heard the horsemeat is actually tenderer in the older animals. so there would be an advantage to eating the old plowhorse over the old oxen.
btw, my father's solution to the "naming your meat" problem (everything had a name) was that when he picked a calf out of the herd to be the one to raise for butcher, it got a descriptive name. one year it was Hamburger, one year, Meatball, another year, Mignon.

[gemfyre]

I draw the line at eating endangered species.

it has had a varied history as meat in Australia due to the emotive association, predominantly by foreigners, of kangaroos as pets and a national symbol.

Heh, anyone who thinks you can keep a kangaroo as a pet is GREATLY mistaken. They taste good though. I can't eat too much in one sitting because it's very rich.