The complex identity of meat

Abstract

In this chapter, I summarize the previous studies on meat that have been useful for this book. Even though they support different theories, I do not find them as contradictory, but advance that each of them offers a partial contribution to such a complex matter. In the beginning, I explain the various theories of the great philosophers of the past concerning the consumption of an animal, from Plato and Aristotle to the Illuminists and Kant. However, the focus of the chapter is on texts written in the period analyzed by this book, 1900–the present. In fact, the way the philosopher Norbert Elias considered meat as a mark of human development, and the French anthropologist Claude Lévi Strauss saw meat as a mirror of society’s structures are of great help to fully understand the cultural relevance of this item of food since 1900. The second part of the chapter examines how meat has culturally been analyzed as an element affecting gender roles, religious beliefs, fear of disease and psychological taboos. Finally, a section concerns studies on meat rejection, that is, vegetarianism and veganism. The short story closing the chapter focuses on the emotional relevance of studying meat.