Most of us have some aversions to specific foods. Maybe it was something you decided yourself or was taught by your family, culture, or religion, but in general, most people have a list of foods they do not eat and they are called food taboos.
When I decided to study anthropology something I realized immediately is how important food is to everyone around the world, and that we all have a culture around the food we eat, how we eat it, and so forth. I knew that if I were to leave America and travel elsewhere I might be faced with food I normally wouldn’t eat. I always thought to be respectful, I had to accept all food I was offered.
Just a few short years later I would be face to face (pun not intended haha) with cow head tacos and the decision to take a leap of faith or go to sleep hungry. I chose to go to sleep hungry. My aversion to eating eyes, tongue, cheeks, and more of a cow’s head was just too strong. I couldn’t fathom actually putting this in my mouth. I was incredibly embarrassed. The the locals immediately made jokes about the gringa who refused the meat, that she was “too good” for their food. This moment haunted me.
One day I decided I would go back to that taco truck and I would eat the cow tongue tacos. I used some liquid courage to get out of my own head and wow oh wow was I in for a surprise. I didn’t know a tongue could taste SO good.
This was the best thing that could have happened to me.
Firstly, I felt like I passed my anthropologist initiation ritual. I broke my own food taboos to share with the local culture in their customs. But also, I was suddenly out of my own head and able to become adventurous with food which came in handy for the years to come.
It is almost 7 years since I moved away from the US. Seven years of reflecting on new places while redefining what it means to still be American. One of the primary ways to learn about a new culture is through food. Through sharing meals with people from different cultures you will learn these things very quickly. You might learn about who prepares the meals and how? Where did the food come from? How are meals eaten? Does everyone get a fair share? What foods do you never notice at the table and why?
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Food Taboos
A food taboo is a cultural (“unwritten rule”), religious, or legal (law) prohibition against consuming specific foods. Like most cultural phenomena, food taboos vary around the world.
Food traditions, preferences, and restrictions exist throughout the world. While the Slovenes enjoy a horse burger now and then, an American generally wouldn’t dream of it.
Taboos are defined in various ways. They can be religious dietary restrictions like you find commonly in Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism, a moral stance such as vegetarianism or environmentalism, a health stance avoiding processed foods, or even symbolic, evident in the American food taboo against eating eyeballs.
Some food taboos are only taboos during specific times of your life such as during pregnancy, a religious fasting (Lent, Ramadan), or even age or gender-dependent rules, yes I can keep going. Food taboos can help preserve certain resources, keep humans safe in case of food poisoning, and also aid in creating a shared identity.
I personally think that the driving force for the creation of American food taboos was to create a shared cultural identity which was especially important in the early colonial days.* I think that a combination of religious, scientific, moral, symbolic, and cultural identity came together and created a unique set of food taboos. They are unique because many of them you will not find at our southern neighbors in Mexico or with our ancestors in Europe.
The creation of some taboos seem to be a mystery to researchers. Some argue that these rules ensured human survival and others argue they are more arbitrary and in some instances they actually do more harm than good.
*My focus on this argument excludes research into Native American food taboos and their influence on this topic. This is merely a starting point of exploring how European immigrants settling in the early days of colonial America influenced our modern-day conceptions of what is okay to eat and what is not.
Food Taboos Around the World
While I have the opportunity, I wanted to share two food taboos that are found elsewhere to show how two foods commonly eaten by most Americans are taboo for others.
Pork
Judaism food taboos, or dietary restrictions, is the perfect example of food taboos because the rules are very specific and involve even the preparation and consumption of certain foods. There are many researchers who write extensively on this topic and much better than myself (Marvin Harris, Mary Douglas, or Christopher Hitchens).
Food that is okay to eat within the confines of Judaism is referred to as kosher and many of these rules are found in the Torah (the religious text of Judaism). For example, one of the most common rules is that if an animal has cloven hooves they should also “chew the cud” to be considered kosher. This means that cows are kosher but pigs are not. Pigs, camels, and hares are seen as “impure” and thus are not eaten.
The cows must endure a ritual slaughter (schochet). This ritual slaughter is meant to involve a painless death, followed by a process to remove the blood and other forbidden parts. Well, that is just not enough because another rule states that now that you have this kosher beef you are not allowed to consume it with dairy (yes, no cheese or bacon on your hamburger!).
Islam also prohibits the consumption of pigs simply stating in the Quran that it is haram (which means forbidden). Seven-day Adventists in America also follow kosher food rules so they also do not consume pork. Even the Ancient Egyptians did not allow the consumption of pork.
Read | An Introduction to Slovenian Cuisine
Eggs
As you might already know, vegans abstain from consuming eggs. As well as there being strict rules in Islam and Judaism about which eggs can be eaten (no blood present). In Indonesia, pregnant women are to abstain from eating eggs as they will cause the baby to come late. In Nigeria it is said that if children eat eggs they will become thieves. Even in the US there are guidelines for pregnant women to not eat raw eggs because of salmonella. Many Hindus and Jains (an Indian religious group) also abstain from eating eggs.
American Food Taboos
Defining American food taboos has been difficult. Most writing on this topic is done by anthropologists in other parts of the world. But I did manage to create a list of some that I feel is a good start. This is not to say that every American has these foods taboo. We are a very diverse country with populations from all over the world. With this diversity brings variation, and defining a cohesive identity for a diverse population, well, it isn’t possible. It’s complicated.
Dogs and Cats (and sometimes rabbits!)
This food taboo is probably the most pronounced and practiced. In American culture, dogs and cats are seen as part of the family. We give them cute names, we let them sleep in our beds, and feed them our same food. Eating either of these creatures is most often not something an American would do.
On the other hand, in more places than one would think, it is socially and culturally acceptable to eat dogs or cats. Dog meat is consumed in Korea, Vietnam, China, Nigeria, Taiwan, parts of India (although illegal), some regions of Indonesia, and Thailand. Cats are eaten in some regions of China, Korea, Vietnam, Australia, and have been documented being consumed in parts of Europe during wartime.
If you examine European consumption of dogs you will see that for some countries it was deemed appropriate, especially during times of famine or war. For example, dog meat in Germany was very common even in the 20th century until it was banned in 1986.
There is a battle between whether cats and dogs are just pets or are they food. For Americans, I think it is quite simple. Cats and dogs are part of our family. We would not eat grandma so we are not too keen on eating Fluffy either.
I personally have never broken this food taboo, but I have also never been presented either as a dish. Would you eat either if you traveled to a country where it was the norm?
Rabbits are included on this list in spite of being a very standard food source for some. I think this comes down to personal preference. I didn’t even realize that rabbits were an American food taboo until I ate a very delicious one while living in Italy, and saw people’s reactions when I shared this information with them.
Horse Meat
Horse meat is commonly eaten in places such as Kazakhstan, Italy, Belgium, Japan, Sweden, France, Germany, and Slovenia to name a few. It is forbidden in Judaism and some sects of Christianity.
Americans are not as interested in eating horse as their European counterparts. While it is only illegal in a couple of states, the last slaughterhouse used for horse meat closed in 2007. If you ask most Americans about eating horse they will respond quite disgusted, similarly to their British counterparts.
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