Meat: A Natural Symbol / Edition 1

by Nick Fiddes

Overview

This book is a broad-ranging and provocative study of the human passion for meat. It will intrigue anyone who has ever wondered why meat is important to us; why we eat some animals but not others; why vegetarianism is increasing; why we aren't cannibals; and how meat is associated with environmental destruction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138834071
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/01/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1440L (what's this?)

About the Author

Nick Fiddes

Table of Contents

Part I: Background 1. Food = Meat 2. A Brief History of Meat Eating 3. A Matter of Taste 4. More than a Meal Part II: Meat is Muscle 5. Evolution and Elevation 6. The Power of Meat 7. The Barbarity of Meat Part III: Mixed Meataphors 8. The Reluctant Cannibal 9. Pets and Other Grey Animals 10. The Joy of Sex Part IV: Modern Meatologies 11. Economics 12. Health 13. Ethics 14. Ecology 15. Conclusions

Editorial Reviews

In this thought-provoking study of the sociocultural aspects of meat-eating in Western--primarily British and American--culture, Fiddes (social anthropology, Edinburgh) argues that meat symbolizes the human (and fundamentally patriarchal) desire for control over the natural world. He concludes that because meat represents supremacy over nature, attitudes about meat have begun to change, along with a shift in social values away from industrialism and its reliance on a model of human supremacy, toward more ecologically sound ways of life. The book provides an absorbing survey of the social forces behind meat eating, including discussions of its historical, economic, political, religious, physiological, and sexual connotations. Fiddes's argument would have been more powerful had he drawn less frequently on the words of others and had he attributed his quotations from nonscholars. Still, this will be of particular interest to vegetarians, environmentalists, and feminists. Recommended for general collections in anthropology, sociology, and gastronomy.-- Ellen Finnie Duranceau, MIT Lib.

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