FOOD AND CULTURE

Taboos and Avoidances

Gluttony -- "The characters feel the prohibition placed on their hands to touch the food. The dish is there but they can't -- they shouldn't. Their expression suggests compassion, they invite our participation by asking for our help" (© Daniel Rivas)

Aunger R (1994) Are Food Avoidances Maladaptive in the Ituri Forest of Zaire? Journal of Anthropological Research. 50:277-310 [proscriptions; Africa].

Aunger R (1994) Sources of Variation in Ethnographic Interview Data: Food Avoidances in the Ituri Forest. Ethnology. 33:65-99 [food proscriptions; Africa; Zaire].

Boehrer M (2004) The Parrot Eaters: Psittacophagy in the Renaissance and Beyond. Gastronomica. 4:46-59 [foodstuffs; history; taboo; cannibalism].

Chaudry MM (1992) Islamic Food Laws: Philosophical Basis and Practical Implications. Food Technology. 46:92-104 [foodways; religious prescriptions, proscriptions].

Diener P (1978) The Dialectics of the Sacred Cow: Ecological Adaptation Versus Political Appropriation in the Origins of India's Cattle Complex. Dialectical Anthropology. 3:221-242 [taboo; sacred cow; politics; South Asia; India].

Dwyer JT (1974) The New Vegetarians: Group Affiliation and Dietary Strictures Related to Attitudes and Life Style". Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 64:376-382 [social relations; vegetarian; taboo; North America; United States].

Recommended -- click for detailsDwyer JT (1974) The New Vegetarians: The Natural High? Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 65:529-536 [social relations; vegetarian; taboo; North America; United States].

Fabre-Vassas C (1997) The Singular Beast: Jews, Christians, and the Pig. Columbia University Press [history; foodstuff; pork; taboo; social relations; religion; ritual].

Ferro-Luzzi G (1975) Food Avoidances of Indian Tribes. Anthropos. 70:385-428 [taboo; South Asia; India].

Research Classic -- click for detailsFerro-Luzzi G (1980) Food Avoidances at Puberty and Menstruation in Tamilnad. in JRK Robson (ed) Food, Ecology and Culture. Gordon and Breach, pp. 93-100 [taboo; life cycle; women; South Asia; India; Tamilnad].

Ferro-Luzzi G (1980) Food Avoidances During the Pueriperium and Lactation in Tamilnad. in JRK Robson (ed) Food, Ecology and Culture. Gordon and Breach, pp. 109-117 [taboo; life cycle; women; South Asia; India].

Gittelsohn J; Vastine AE (2003) Sociocultural and Household Factors Impacting on the Selection, Allocation and Consumption of Animal Source Foods: Current Knowledge and Application. Journal of Nutrition. 133:4036S-4041S [food choice; proscriptions; meat eating; mother & child nutrition].

Harper E (1964) Ritual Pollution as an Integrator of Caste and Religion. in E Harper (ed) Religion in South Asia [social relations; caste; exchange; pollution; taboo; South Asia; India].

Harris M (1966) The Cultural Ecology of India's Sacred Cattle. Current Anthropology. 7:51-60 [taboo; beef eating; ecology; South Asia; India].

Classic -- click for detailsHarris M (1985) The Sacred Cow and the Abominable Pig: Riddles of Food and Culture. Simon and Schuster [taboos; materialist theory; ecology; cannibalism; meat eating].

Harris M (1998) Good to Eat. Waveland [materialist theory; taboos; ecology; food system; meat eating; cannibalism].

Laderman C (1981) Symbolic and Empirical Reality: A New Approach to the Analysis of Food Avoidances. American Ethnologist. 8:468-493 [food avoidances; symbolic meaning].

Mabilia M (2000) The Cultural Context of Childhood Diarrhea among Gogo Infants. Anthropology & Medicine. 7:191-208 [breastfeeding; disease; beliefs; taboos; Africa; Tanzania; Wagogo].

Manderson L; Mathews M (1981) Vietnamese Behavioral and Dietary Precautions During Pregnancy. Ecology of Food and Nutrition. 11:1-8 [food choice; avoidances; pregnancy; childbirth; Southeast Asia; Vietnam].

McDonald D (1977) Food Taboos: A Primitive Environmental Protection Agency. Anthropos. 72:734-748 [taboo; ecology].

Milton K (1991) Comparative Aspects of Diet in Amazonian Forest-Dwellers. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Series B. 334:253-263 [diet; food taboos; South American Indians; Amazonia].

Influential Collection -- click for detailsMilton K (1997) Real Men Don't Eat Deer. Discover. 18:46-59 [taboos].

Nair KN (1987) Animal Protein Consumption and the Sacred Cow Complex in India. in M Harris; E Ross (eds) Food and Evolution. Temple University Press [taboo; sacred cow; protein intake; South Asia; India].

Odebiyi A (1989) Food Taboos in Maternal and Child Health: The Views of Traditional Healers in Ile-Ife Nigeria. Social Science and Medicine. 28:985-996 [taboos; child health; Africa; Nigeria].

O'Laughlin B (1974) Mediation of Contradiction: Why Mbum Women Do Not Eat Chicken. in M Rosaldo; L Lamphere (eds) Women, Culture, and Society [taboo; symbolism; women; Africa; Mbum].

Paque C (1984) Infant Salt Taboos in Morocco. Current Anthropology. 25:237-238 [infant feeding; food taboo; Africa; Morocco].

Pool R (1986) Beliefs Concerning the Avoidance of Food During Pregnancy and the Immediate Post Partum Period in a Tribal Area of Rural Gujarat. Eastern Anthropologist. 39:251-259 [food avoidance; symbol and meaning; South Asia; India; Gujarat].

Reichel-Dolmatoff G (1979) Desana Animal Categories, Food Restrictions and the Concept of Color Energies. Journal of Latin American Folklore. 4:243-291 [categories; taboo; symbolic meaning; South America; Columbia; Desana].

Ross E (1978) Food Taboos in Amazon Cultural Ecology. Current Anthropology. 19:1-36 [taboo; ecology; South American Indian; Amazonia].

Rozin P (1987) Psychobiology Perspectives on Food Preferences and Avoidances. in M Harris; E Ross (eds) Food and Evolution. Temple University Press [preference; avoidance; psychology].

Rozin P; Fallon AE (1980) The Psychological Categorization of Foods and Non-Foods: A Preliminary Taxonomy of Food Rejections. Appetite. 1:193-201- [psychological categories; taste and preference; food avoidance].

Rozin P; Markwith M; Stoess C (1997) Moralization and Becoming a Vegetarian: The Transformation of Preferences into Values and the Recruitment of Disgust. Psychological Science. 8:67-73 [vegetarian; preference; taboo].

Sahlins M (1978) Culture as Protein and Profit. The New York Review of Books. 25:45-53- [taboo; symbolism; prehistory; cannibalism; Mexico; Aztec].

Sakr AH (1971) Dietary Regulations and Food Habits of Muslims. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 58:123-126 [food prescriptions, proscriptions; religion; Islam].

Simoons F (1974) Rejection of Fish as Human Food in Africa: A Problem in History and Ecology. Ecology of Food and Nutrition. 3:89-105 [food taboo; fish; Africa].

Important Book -- click for detailsSimoons F (1978) Traditonal Use and Avoidance of Foods of Animal Origin: A Culture-Historical View. Bioscience. 28:178-184 [taboo; meat].

Simoons F (1995) Eat Not of This Flesh: Food Avoidances from Prehistory to the Present. University of Wisconsin Press [taboo].

Spielmann K (1989) A Review: Dietary Restrictions on Hunter-Gatherer Women and the Implications for Fertility and Infant Mortality. Human Ecology. 17:321-345 [food avoidances; taboos; maternal nutrition; infant nutrition].

Tambiah SJ (1969) Animals Are Good to Think and Good to Prohibit. Ethnology. 5:423-459 [food taboos; meat eating].

Taylor D (1950) The Meaning of Dietary and Occupational Restrictions among the Island Carib. American Anthropologist. 52:243-Recommended -- click for details249 [taboo; couvade; Caribbean; Island Carib].

Trant H (1954) Food Taboos in East Africa. Lancet. 8:703-705 [food taboos; East Africa].

Recommended -- click for detailsVisser M (1987) Much Depends on Dinner: The Extraordinary History and Mythology, Allure and Obsessions, Perils and Taboos, of an Ordinary Meal. Grove Press [Europe; england; taboos and avoidances; history; mythology; dinning].

Whitehead H (2000) Food Rules: Hunting, Sharing, and Tabooing Game in Papua New Guinea. University of Michigan Press [social relations; sharing; gender; taboo; Oceania; Papua New Guinea; Seltaman].

Wilson C (1973) Food Taboos of Childbirth: The Malay Example. Ecology of Food and Nutrition. 2:267-274 [taboo; childbrith; Southeast Asia; Malaysia; Malay].

updated 10/2006

 

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