Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- I Young Śvetaketu: A Literary Study of an Upaniṣadic Story
- II Dharmaskandhāḥ and brahmasaṃsthaḥ: A Study of Chāndogya Upaniṣad 2.23.1
- III Orgasmic Rapture and Divine Ecstasy: The Semantic History of ānanda
- IV Amrtā: Women and Indian Technologies of Immortality
- V Power of Words: The Ascetic Appropriation and the Semantic Evolution of dharma
- VI Semantic History of Dharma: The Middle and Late Vedic Periods
- VII Explorations in the Early History of Dharmaśāstra
- VIII Structure and Composition of the Mānava Dharmaśāstra
- IX Caste and Purity: A Study in the Language of the Dharma Literature
- X Rhetoric and Reality: Women's Agency in the Dharmaśāstras
- XI Manu and Gautama: A Study in Śāstric Intertextuality
- XII Manu and the Arthaśāstra: A Study in Śāstric Intertextuality
- XIII Unfaithful Transmitters: Philological Criticism and Critical Editions of the Upaniṣads
- XIV Sanskrit Commentators and the Transmission of Texts: Haradatta on Āpastamba Dharmasūtra
- XV Hair and Society: Social Significance of Hair in South Asian Traditions
- XVI Abhakṣya and Abhojya: An Exploration in Dietary Language
- XVII Food for Thought: Dietary Rules and Social Organization in Ancient India
- References
- Index
XVII - Food for Thought: Dietary Rules and Social Organization in Ancient India
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- I Young Śvetaketu: A Literary Study of an Upaniṣadic Story
- II Dharmaskandhāḥ and brahmasaṃsthaḥ: A Study of Chāndogya Upaniṣad 2.23.1
- III Orgasmic Rapture and Divine Ecstasy: The Semantic History of ānanda
- IV Amrtā: Women and Indian Technologies of Immortality
- V Power of Words: The Ascetic Appropriation and the Semantic Evolution of dharma
- VI Semantic History of Dharma: The Middle and Late Vedic Periods
- VII Explorations in the Early History of Dharmaśāstra
- VIII Structure and Composition of the Mānava Dharmaśāstra
- IX Caste and Purity: A Study in the Language of the Dharma Literature
- X Rhetoric and Reality: Women's Agency in the Dharmaśāstras
- XI Manu and Gautama: A Study in Śāstric Intertextuality
- XII Manu and the Arthaśāstra: A Study in Śāstric Intertextuality
- XIII Unfaithful Transmitters: Philological Criticism and Critical Editions of the Upaniṣads
- XIV Sanskrit Commentators and the Transmission of Texts: Haradatta on Āpastamba Dharmasūtra
- XV Hair and Society: Social Significance of Hair in South Asian Traditions
- XVI Abhakṣya and Abhojya: An Exploration in Dietary Language
- XVII Food for Thought: Dietary Rules and Social Organization in Ancient India
- References
- Index
Summary
The year was 1988. The South Korean government banned the slaughtering of dogs and the serving of dog meat in restaurants. The Olympics were coming to town and the South Korean government did not want to project to the world the image of an uncivilized dogeating nation. A few years ago in England demonstrators prostrated themselves in front of trucks carrying British horses to France for slaughter. Then there are the cows in India: even Macdonald's had to change its menu when they went to India —lamb patties instead of the traditional beef. In insults too food looms large: the British call the French “froggies”, the Indians call despised groups “dog-cookers” (Leach 1964; Wijewardene 1968).
Humans do take their food seriously, not just in a nutritional or medical sense but also in a cultural sense. Poor Koreans, a people with a long and distinguished culture, are forced to prove that they are “civilized” to the rest of the world by changing their food habits. Anthropologists have long noted that among the wide variety of edible vegetables and especially animals available to a given social group, only a small fraction is actually consumed. Prohibited foods, whether by injunction or by custom, far outnumber permitted ones in most societies.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Language, Texts, and SocietyExplorations in Ancient Indian Culture and Religion, pp. 367 - 394Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2011