Meat Is Good to Taboo: Dietary Proscriptions as a Product of the Interaction of Psychological Mechanisms and Social Processes
In: Journal of Cognition and CultureSearch for other papers by Daniel Fessler in
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Search for other papers by Carlos David Navarrete in
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Abstract
Comparing food taboos across 78 cultures, this paper demonstrates that meat, though a prized food, is also the principal target of proscriptions. Reviewing existing explanations of taboos, we find that both functionalist and symbolic approaches fail to account for meat's cross-cultural centrality and do not reflect experience-near aspects of food taboos, principal among which is disgust. Adopting an evolutionary approach to the mind, this paper presents an alternative to existing explanations of food taboos. Consistent with the attendant risk of pathogen transmission, meat has special salience as a stimulus for humans, as animal products are stronger elicitors of disgust and aversion than plant products. We identify three psychosocial processes, socially-mediated ingestive conditioning, egocentric empathy, and normative moralization, each of which likely plays a role in transforming individual disgust responses and conditioned food aversions into institutionalized food taboos.
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| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 3212 | 766 | 90 |
| Full Text Views | 826 | 42 | 5 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 883 | 90 | 14 |
Meat Is Good to Taboo: Dietary Proscriptions as a Product of the Interaction of Psychological Mechanisms and Social Processes
In: Journal of Cognition and CultureSearch for other papers by Daniel Fessler in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Carlos David Navarrete in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
Comparing food taboos across 78 cultures, this paper demonstrates that meat, though a prized food, is also the principal target of proscriptions. Reviewing existing explanations of taboos, we find that both functionalist and symbolic approaches fail to account for meat's cross-cultural centrality and do not reflect experience-near aspects of food taboos, principal among which is disgust. Adopting an evolutionary approach to the mind, this paper presents an alternative to existing explanations of food taboos. Consistent with the attendant risk of pathogen transmission, meat has special salience as a stimulus for humans, as animal products are stronger elicitors of disgust and aversion than plant products. We identify three psychosocial processes, socially-mediated ingestive conditioning, egocentric empathy, and normative moralization, each of which likely plays a role in transforming individual disgust responses and conditioned food aversions into institutionalized food taboos.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 3212 | 766 | 90 |
| Full Text Views | 826 | 42 | 5 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 883 | 90 | 14 |