Comment: Reflections on Meat-Eaters, Vegetarians, and Vampires. Issue 2 (15th March 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sutton, David
• Is Part Of: Ethnos. Volume 82:Issue 2(2017)
• Page Start: 298
• Page End: 307
• Publication Date: 2017-03-15
• Subjects: Meat-eating -- vegetarianism -- cannibalism -- human-animal relations -- food and ethics; Ethnology -- Periodicals; Archaeology -- Periodicals; 305.8
• DOI: 10.1080/00141844.2015.1119173
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0014-1844

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In his comment on the special issue, Consumer and Consumed, the author notes that while much anthropological reflection has been devoted to the cultural rules and functional systems surrounding meat-eating, the ethnography of meat-eating has been sadly neglected. This ethnography is needed in order to reveal the complex negotiations that go into the actual daily practices of vegetarianism and the ways in which these are shaped by factors including household dynamics, issues of risk, trust and blame, emotions, taste, attitudes towards modernity, and by questions of engagement and distance between humans and animals. The comment concludes by highlighting the relationship between meat-eating and cannibalism, suggesting that the fascination in contemporary Euro-American popular culture with flesh-eating and blood-sucking represents a societal preoccupation with the ethical/moral implications of contemporary eating practices.