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ANTHROPOLOGY OF NUTRITION
Lecture 12 - 30 January 2015
Anthropology of Nutrition
Difference between anthropology and sociology
India
South Pacific
Mexico
30/1/15
3/2/15
5/2/15
India
In late 1960s there was a famine in India well fed
cattle intermingled and competed with people for
food
-it appeared people would rather starve than
eat cattle
-concept of spiritual values being more
important than life itself
-some have suggested that this is irrational
-irrational in that people are overlooking nutritious
foods for scarcer less healthy foods
-what are the advantages of such spirituality?
-there is a carry over into politics
-demonstrations for the protection of
the cow
-in Nepal ( a Hindu state) an American
driver accidently hit a cow and was
charged with murder- to avoid an
international incident the Nepalese
magistrate decided that the cow had
committed suicide by wandering in front of
the car
-prevailing view among many Indians today
however is that the large animal population is more
a liability than an asset in view of land resources
-remember there is a large human population
requiring land for food production
-efficiency of crop yields-tractor versus cow
the easy explanation for India’s devotion to the cow
is that it is an integral part of Hinduism
-the concept that religion is good for the soul even if
it sometimes fails the body
-religion orders the cosmos and explains our
place in the universe
-many would claim that religious beliefs have
existed for thousands of years and have a life
of their own-they are not understandable in
scientific terms
However, all this ignores history
-2000 BC -cows were slaughtered and eaten for
Hindu sacrificial rite
-1000 BC- contradictory passages in Vedas
(Hindu sacred texts) some referring to ritual
slaughter; others to prohibition of beef eating
-200 AD-priests exhorted population to venerate
the cow and beef eating was permitted only by
nobility
-1000 AD-all beef eating prohibited in part because
of desire of Hindus to set themselves apart from 8th
century Islamic invaders who did eat beef
In reality the prohibition of beef eating occurred to
prevent people eating animals essential to Indian
agriculture
Before 300 BC Ganges valley was heavily forestedas population increased and by 300 BC between
50 and 100 million people were living in Indiavalley underwent signs of ecological collapse
-droughts and floods became commonplace –
erosion washed away rich topsoil
-farms shrank as population increased and
domesticated animals became harder and harder
to maintain
-as the population increased the only way of
keeping pace with increased demand for food was
to save cows to produce oxen to plough the fields
-those who ate beef lost the tools to farm
-only later was the practice written into religious
law by priests to protect cows from a population
that was starving
advantages of not eating meat:
-cows able to produce oxen
-oxen plough the fields
-dung used as fuel for cooking and fertilising
-energy in a vegetarian diet goes much further
than meat-why?
contrast these advantages to:
–in the US -91 % of cereal, legume and
vegetable protein suitable for human
consumption is fed to cattle to produce meat
for human consumption
-in the production of milk and meat US
farmers use fossil fuels to the equivalent 82
million barrels of oil annually
-emissions of greenhouse gases- impact of
this on world food production?
However, there is a move on in western societies
to produce energy from cow dung
bacteria breakdown cow dung producing
methane gas and carbon dioxide.
carbon dioxide is removed
What are the nutritional implications of the
two approaches:
-type II diabetes
-atherosclerosis
-obesity
-blood pressure
-adequacy
-balance
-energy control
-nutrient density
-variety
-moderation
Whether practices and beliefs are rational or
irrational it is true that failure to adapt to the
environment dooms us to extinction
Remember we don’t eat dogs and place great value
on the car and polluting industries
Time for us to adopt the system in India?