ACQUIRED TASTESBY NANCY CANNADY

PREFERRED FOODS

OR

NATURAL DELECTABLES

SPECIFIC CRUISINES MAINLY

REPRESENT PRACTICAL SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM OF PROVIDING THE ESSENTIAL NUTRIENTS TO POPULATIONS UNDER DEFINITE NATURAL AND CULTURAL CONDITIONS.

• Basic components of food tradition usually have nutritional, ecological, or economic causes.

• Hot, peppery foods, for example, have three conditions:

WARM CLIMATES (frost-free, warm, & moist)

MAINLY VEGETARIAN DIETS

MARGINAL CALORIC INTAKE

WITH LITTLE VARIATION

FROM DAY TO DAY

THESE FOODS MAY CAUSE A GREAT DEAL OF INTESTINAL FLAUTUS

Some Scientific Evidence supports the Belief that peppery sauces relieve this problem.

For people who go to sleep hungry, peppery

condiments stimulate the salivary glands and produce a sensation of fullness.

North American do not have these conditions thus they have rather a bland diet.

FOOD SOURCESWhich is the better bargain?

• Cost per pound of hunting or raising animals.

• What is available and abundant?

The simple formula predicts the extent to which different cultures reject or accept

animal tidbits:What is available!

Insects are plentiful and there are few large animals to be hunted.

There are an abundance of domesticated animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep, and chicken.

OLD TESTAMENT & PIGS

• Why ban pigs?• Pigs don’t give milk.

• Pigs can’t pull plows.

• Pigs can’t thrive on grass.

• Pigs need shade.

• Pigs are poor investment. in the hot, dry Biblical heartland's.

Cattle

Costs Benefits

feed (cheap grass) traction for cart

herding (little labor) traction for plows

disease( anthrax) meat, milk,dung,hides

Pigs

feed (cheap waste) meat

herding(much labor) dung

wallows hides

shade

disease (trichinosis,anthrax)

PUZZLING TRADE-OFFS

CULTURAL DETERMINATIONS OF FOOD PREFERENCES AND AVOIDANCES

INVOLVE TRADE-OFFS BETWEEN ANIMALS AS A SOURCE OF FLESH AND

ANIMALS AS A SOURCE OF IMPORTANT PRODUCTS OR SERVICES.

SOME ANIMALS ARE WORTH MORE DEAD THAN ALIVE

CATTLE IN INDIA

Used in plowing,source of fertilizers and cooking fuel, milk, and meat

After a lifetime of service, even their flesh does not go to waste

Natural

selection

Cultural

selection

Are they controlled by genetic tendencies?

GENES, GENES, GENES

Mexican passion for peppers

Antipork genes to

explain why Jews

& Moslems abhor pork

Cow protection genes to explain the Hindu rejection of beef.

Insect loathing genes to explain why Euro-Americans abhor insects

INCREASE REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS????

The recent history of the Western world shows that the best-nourished people are not necessarily the ones with the most babies……..

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER

SOMETIMES, VERY RARELY, HAS NATURAL SELECTION AND REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS BEEN INFLUENCED BY CULTURE

Aversion to milk

THE ACQUIRED TASTE IS BASED ON THE ABUNDANCE,CONCENTRATION, AND THE AVAILABILITY. WE EAT WHAT WE EAT BECAUSE IT IS THERE. HERE IN THE U.S.A. WE ARE A BLESSED NATION AND DO NOT HAVE TO DEPEND SO MUCH ON THESE THREE ISSUES, BUT WORLDWIDE IT IS A MATTER OF SURVIVAL…..

A ECOLOGICAL MATERIALIST STRATRGY

What are the basic features of social life?

These conditions involve such things as the nature of the physical environment population and its composition, and the level of technology.

DO PIGS AND THE OLD TESTMENT GO IN THIS CHAPTER?

I DON’T THINK SO - HE COULD HAVE HAD ANOTHER CHAPTER ON WASTEFUL TABOOS