Taboo food

We have been finalizing the health assessment that will be done in El Eden in the last couple weeks.  Many of the questions are in the recommended list of questions provided by EWB-USA, the national organization that oversees the local chapters.  One of those questions was whether there are any foods which are taboo in that community.  Admittedly, I couldn’t even think of an example of such a thing in any culture and in typical fashion blurted that out.  Can you think of one?

 

Someone quickly jogged my memory with cows in India (or more specifically with Hindus).  Of course.  That should have been an easy one.

 

I followed that stellar performance with a statement along the lines of “Well, we don’t have any food taboos here.”  Which quickly fell into the interesting discussion of what things are actually taboo here:

Dog

Cat

Horse

Deer hovers on the threshold

 

But to me, all but the last aren’t “food” so why would I consider them “taboo foods”!? 

 

If you lived in a community with limited means for travel outside your immediate area, assuming the population was fairly homogeneous, it seems that ‘none’ would be the most likely answer to this question.  We will see what happens in the survey, and then see if we can pick any up while we’re down there.  My guess is that they are pretty similar to our taboos.  Which is to say, they only eat food. 

 

It just made me think that even a seemingly straightforward question can carry a lot of extra baggage when placed in various contexts. 

 

Wikipedia, of course, covers all of this in detail (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taboo_food_and_drink).