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ANTHROPOLOGY OF NUTRITION

Lecture 12 - 30 January 2015 Anthropology of Nutrition Difference between anthropology and sociology India 30/1/15 South Pacific Mexico 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 8 th 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 forested as population increased and by 300 BC between 50 and 100 million people were living in India valley 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?